Ehnes and Rachid lead the Auckland Philharmonia in an all-Mozart night. Photo / Sav Schulman
Ehnes and Rachid lead the Auckland Philharmonia in an all-Mozart night. Photo / Sav Schulman
The Auckland Philharmonia rightly gave star billing to Canadian violinist James Ehnes for this Ehnes Plays Mozart concert. Yet, from the opening flourishes of Mozart’s Haffner Symphony, it was apparent that French conductor Samy Rachid was a stellar force in his own right.
In 2024, Rachid was spectacularly responsible forthe Auckland Philharmonia’s Joie de Vivreliving up to its title, positively dazzling us with Ravel and Poulenc. Little wonder that he was now making such an infectious curtain-raiser out of this sunniest of all Mozart’s symphonies.
Unfailingly flamboyant in gesture, Rachid’s sparked Mozart’s Allegro con spirito with operatic anticipation; in due course, exquisitely nuanced violins in an artlessly transparent Andante would be tinctured by delicious woodwind dissonances.
A striding, muscular minuet, with gentle, consolatory trio, was followed by a suitably exhilarating finale.
James Ehnes is a regular guest of this orchestra, thrilling us just last year with Brahms and Bartok concertos. In 2022, his performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium effortlessly delivered all that he had promised – lyrical melodies, great virtuoso writing and a really raucous, wild ending.
On this night, Ehnes and Rachid wrapped up Mozart’s Violin Concerto No 4 in the perfect classical sheen, playfully marking the first movement’s stuttering fortes, the soloist’s finely articulated passagework floating throughout with ineffable grace.
Samy Rachid ignites Mozart's Haffner Symphony with the Auckland Philharmonia. Photo / Sav Schulman
Ehnes’ own cadenzas were beautifully sculpted to purpose and, after a gorgeously insinuating Andante, the closing Rondeau wandered from tune to tune with a winning amiability.
If one wasn’t hypnotised by the unerring control of Ehnes bowing arm in his encore of Bach’s E major Preludio, then total mesmerisation may have come when the piece’s spinning semiquavers seemed to create their own illusory sonic glow.
After the interval, Rachid proved a well-chosen maestro to give us Ernest Chausson’s solitary symphony, having conducted the work only last December with Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Symphony.
James Ehnes performs Mozart's Violin Concerto No 4 with the Auckland Philharmonia. Photo / Sav Schulman
Written and revised in the 1880s, this symphony inhabits a no-man’s-land between Wagnerian late romanticism and the imminent impressionism of Debussy, offering all manner of brilliant orchestration to showcase the Auckland Philharmonia musicians under Rachid’s sometimes beseeching baton.
If at times the shadow of Cesar Franck and his organ loft loomed over proceedings, Chausson’s clear symphonic narrative and some lusty climaxes were rewarded with an audience reception little short of ecstatic.
