Auckland Town Hall is one of those lucky venues that has a vigorous organ of its own (an Orgelbau Klais Opus 1860 of 2010, based on an earlier Norman & Beard) rather than having to link up remotely with some cathedral or other when it wants to record Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony. This latter option can work well, as we know from leading CDs by Mariss Jansons and the Oslo Philharmonic with Wayne Marshall on the organ of Rouen’s Eglise de Saint-Ouen (EMI) or Daniel Barenboim with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, teamed up with Gaston Litaize in Chartres Cathedral (DG). But this disc by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra capitalises on the hall’s good fortune by featuring Thomas Trotter in live performances both of the Saint-Saëns and of Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani. The timpanist (unnamed) contributes properly emphatic punctuations, and Trotter is as one with the orchestra in mixing the music’s dynamism with succulent bittersweetness and in illuminating the colours and shadings of Poulenc’s instrumentation.

Arvo Volmer’s natural control of rhythm and pace makes an equally positive impact in the Saint-Saëns symphony, finding the delicate balance between classicism and romanticism that characterises the music’s temperament. There is, after all, quite a lot of symphony before the organ really lets rip in the Maestoso finale, and Volmer conducts the whole score judiciously and affectionately. He generates the excitement of expectation in the Allegro and, with all the stops pulled out, the peroration is as powerful as could be.