New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

John Psathas' new saxophone concerto, Zahara, was the expected crowd-pleaser at the NZSO's Friday night concert.

Italian soloist Federico Mondelci was like a snake-charmer with his winding, florid lines evoking a North African exoticism that would later be complemented by Mingus-tinged harmonies.

An Interlude, where Mondelci relinquished his soprano instrument for the larger tenor, was the most striking section. His saxophone, alternately honey-toned and raucous, swooned and soared over mysterious, insistent soundscapes.

While the dervishing dances of the second movement lulled and perhaps dulled as the pages passed, the blaring riffs of the last introduced a Finale Ultimissimo, Psathas-style, as Mondelci unfurled minaret-like eddies of melody over a pulsating orchestral background.

After interval, the Italian made an elegant case for Debussy's Rhapsodie, his inspired, poetic performance aided by conductor David Atherton's immaculate gauging of the orchestral blend around him.

The rest of Friday's concert was Russian, with the orchestra at its well-primed best in Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture.

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was showpiece territory, marred only by too many blemishes in the brass and Atherton's deliberate separation of movements that should have surged onward without pause.

A much smaller audience on Saturday night was rewarded with a Peer Gynt Suite presented with a freshness that cynics might have thought impossible. A brisk tempo and finely delineated wind playing gave Morning its zing and there was no escaping the malevolent crescendo of Grieg's trolls in the final piece.

Sibelius' Third Symphony was particularly welcome and Atherton let its first movement burst upon us like an overdue spring.

The elusive waltz of the second movement was utter enchantment, and the Finale a lesson in sustaining the inexorable Sibelian flow of one of the Finnish composer's most organic compositions.

Wendy Dawn Thompson was here last year, when she created three brilliant characterisations in John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer.

On Saturday she revealed equal talents in Mahler's Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen.

The mezzo caught and savoured the mood of each song, from the al fresco optimism of Ging heut Morgen ubers Feld to the world-weary resignation of Die zwei blauen Augen. Her singing had finesse, her tone burnished with no sacrifice of clarity.

The orchestra, idiomatic and appropriately virtuosic, might have been more sympathetic to the singer in some of the key climaxes, where the voice disappeared momentarily under the instrumental weight.

There was certainly no need for anyone to hold back with Borodin's Polotsvian Dances, and neither did they, offering a high-spirited Finale to the weekend.

As a bonus, if you missed Friday's concert or would like to revisit it, Concert FM is relaying the Wellington performance of this programme tonight at 8pm. Not to be missed.