The evening's soloist was principal trumpet Brent Grapes, taking on Alexander Arutiunian's popular concerto. Grapes was fighting fit for Arutiunian's cheeky Allegros, while Stier had the orchestra walking a musical tightrope between Prokofiev and a Hollywood Western score.
In the middle section, which suggested that Borodin might be alive, well and writing in 1950, Grapes' muted instrument evoked, at one point, a melancholy oboe and, at another, a faraway, lonely saxophone.
The piece ended rather bluntly after the soloist had dazzled us with the celebrated Dokschitzer cadenza, but Grapes returned to cajole us with a beautifully phrased Lyrical Etude by American composer Philip Snedecor.
Cesar Franck has suffered some derision as an organist-composer and, yes, one did pinch oneself in the first page of his D minor Symphony to realise that the euphonious wind harmonies were not emanating from the pipes above the stage.
This work has been described as a wide-eyed frolic through the tonal system. Stier, unconcerned with the composer's sometimes irksome repetitions and obsessive themes, delivered it in just that spirit, with swipes of fortissimo and daredevil, billowing dynamics.
The sheer poetry of its Allegretto second movement, however, remained inviolate, thanks to Martin Lee's ravishing cor anglais.
Music
What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where: Auckland Town Hall
When: Thursday
