Gone to the Beach 2 at the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber

From left: Don McGlashan, Peter Scholes, Ivan Zagni and Jonathan Besser (front). Photo / Lisa Lark

The formula for Auckland Chamber Orchestra's Gone to the Beach 2 echoed last year's Gone to the Beach, taking four composers and giving each a solo turn with the orchestra, with an opportunity for group improvisation.

Twelve months on, it proved a more cohesive concept. The programme ran without too many ruffles, starting with a sleekly delivered improv session launched by what sounded like the opening three notes of Ivan Zagni's Mr Granite.

Composer by composer, results were variable. Jonathan Besser's three Xmas Blues, despite his own smooth piano stylings, were let down by vagrant orchestral playing.

The strings were woefully insecure in the first number and the light classical canter of the later Ponsonby Road 2 needed more polish if it wasn't to sound like school orchestra fodder.

Peter Scholes, a dynamic conductor for most of the programme, gave out some wonderfully evocative birdcalls on his clarinet in the improv sessions, but his composition Blue Rock was a disappointment. Neither blues nor rock, too much of it was a simplistic tom-tom dance in unrelenting 4/4.

Zagni's Going Forward in Reverse is an expansive piece influenced by the experimental music of 50 years ago, Renaissance choral music and 12th Century Korean music.

Zagni placed his musical tributes between and around his own explorative guitar work, which incorporated the plucking of an African mbira and frenzied bowing.

Carmel Carroll was a superlative soloist in Ave Verum Corpus and the violin work in the Korean section revealed Zagni's skill in writing for the capabilities of this ensemble.

Two orchestral contributions from Don McGlashan didn't quite come off, although Game had theatricality. A selection from McGlashan's score for the film No 2 was unmemorable.

However, two songs showcased in Victoria Kelly's arrangements hit the mark. Toy Factory Fire was illuminated by muscular string lines and John Segovia's insinuating pedal steel, while the driving Not Ready benefited from vigorously shouted choruses from the ACO players.

McGlashan the singer was the epitome of consummate professionalism.