William Dart review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Mozart 40

Solo violinist Ilya Gringolts. Photo / Kaupo Kikkas

For the first 10 minutes of Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Mozart 40 concert, we were surrounded by the ear-tingling buzz of fireflies — magically evoked in Lucioles by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. Conductor Eivind Aadland and the musicians totally bewitched us in a shimmering score that effortlessly, and sensitively, transferred the elusive world of nature into the crispest of musical form.

Ilya Gringolts put his own, very Russian, stamp on the glittering snake of Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto. The violinist’s opening melody, woven through exquisitely sculpted orchestral commentaries, was carefully deliberated, although he held nothing back in the wilder terrain of the second subject.

The central scherzo was earthy and confrontational, with eruptions of almost brute energy; yet moments of eerie tenderness were subtly accounted for, especially in the work’s final pages, which seemed to float away into its a land of icy enchantment.

An encore, Imitation of Bells by German Baroque composer Johann Paul von Westhoff, brought the later Bach to mind, as Gringolts spun some hypnotic textures. Fragments of themes seemed to escape only to be drawn back by the gravitational force.

After interval, we were most pleasantly surprised by a 10-minute preview of the APO’s next concert which will feature Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto played on an 18th-century basset clarinet.

Principal clarinet Jonathan Cohen charmed us with an explanation of the “extras” offered by this archaic instrument, while principal bassoon Ingrid Hagan played the notes that are out of reach for the modern instrument. Their musical extracts, with orchestra, were ravishing as well as quirky, the quicksilver alternation of their timbres looking forward to the orchestral techniques of Schoenberg and his followers.

Aadland returned to the stage for the Mozart symphony that had given the concert its name.

This was a first-class performance that did particularly glowing justice to the compulsive propulsion of its first movement, the highlight being a meltingly beautiful Andante, almost a symphony of sighs in its own right.

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Where: Auckland Town Hall

When: Thursday