The composer himself couldn't have wished for a livelier curtain-raiser than the Haffner Symphony which opened the Auckland Philharmonia's Celebrating Mozart concert.
Alexander Liebreich conducted with full awareness of the playful and sometimes throwaway wit that is at the heart of the score.
If the first movement had the brio
of opera buffa, complete with wild timpani rolls, the Andante seduced us with shapely phrasing, despite thin-toned violins. The Minuet had a nice sense of ceremony and, for the Finale, Liebreich seemed to be taking up Mozart's challenge of playing the movement as quickly as possible. After a shaky launch, he more or less succeeded.
But a more serious side of Mozart awaited.
The Masonic Funeral Music, one of Mozart's most moving utterances, was played out by strings against sombre woodwind.
Australian tenor Paul McMahon was in strong if not particularly subtly- nuanced voice for the Masonic cantata, Die Maurerfreude while the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus delivered a sonorous Ave verum corpus as a preview of the Requiem to follow after interval.
This was a Requiem with a difference, using Franz Beyer's 1971 edition rather than the more familiar Sussmayr completion. There were startling changes, one of the most dramatic being when woodwind and trombones held back until the second bar of a storming "Rex tremendae".
The operatic voices of the chorus brought vigour to the fugal writing of the "Kyrie eleison" and subtly gauged sotto voce, particularly inthe "Lacrimosa", held no terrors for them.
Liebreich tended the dynamics of the work with great care, from the dark meld of woodwind and strings in the opening Adagio. A dramatic surge on the words "et lux perpetua" was the first of many to highlight the power of the liturgical text.
Four estimable soloists - Patricia Wright, Kate Spence, Paul McMahon and Stephen Bennett - contributed eloquently to the "Tuba Mirum", once Bennett had magnificently set the scene. Throughout, their quartet work was blessed with a rare vocal blend.
Another high point was the spirited organ contributions of John Wells, particularly in the "Domine Jesu" in which he took obvious delight in complementing the crisp tempo that Liebreich had chosen.
