Manukau Symphony Orchestra a well-oiled machine

Uwe Grodd is at the helm of Manukau Symphony Orchestra.

Uwe Grodd greets me as clocks chime the hour.

Smiling, he explains his punctuality: "I'm German," he shrugs, "I can't help it."

He also can't rein in the prodigious energy that has made him a major force in the musical life of this city. As well as being a much-recorded flautist, a musicologist who has resuscitated works by Hummel, Vanhal and Ries for the CD-buying public, Grodd is at the helm of both Auckland Choral and Manukau Symphony Orchestra.

His association with the MSO began 23 years ago through, he says, the enthusiasm of the people, starting with workshops that grew into concerts. Now, he can be justly proud of the orchestra's substantial concert seasons.

With soloists such as Michael Houstoun and Andrew Joyce returning next year, as well as Eckehard Stier making his MSO debut, Grodd says there's nothing more rewarding than making good music with good people in a good atmosphere.

"It's a well-oiled community machine."

But 2016 has been a tough year for the MSO with the loss of Auckland City Council funding but Grodd and the orchestra have fought on.

"We now have to apply to various local boards and individuals," he tells me. "It's challenging for an organisation largely run by volunteers but we're looking forward to a successful 2017."

For Grodd, tomorrow night's Romantic concert of Wagner and Bruckner is an "uber-programme," and he highlights Wagner's Wesendonck Songs as very special.

"The contemporary German composer Hans Werner Henze has re-arranged them around a lower voice, catching the textures of the original with his own palette, using such combinations as alto flute, harp and divided viola section."

New Zealand soloist Rhonda Browne has made a name for herself in various smaller English opera companies singing everything from Mozart and Stravinsky to Gilbert and Sullivan. Grodd was impressed at her Covent Garden audition.

"Rhonda has a voice that combines richness with great clarity and transparency, as well as the warmth of a real alto sound," he explains. "When she sang Wagner for me I was also struck by her impeccable German pronunciation, so much so that I didn't even think of her not being German."

Bruckner's Fourth Symphony is a firm favourite, a love inspired by Grodd's teacher Sergiu Celibidache who he describes as one of the greatest Bruckner conductors of the 20th century.

"This symphony is like stepping into a huge cathedral, a building so massive that you can't fathom what is around you," he says. "But once you go deeper into it, you start seeing or hearing so many beautiful details, from Austrian country songs to those magnificent Brucknerian gestures."

Grodd speaks eloquently of the almost overpowering force of this score, comparing its impact to that of his old teacher who, he says, was so awe-inspiring that it took some time to escape from the almost gravitational force of his genius.

Celibidache was a colourful figure. I'm regaled with a notorious incident where an oboist in the Mexican Philharmonic pulled out a gun and fired into the ceiling after the conductor had spent 20 minute tuning the orchestra; Grodd has own classroom tales to tell.

He remembers how his teacher, pleased with one of his questions, ran across the room, slapped him on the shoulder and declared, 'you are not so stupid'."

In the last count, however, it is the spirit and musical insights of Celibidache that stays with us.

"Everything was maximised," Grodd stresses. "Every gesture counted in performances that you might either love or hate, but nothing in between."

What: Manukau Symphony Orchestra
Where & when: BNZ Theatre, Vodafone Events Centre; tomorrow at 7.30pm