National Youth Orchestra at the Town Hall

By HEATH LEES

For their first visit to Auckland in a decade, the NYO had designed a great programme. The complete first half centred around the Don Juan legend, with Mozart's Don Giovanni overture leading to Chopin's variations on a famous melody from the same opera, and before the interval, the uninhibitedly Romantic portrait of Don Juan by Richard Strauss.

The taut, opening chords had the audience sitting up and taking notice. Those who thought they were there just to show support suddenly found themselves being drawn into playing of high quality.

Lutz Kohler's tightly controlled, yet fluid, conducting drew the best out of this highly talented group. Refusing to wind them up too much and thus let their enthusiasm become mere exuberance, he kept a tight grip on matters of balance and contour. The players' concentrated response showed how much he was respected.

All of this resulted in a buoyant overture and later, when reinforcements had arrived, a performance of Don Juan that would have done any established orchestra proud, particularly in matters of articulation and meticulous phrasing, and in building climaxes that swept you away not by sheer loudness but by sonorous power.

Pianist Justin Bird showed himself instinctively sensitive to the style of Chopin's music in the variations on la ci darem la mano and to the sonority of the instrument under his fingers, making it sing and dance by turns. Concert variations can easily turn into stop-start display pieces, but Bird's impressive musicianship scorned such tendencies, and bestowed upon the music real character and grace. With tinted hair in rebellious locks he looked every bit the Hollywood wonder-child, yet played with the maturity and insight of a gifted professional.

The programme ended with Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony, a delightfully unsettled and unsettling work where parody, irony and snatches of old-fashioned elegance are bundled together with romantic tunes, powerful climaxes and shattering moments - all seized by these young players and projected with fierce commitment and often incredible skill.

The loud, closing applause conveyed not just appreciation but pride.