New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

Alexander Lazarev

Alexander Lazarev was in triumphant form conducting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in two concerts very much centred around the music of his native Russia.

Such was his bravura with Rachmaninov's First Symphony it seemed incomprehensible that this work had been so witheringly received in 1897.

Working without baton, Lazarev seemed to be playing the orchestra itself, drawing mighty waves of sound out of the players; at any moment, one suspected, he just might pounce ...

While the outer movements were splendidly opulent, the less extrovert Scherzo and slow movement satisfied as they don't always, particularly when two violins and two cellos discoursed in the Larghetto.

Saturday was launched by Schnittke's Sinfonischer Vorspiel featuring the brass at their most brilliant and baleful. A sort of "chorale interrompu", in the composer's wry house style, it was as engaging as it was provocative.

Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony provided the climax of the final evening. Lazarev balanced clarity of detail with a sense of the architectural in the Largo, music of sinewy textures and starkly beautiful woodwind solos. Who would have thought trumpets could whisper with such sinister intent?

The second movement was feverishly propelled, under the snap and crackle of ace wind solos; the final Allegro a gallop to Hell and (possibly) back, with a zesty violin solo from Vesa-Matti Leppanen.

On Friday, Mozart's final Piano Concerto was in the hands of Austrian Till Fellner, a young man who, with his immaculately gradated touch and feeling for the work's blithe openness of spirit, must be the natural successor to Alfred Brendel

On Saturday, I was intrigued by Lazarev's take on Beethoven's C minor Concerto, bringing the wind forward in the overall balance, and not always tidily so. Occasionally, Fellner seemed in danger of rushing ahead, as noted by the admonishing conductor, although the emotionally poised and expressive Largo was more than adequate atonement.

And how pleasant it was to have an encore that wasn't razzle-dazzle but an exquisitely chiselled Bach Sarabande.

For all the international showcasing of the weekend, the highlight was local Gillian Whitehead's Karohirohi for harp and orchestra.

Inspired by the play of light on water, Whitehead evokes tantalising mysteries in sound. The landscape is, as ever, paramount, shot through with unexpected timbres.

Chords and motifs are adroitly fractured, complex rhythms flow with their own truth and the large orchestra showed it could play with the delicacy of a chamber ensemble.

The admirable Carolyn Mills, whether dispensing Koto-like effects or washes of glissando, was, as they say, to the music born.

And if you missed this concert, you can still explore the special world of Karohirohi when Concert FM broadcasts the Wellington performance at 8.20 tonight, along with Mozart and Rachmaninov.