How many of us felt a few pangs of envy last August when the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Mozart Festival remained a hometown affair, another of our capital city's many cultural privileges.
A new CD of selected highlights is some recompense, now that the NZSO is following thelead of major orchestras in the United States and Britain by marketing its own concert recordings.
The result, thanks to a livewire conductor (Nicholas McGegan) and soloist (Robert Levin), is 65 minutes of unmitigated delight.
Levin is a man with strong views on the liveliness of the 18th-century concert scene, speaking last year of how Mozart's audiences went along to concert halls "to hear something that was new and cheeky".
You can feel this from the opening few phrases of the C minor Piano Concerto K 491. McGegan's tempi are purposeful, articulation combines zest with attitude; Wayne Laird's sympathetic recording showcases breathtaking woodwind playing.
Levin can stir up a storm where appropriate but he is also a master of understatement; arpeggios waft by like sylvan zephyrs and his Larghetto is a model of exquisite ornamentation.
The intense four-and-a-half minutes of the composer's Masonic Funeral Music could well sell the disc to some punters, as McGegan combines sighing woodwind with brass from the very depths of the temple.
Spirits are buoyant in the G minor Symphony K 550, with a first movement that almost borders on the feverish.
The Andante may emphasise resonant horns and bass lines, but have those woodwind chirrups ever sounded more bird-like? The Minuet is bold and confrontational.
Levin is more than just a piano man; in one of last year's Mozart concerts, the NZSO featured his completion of the composer's Requiem. A single movement has made it to CD, the poignant Lacrimosa. But there is no peremptory "Amen" for the American - Levin opts for full fugal glory, lustily delivered by Tower Voices New Zealand.
This is an attractive CD, available through the orchestra's website (nzso.co.nz) for $25. Hopefully it is the first of many such releases and, who knows, one day a New Zealand composer or two might slip onto one.
* The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Mozart Festival 2006
