The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

The quirky mix of Spanish and Wagner that the NZSO brought to town over the weekend bore the signature of Franz Paul Decker and, when the veteran conductor was unable to come, the orchestra was fortunate to find a replacement in Christian Gansch who could tackle both territories with such skill and vitality.

Friday night's programme took an enthralled and capacity audience on a two-hour Spanish holiday, riding home on a unbridled account of Chabrier's Espana, which this jumbo jet of an orchestra made into seven minutes of riotous excitement.

The rest of the programme had been rather elegant, offering sleek accounts of Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole and Falla's El Amor Brujo, with its whispered "El circulo magico". An Iberian turkey was served up in the form of Turina's Rapsodia Sinfonica, a dull patching-together of empty flourishes. That it was at all bearable is a tribute to the affection pianist Josep Colom has for the work.

Colom's main turn, in Falla's Night in the Gardens of Spain, found him overshadowed by his orchestral colleagues. This is a densely scored piece and some of those climaxes needed to be toned down, if the composer's melancholy and mystery is to register.

On the Saturday, empty seats indicated that Aucklanders seemed less willing to venture to Valhalla for the orchestra's selections from Lohengrin, Die Walkure and Parsifal.

This was a thrill-a-bar stuff, opening with the Chapmann Tripp Opera Chorus celebrating the Wedding March from Lohengrin. Once again, the advantages of using operatic voices showed through in a stirring choral scene from Parsifal with some of the best orchestral playing of the evening.

American soprano Nadine Secunde and local tenor Christopher Doig were at the fore in tastings from Lohengrin and Die Walkure.

Doig, as both Lohengrin and Siegmund, seemed nervous and well he might have been, returning to the stage with such an ambitious undertaking. This was not the firm, resounding voice I remember; now it comes with a sadly strained top and a tendency to rush that was causing the conductor concern.

Secunde may not be in her vocal prime but she is a trouper. Again, it was the upper part of the register that showed wear and tear but, on stage, this woman was living through this rapturous music, making the post-nuptial torment of Elsa and the forbidden passions of Sieglinde almost unbearable dramatic experiences.