Review: Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra Catherine Bowie, flute Lionel Bringuier, conductor Auckland Town Hall, 6 November 2008 Conducter Lionel Bringuier Kodaly's Dances of Galanta don't get aired a lot these days and make an ideal concert opener, so it was with a sense of anticipation that I went along to hear this concert, conducted by the young Frenchman Lionel Bringuier who's been assisting Essa Peka Salonen for the last year and won the Besançon competition in 2005, lauded by audience and orchestra alike. Only 22, he shows great promise and never betrayed any lack of confidence with the APO on Thursday. Catherine Bowie, the orchestra's principal flautist, was the soloist in Mozart's D major concerto K314, and it was a pity her confidence didn't mirror the conductor's because although it was a thoroughly genteel reading, it didn't have much to say. Roussel isn't a name that pops up on programmes in modern times. His ballet music The Spider's Feast is riddled with little touches that may or may not have influenced Stravinsky and even Ravel, but weren't sufficiently revolutionary or even attractive to the fickle French audiences to establish it in the repertoire, and so one hears it as an oddity, as on this programme. But the one work of the evening that definitely did make its mark in that same period was the wonderful Dukas The Sorcerer's Apprentice and even without Mickey Mouse it never fails to astound. This reading was suitably colourful but like many young conductors, Bringuier tends to power his way through and not leave any room to breathe. The subtleties of this score were often missed. It will be interesting to hear these same forces in two great French masterworks in next week's concert, on 11 November – Debussy's Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun and Berlioz's Fantastic Symphony. Larry Jenkins - 7th November 2008