One anticipated a momentous evening ahead when, across the foyer, a sad-eyed Mahlerian, poster in hand, was desperately seeking tickets to the sold-out opening concert of the Auckland Festival AK07.
The magnificent canvas of Mahler's Second Symphony saw the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra drawing on local resources to
swell the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus to the required 200. Instrumentalists, mainly brass and percussion, from the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra lent their talents on stage and off.
It was a memorable leave-taking for James Judd, who has made his mark as a Mahler conductor. Again Judd had the key to the composer's world, delivering 85 minutes of often heart-stopping drama.
The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink once told us that however loud Mahler's music might be, the strings should always sound through. Judd let us hear every orchestral strand, the odd minor blemish revealing the perils of tackling such a score as a one-off event.
The first movement balanced epic with the intimate - much was made of the drawn-out pianissimo pages that Judd mentioned in the post-concert reception. He had the graceful measure of the second movement's dance and the sardonic scherzo wasn't afraid to wax brazen.
Helen Medlyn sang the "Urlicht" setting with her inimitable feeling for the composer.
While Mahler has indicated that this testament of faith should be sung as it would be by a child in heaven, there was a tinge of experience to the innocence in the mezzo's moving rendition.
The final movement brought all the forces together in a spectacular that seems to incorporate seven movements in one. In full tutti, the orchestra roared under Judd's sometimes delirious baton, and yet there were pages when one could contemplate the simplest harp scale or flute in birdsong mode.
The full-voiced choirs, extending from behind the orchestra to well into the circle, provided a resonant backing for Patricia Wright's authoritative soprano.
One could carp at minor details, from the occasional hesitant solo and passing shrillness in the violins to the strange placement of the vocal soloists within the orchestra, but it would be churlish to make too much of them.
This was a momentous farewell for one of the NZSO's most charismatic figures.
