The Auckland Chamber Orchestra welcomed spring with the third of its seasonal concerts, although buds seemed a little reluctant to blossom when Dimitri Atanassov led the strings through the of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
Vivaldi's Spring was decidedly scruffy, especially in the sometimes astringent tuttis. The Largo was marredby Atanassov's tentative ornamentation and, by the final Allegro, those promised buds had never fully bloomed.
Peter Scholes then introduced Copland's Appalachian Spring as one of the ACO's most frequently played works, but this time as a version for 13 players.
This was indeed a vernal awakening. Scholes' forceful baton had the woodwind players evoking the clearest of Coplandesque air, eight string players were on their best behaviour, especially in the con sordini writing of the last section and David Guerin's piano strode and chimed its way through it all.
Peter Scholes' Requiem Concerto returned Atanassov as soloist along with a quartet of singers (Patricia Wright, Morag Atchison and Carmel Carroll, joined by treble Wilson Downes).
Every musician on stage gave unsparingly to this new work, a score which revealed that few of our composers can come up with as evocative a turn of phrase as can Scholes.
The composer's own moving words, commemorating the loss of his wife and son, provided a very real anchor, beautifully rendered by the singers; however, the instrumental music underneath them flowed through an often bewildering succession of styles.
Each idea had a real character and often one would gladly have heard more. The opening, with Atanassov's soaring violin line, could have been extended into unfettered song; a scurry of minimalist neoclassical (with the text The joy of hope prevails) might have prevailed for longer.
Testing rhythmic intricacies for smallish ensembles and high-pitched passages for violins did not always come across in this performance and, indeed, the most effective parts, thanks to first-rate singing, lay in the transparent vocal writing.
Requiem Concerto was a thought-provoking work and I, for one, would happily have had the concert end at that point as Respighi's Boticelli Triptych was a disappointment, being painted on a fairly robust canvas with, alas, a none too delicate brush.
