Goldner String Quartet at Auckland Town Hall

Saturday night's concert by the Goldner String Quartet was a model of astute programming. The Australians offered a taut, punchy selection of works, including two major pieces from the last century, a weighty piece of traditional repertoire and, finally, a timely reminder of just where we are situated on this globe.

Shostakovich's First Quartet was a veritable mine of incident, thanks to the Goldner's unerring sense of observation, from the many small fluctuations of tempo in the first movement through to those flagrant C major flourishes in its final pages.

There was a real pleasure in hearing cellist Julian Smiles keep textures buoyant in the first movement with his glissando waltz patterns and appreciating the conversational interplay of violins in the third movement.

Bartok's Third Quartet made great demands on both players and audience. It was unstinting in its exploration of the harsher side of the sound spectrum and one of the composer's most highly concentrated scores.

The writer Adorno bowed before this iron concentration and yet the Goldner, while acknowledging the architectural discipline of the work, dispensed poetry in the muted colours of the opening Moderato and revelled in moments of chordal jousting.

Bartok's many coloristic effects, from eerie ponticello to clattering col legno, blended into the flow and drama of the work.

After interval, Brahms' First String Quartet was unhurried. Although tension occasionally slackened in the mighty first movement, Dene Olding's line soared and floated above his colleagues' pulsating harmonies; and the group had the energy for an outburst of Beethovian fury on its final page.

The Romanza shifted colours appropriately through Brahms' textural play while the third movement was one of exquisite composure, with viola playing to match from Irina Morozova.

If Shostakovich, Bartok and Brahms can express their countries and cultures, why not sign off with music that expresses life in a part of the world where, thanks to our natural beauties, it is difficult to be truly tragic?

And, without a doubt, the sheer joie de vivre of the fourth movement from Peter Sculthorpe's Eighth String Quartet, with its life-enhancing rhythms, did just that.