It was the stuff of orchestral nightmares. On the very afternoon of the Auckland Philharmonia's first Great Classics concert, an accident had pianist Piers Lane withdraw from the programme.
Just hours later, the full house sign was outside the Town Hall; and the concert duly set off with the audience
spilling into the choir stalls, lured by the killer combo of Grieg's Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Fifth.
It was heroic of Auckland pianist Stephen De Pledge to take over for the Australian soloist even if, understandably, given the lead-in time, his performance was far from blemish-free.
Here and there, curious minor slips suggested De Pledge was braving a test of nerves that would occasion shudders from even the hardiest. Yet in the Nocturne-like theme of the first movement, as well as the pianist's dialogues with the orchestra's woodwind, we could relax and enjoy his very individual musicianship.
Conductor Fabrice Bollon added his own telling touches to the familiar classic, especially in the rapturous first pages of the central Adagio.
