The Auckland Philharmonia, conducted by Vladimir Verbitsky

By WILLIAM DART

AUCKLAND TOWN HALL - Charm is a much maligned quality these days, but Glinkas Valse-Fantasie is steeped in it, which made it an attractive opener. Wisps of glissando violin, yodelling clarinets and, at one point, the sort of blowsy trombone solo that used to be relegated to Sunday brass band concerts - all these and more were delivered with a nicely judged sense of irony.

The main offering was Tchaikovsky's Third Symphony, but Vladimir Verbitsky, for all his Slavic credentials, couldn't quite make its first movement hang together. The opening pages had shaky moments and not all of the many shifts of style and texture were convincingly negotiated.

Then, suddenly, it all bloomed in the second movement's waltz, with the orchestra revelling in the catchy, lilting rhythms. We were also treated to quite a performance from Verbitsky, cajoling and challenging the players with his body language.

Crisp wind playing was a highlight of the Andante elegiaco and particularly inspired string work at that point in the third movement where Tchaikovsky seems to set the world shimmering on a chord of D major. The Finale, splendidly sonorous thanks to the brass, had conductor Verbitsky tossing his baton to the winds - a preview of the no-holds-barred approach that would be so successful with the final piece of the evening, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

For eight minutes, after interval, we dashed back from the steppes and ballrooms of Russia to hear Christopher Blake's The Furnace of Pihanga. With its scintillating colours and orchestration, Pihanga was in good company.

Working from ominous idyll (glockenspiel and piano catching the rain dripping on forest leaves) to a cataclysmic climax in keeping with its seismological story, it also had its whimsical moments. How else could one explain the capricious duetting of violinist Justine Cormack and cellist Ashley Brown as they ably took on the personae of the two flirting mountains, Pihanga and Tongariro?

The final pages, revisiting the peaceful forest with Smetana-like woodwind flurries, saw the orchestra dispense both magic and charm, in equal parts. A premiere to be proud of.