Upwards and onwards for the Auckland Philharmonia

By WILLIAM DART

Intriguing, inspiring and invigorating are the promises made in the handsome brochure for the Auckland Philharmonia's 2003 Royal and SunAlliance series and, for once, it's not copywriter prattle.

One of the city's (and the region's) cultural mainstays, this orchestra can be extremely proud of the 15 concerts it is offering next year.

Any sort of programming is inevitably a balancing act and, with the skill shown this time round, someone in the AP could well be considering a career on the trapeze wire.

Standard repertoire sits side-by-side with the contemporary. International artists, including the high-profile Israeli violinist Shlomo Mintz, are complemented by an impressive roll call of our own musicians.

And, with a proper acknowledgment of women artists, solo turns don't have to be an endless succession of bow ties and tails.

Unlike the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, whose 2003 programme offers one substantial New Zealand work and a small cluster of Lilburn Prize finalists, the AP comes up with two full-scale commissions and eight shorter Snapshots, meaning 10 of the 15 concerts feature local content.

July is set to provide cultural nourishment with the two major works. First up are John Rimmer's Concerto for Orchestra - ingeniously put alongside Bartok's work of the same name and Ginastera's fine Variaciones Concertantes.

Two weeks later Helen Medlyn sings Gillian Whitehead's Alice, a monodrama with text by the poet Fleur Adcock, which the composer says is "a quintessential settler's tale, exploring the problems of women who came here in the colonial period".

As far as the Snapshots go, Eve de Castro-Robinson starts the lens clicking in March, with Len Dances, a preview of her operatic project based on the life of the Kiwi film-maker Len Lye.

Among the other seven, Jack Body's Fanfare for Bert, a tribute to Bert Kaempfert, who gave the world Strangers in the Night, looks to be the most provocative. Ivan Zagni's Mokehu marks a welcome return of one of our most individual voices to the concert hall.

While the NZSO has overlooked local musicians (apart from Dame Malvina Major's appearance in a Strauss programme for Wellingtonians), the AP positively rejoices in the talent we have here. Patricia Wright revisits Strauss' Four Last Songs while concertmaster Justine Cormack tackles Piazzolla's Las cuatro estaciones portenas.

We finally get to hear Henry Wong Doe on the big stage with Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto, followed by Michael Houstoun offering the Russian composer's Fourth (Left Hand) Concerto.

There are return visits from familiar names, like violinists Karin Adam and Pierre Amoyal. The new visitors include pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, a silver medallist in the Van Cliburn Competition, and Daniel Matsukawa, principal bassoon with Washington's National Symphony.

We missed out on high-flying Australian cellist Li Wei last year but in March he returns with Schumann's autumnal concerto. Another Australian, violinist Dene Olding, brings the nicest gift imaginable - Australian music. Olding will play Ross Edwards' Maninyas, a superb concerto and, I'm sure, the only one to claim shrieking parrots among its inspirations.

The orchestra's marvellous music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya, one of the few conductors in the world who could double for Ricky Martin, will handle seven of the 15 concerts, including, in May, a further instalment in his ongoing Mahler cycle with the composer's Fifth Symphony.

The other conductors, mainly familiar names, are doing what they are best at - my money is on Edvard Tchivzel in August with a Russian programme including Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.

American Steven Smith, who is new to us and a composer himself, has an interactive children's work Shake Rattle and Roar which might well be worth investigating for one of the AP's young people's concerts.

Intriguing, inspiring, invigorating? Yes! As well as invaluable, inestimable and ... inexpensive. The best buy is from $285 for all 15 concerts. Don't miss out.

Auckland Philharmonia subscribers will receive their 2003 brochures in the mail this week.