Review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

Violinist Natalia Lomeiko is a veteran of the competition circuit and wastes no time telling me that these events are hardly ever enjoyable experiences.

But, she adds, "I certainly enjoy the consequences", referring to her winning the Premio Paganini Prize in 2001 and the Michael Hill Competition two years later.

The Paganini victory "still opens doorways," she says. "Nine years on, people are still recommending me from the roster of winners. In fact, I have a very nice relationship with Italy."

Lomeiko's success was more than a matter of banking the cheque; she played Paganini's own violin. "It was such a thrill to hold something this legend used for so many years," she exclaims. "He probably even wrote his Caprices on it. And the sound. It's a very, very powerful instrument. No wonder it's called 'The Cannon'."

At 30, Lomeiko can look over a career that saw her leave her native Russia at 13 to study in England at the Yehudi Menuhin School and, even as a teenager, prizes and awards came reeling in.

"My time in Russia was very important to me. These were interesting years - I was born in the Soviet Union but the country I left was Russia. There was a great education system there. Every town had the same high standards, founded on wonderful traditions. Music was such a huge part of everybody's soul as there weren't many other ways you could express yourself."

On Friday, Lomeiko will tap into this tradition when she plays Tchaikovsky's Souvenir d'un lieu cher in the second of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Splendour of Tchaikovsky series. She sighs when I ask her what this composer means to her as a Russian.

"I don't believe that only Russians can play Tchaikovsky or Austrians Mozart, but I do instinctively feel for the phrasing and the colourings of his music. Perhaps it's because he used a lot of folk themes."

The 1878 Souvenir is a curiosity, three pieces for violin and piano, written for the composer's patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, and later orchestrated by Balakirev into a miniature concerto.

Lomeiko points out that the work's opening Meditation had been intended as the slow movement for Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, "but it was too sad, just too emotional. And so he replaced it with lighter Canzonetta."

She looks to Tchaikovsky's symphonies to describe the helter-skelter scherzo and the intensely lyrical third movement is "simply beautiful and beautifully simple. In some ways it's strange to be playing it in a big hall instead of a smaller salon."

Lomeiko has delivered full-scale concertos on this stage. In 2003 she won the Michael Hill with Brahms and, just three years later, premiered Concerto Aoraki by Wellington composer Christopher Blake. At the time, I wrote of her violin soaring over wind-like sonorities in Blake's bell-laden second movement.

Three years on, she singles out this movement as her favourite, an atmospheric interlude in a "big, big piece - a massive canvas for a composer to paint".

Lomeiko hesitates when I ask her about the music of today. "For me it is important that music has some sort of emotional content and harmony. It doesn't have to be tonal, as long as it makes me feel something when I play it. A lot of the music written today comes more from the intellect. You are supposed to ask questions about it, analyse it before you play it. I'm not one of those people."

In the meantime, the APO clocks up another first when it takes over the Town Hall tomorrow for the orchestra's first Open Day. For four hours, starting at 1pm, almost every space in the building will be seconded to display the diverse activities that revolve around the orchestra and its players.

While the APO takes the main stage from 3-5pm, rehearsing Bernstein and Grieg with music director Eckehard Stier, preceded by two school orchestras, there is also a "Music Zoo" in D Bar, a Masterclass with Concertmaster Dimitri Atanassov running at the Queen St exit and the chance to meet the orchestra's management in the Supper Room.

With Herald cartoonist Rod Emmerson roving around, pencil at the ready, APO Young Achievers on the busk, Richard Panting demonstrating his luthier skills as well as an exhibition of APO memorabilia and archives, the only question is: will four hours be enough? The answer? Don't be late.