Renee Geyer with the Auckland Philharmonia

By HEATH LEES

AOTEA CENTRE, Auckland - Doubling as presenter and conductor, Marc Taddei announced that Renee Geyer "comes with a lovely set of pipes". By the time we figured out he meant she had a great voice, the lady herself had sauntered on and the applause from her many fans in the audience suddenly surged. And he was right, of course. She does have a great voice, and an equally great way with a song.

Since this was a "best of" programme, the songs were all duly accorded their dates, over some three decades; songs that are in every way Geyer's own, like Heading in the Right Direction, Play Me, and Shaky Ground. Despite the surface energy of the music, there was a sense of holding back, a lack of ease with the unfolding material. Part of this must have been due to the running-down mikes for Geyer and her duo of vocalists. By the end of the first half, she was coming across as boxy and blurred while they sounded miles away.

Incredibly, no one seemed to have fixed this during the interval, and soon Geyer's mike eventually curled up and died, to be followed by the other two - an embarrassingly amateur business all round, not fully corrected until the last encore, just as everyone was getting ready to go home.

In between the vocal items, the orchestra played some great numbers, including a technicolor gallery of screen hits arranged by New Zealand's Wayne Senior called Blockbuster Medley and some of Penny Dodd's best material, such as Spinning Wheel and - the best number of the night - Stairway to Heaven.

This was a good concert struggling to get out. A half-decent sound-check would have let it fly.