A night of telling tales lay ahead when Eckehard Stier took the podium on Thursday for his penultimate appearance as Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's music director.
Yet perhaps, with more empty seats than usual for this Fairytales concert, Aucklanders are less susceptible to the charms and mysteries of the legends thatonce charted childhood. There was a warm response, though, when Stier dealt out the familiar plot of John Corigliano's Pied Paper Fantasy, a 1978 work that is a flute concerto in all but name.
During his tenure with the APO, Stier has brought us much of this American composer's music, although none with the substance of the First Symphony, delivered here three years ago. This offering, however, came with fringe benefits that highlighted the orchestra's admirable commitment to spreading music throughout our community.
For the first half of the Fantasy, some may have been astonished by the musical adventurousness of it, with elements that might have come from a lesser Ligeti - Stier had already told us that the sun would rise brilliantly and Corigliano's portrayal of the rats was "scary".
Soloist Adam Walker was an incalculable asset, dressed in cape and hat for the part, switching from concert flute to tin whistle to tempt the Hamelin youngsters. He tossed off his central cadenza with dashing style and, alongside him, orchestral players were inspired in their own virtuosic feats, particularly in the percussion department.
Walker had flown in from Europe, but the real stars, the cadet players of Sistema Aotearoa, had travelled up the motorway from South Auckland. They came on stage playing and eventually marched off playing behind Walker, up the central aisle, adding a memorably theatrical coup to the evening.
After interval, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade unleashed what its composer described as a kaleidoscope of fairytale images, instigated by Andrew Beer's seductive solo violin. For all the eerie premonitions of Rite of Spring, still a quarter-century away, the obsessive patternings of Scheherazade still worked their wiles, especially when Ingrid Hagan's bassoon made such a suave hero of the Kalendar Prince, a portrayal echoed throughout the orchestral ranks.
What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Where: Auckland Town Hall
