William Dart review: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

Han-Na Chang leads the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal ahead of the Tchaikovsky 5 concert at the Auckland Town Hall, on May 17. Photo / Phoebe Tuxford

Friday’s Tchaikovsky 5 concert, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s last Auckland appearance for a long three months, was a triumphant au revoir, thanks to Korean conductor Han-Na Chang.

The explosive vivacity of this woman’s online interviews suggested that, on a podium, she might be a livewire with a baton, and she was.

Chang had promised no honey or saccharine with Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, and gave us lean, gripping drama, balancing sinew with grace. The unerring detail caught in its opening pages was the first of many revelations; the most startling being the slow movement’s emotionally uncluttered passion.

This was an intensely physical performance. If the first movement showed no fear of musical jousting, the waltzing weave of the third allowed for delightful touches of ballroom coquetry. A storming finale of almost terrifying proportions took the evening to a tumultuous close.

Chang’s fanatical tracing and tracking of detail paid rich dividends in Richard Strauss’s mighty Don Quixote.

Here, one felt the orchestra was very much enjoying its communal virtuosity, along with the composer’s shamelessly ingenious pictorialism, particularly in the atonal blur of the bleating sheep.

Soloists were drawn from the ranks. Principal cello Andrew Joyce took on the role of Cervantes’ knight, working hard at times to penetrate the orchestral magnificence, but bursting into poignant bloom for his final appearance. Principal viola Julia Joyce was a characterful presence throughout.

Leonie Holmes’ I Watched A Shadow, which launched the concert, was also programmatic, inspired by the dark forebodings of an Anne Powell poem.

This was heady stuff, luxuriantly orchestrated, with the composer, as always, alert to the chameleon-like potential of colour, harmony and rhythm to mould and sustain inner tensions, highlights including sinister tuba solos, darting woodwind and the implacable move to an imposing unison close.

Yet, while appreciating Holmes’ special artistry with smaller canvases, how nice it would be if her fine piano concerto, premiered by Christchurch Symphony Orchestra last year, were performed in her and our home town.