Performance: NZSO

By HEALTH LEES

TOWN HALL, Auckland - All the advance publicity about the NZSO's increased houses this year was confirmed by large audiences for these two concerts - the first of the orchestra's 2001 season.

Mind you, each programme had been calculated to deliver a Really Big Bang, what with Friday's Ein Heldenleben by Strauss and, on Saturday, Mahler's Fifth Symphony - a work that shares Strauss' fondness for huge orchestras but transforms his outward heroics into a more psychological kind of heroism.

On both nights, though, the real heroism lay with the pianist, Alexander Melnikov, who triumphed over problems from a strained shoulder, a dull instrument, and a noisily ventilated venue. Once under way, Melnikov's reading of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto was stunning, refusing the usual continuous lubrication of the sustaining pedal and making every note speak with new and dramatic life.

In the finale, the composer's flamboyant fight to seize and hold the home key just before the end (unnoticed by many pianists) was thrillingly done, and the sheer musical drama brought everyone spontaneously and thunderously to their feet.

Onstage, conductor James Judd and the orchestra looked properly delighted, aware that something special had happened, making them match their playing to the pianist's inspired level.

Melnikov was not done yet. Having jumped down from the stage at the end of Saturday morning's rehearsal, he took a bad landing that put his back out - every pianist's nightmare. By the evening, heroic still, he had recovered enough to navigate his way gingerly to the piano for the Mozart K.466 concerto, and turned in a sparkling interpretation, despite the orchestra's over-ripe accompaniment.

Meanwhile, back at what was meant to be Friday's major attraction, Strauss' Ein Heldenleben was suitably grandiose, with many fine effects, though never quite achieving the sense of a natural and monumental passage of sound.

From the leader's chair, Wilma Smith was at her lyrical best in the concerto-like violin part, but major bouquets went to the woodwind, especially the querulous bassoon and the beautifully woody cor anglais.

The New Zealand item - Martin Lodge's Hinterland - came off well, its reflective mood seeming more opulent than the Auckland Philharmonia's sinewy premiere some two years ago.

Mahler's Fifth Symphony, the crowning glory of Saturday's programme, took the first movement to settle in, but by the second, the solos were more confident, and Mahler's sudden alternations of shadow and sunlight were beginning to sound spontaneous.

The excellent scherzo had its contrapuntal inner parts ebbing and flowing beautifully. Judd's tempi, usually on the fast side, fitted the last two movements well, especially in the rich but not overly sentimental Adagietto, which was grafted seamlessly on to the Rondo-Finale exactly as Mahler would have wished.