NZSO at the Auckland Town Hall

By TARA WERNER

The orchestra's venture into a repertoire that was slightly off the beaten track may have intimidated music-lovers - from the size of the audience it was clear that some had stayed away.

Yet viva la difference.

The perennial question of programming balance was cleverly addressed in last Saturday night's concert, conducted by Matthias Bamert.

The concert featured staples such as a Bruch violin concerto and a Haydn Symphony contrasted with Hindemith's Mathis der Maler, and Elysian Fields, a work by Auckland composer David Hamilton.

Even within the staples, the music was a little unusual.

Take Haydn's Symphony No 55, on the surface a standard work in his symphonic repertoire - until the slow movement, that is, with its droll musical portrayal of a prim and pedantic schoolmaster who suddenly finds himself in love.

Here the NZSO seemed to enjoy Haydn's witty writing, contrasting pizzicato sections with a gentle and elegant melody.

Later the composer came up with another surprise - the quirky ending of the finale with its robust passage for horns and woodwind.

Robust would also be the best way of summing up violinist Natalia Lomeiko, who performed Bruch's Violin Concerto No 1 with both complete technical assurance and deeply felt musicality.

Her adagio was particularly impressive in its meditative quality, while the allegro energico was almost Brahms-like in its passionate intensity.

The Bruch may have been passionate, but even this score did not match the power with which Hindemith unleashed his orchestral forces in his programmatic symphony Mathis der Maler.

Based on the painter Matthias Grunewald, a subject of one of Hindemith's earlier operas, the music is full of grand gestures that utilise the brass and woodwind to the fullest extent, and it was performed here with the necessary exuberance.

Elysian Fields was equally extrovert and lively, based on a hymn tune that is not fully exposed until the end.

Although showing a clear understanding of the workings of orchestra, the music lacked coherence because the variations emerged first, before the main theme.

Intended as an orchestral showpiece, the work was just that, and ran the danger of being supercilious as a result.