The NZSO New Zealand Chamber Orchestra at the Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

We were promised an enchanted programme - changing moods with wonderful melodies, capped by the lush romantic strings in that most erotic of pieces, Verklarte Nacht.

In reality, the orchestra's Romancing the Night was anything but.

It set off with a ragged play-through of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. At one point I wondered whether a hurdy-gurdy was whirring away for rustic colouring.

"What a fantastic piece that is," was the follow-up by leader Donald Armstrong, "when you get out of the elevator and listen to it" - setting in motion a stream of facetious commentary during which the players smiled and chortled at the appointed places.

Armstrong alerted us to a lovely romantic tune in the opening bars of the Dvorak Nocturne, but that was thwarted by a particularly acrid blend of cellos; and the strings meandered as we had been warned.

Enter double-bass soloist Dale Gold, who chatted about Bellini's Norma in preparation for the Bottesini Fantasia. Flashy showpieces such as these live or die according to the brilliance of the soloist; this one had too many moments when ignominious death seemed imminent.

After interval, flutist Bridget Douglas provided a welcome professionalism in Vivaldi's La Notte. There was indeed enchantment, so much so that the misdemeanours of the strings were almost forgotten.

Hamish McKeich conducted Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht and, although his response to the score was vivid and flexible, the rawness of the strings made it sound at times like an RKO scratch band in the 40s laying down a soundtrack for a Sunday serial.

Throughout, Vyvyan Yendoll's solo viola was a lone beacon of beauty.

In 25 years of concert reviewing I would be hard put to find many events as distressing as this. It is an irony that, when the city is experiencing so much wonderful music from youngsters, a group of this stature should let the adult side down so miserably.