Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra rounded off its main town hall season with a diverting night in Vienna, pairing orchestral works and songs by Schubert and Mahler.
Giordano Bellincampi is a conductor who physically conveys the sheer joy of music-making from the podium. With Schubert's rarely-heard Third Symphony, one saw as well as heard that this was a score close to his heart.
It was a celebration of unfettered youth; a teenage composer flexing lean muscles, Adagio maestoso, and eventually, by the finale, daring us to an impetuous runaway dance. The orchestra's woodwind was very much part of the merry-making, from rather jolly, yodel-style clarinet tunes to a whimsical waltz for oboe and bassoon.
Closing the concert, Mahler's Totenfeier drew on the full resources of the APO to fire its massive funeral march.
Bellincampi explored the Mahlerian world to its outer limits; lower strings delivered edgy terror, brass added sonorous support and woodwind ghostly echoings; creating a volatility summarised by a final page that fell from triple forte to triple piano in just two bars.
