It was a winning combination; a cellist with the international reputation of 26-year old Gautier Capuçon, New Zealand’s leading concert venue, and four of the Music Department's talented cello students.

Gautier Capuçon put the young players at ease from the beginning. "There should be amazing intensity," he advised young Callum Hall, after the prize-winning Masters student had delivered a searing account of Kodály's Solo Sonata, "but it shouldn’t be tense."

There was something puckish in the way that the Frenchman advised Hall to explore every extreme in Kodály's often wild outpouring. "There are a hundred ways to do a crescendo" he exclaimed, but only had time to demonstrate two of them on his magnificent Gofriller instrument.

Sarah Lee was poised in the first movement from Haydn's C major Cello Concerto. Penetrating to the core of her performance, Capuçon's main concern was that one shouldn't overlook the beautiful simplicity of the phrases that Haydn had written.

Cutting straight to the Cadenza at one point, Capuçon ended up crossing the stage floor, cello in hand, and working in a duo with the thrilled young cellist.

Edward King and pianist Maria Mo are an experienced and well-practised team. Their Finale from Beethoven's A major Cello Sonata was a seasoned performance and it was a delight to watch Mo so perfectly attuned to every nuance of King's highly expressive playing.

Again, Capuçon was playful. "Which edition do you use?" he queried at one point, "I don’t see an Adagio written there."

Once again the music had been simplified and improved. 

It was a journey for us all, watching Capuçon work with these young musicians on one of the most cherished sonatas in the repertoire. As Beethoven navigated ever-changing and perilous tonalities, the Frenchman pointed out that these were mysterious paths for the players to follow. And we followed alongside them, entering new realms of enchantment.

Jisun Kim was the final student to take the stage and thrilled us all with her high-powered account of the first movement from Saint-Saëns' A minor Concerto, with the versatile Callum Hall having no difficulties at all with a demanding piano score.

Capuçon was clearly impressed. His reaction on more than one occasion was "Wow!". Suggestions were simply matters of fine-tuning, such as removing an unwarranted pause and letting the music flow. Paramount was the issue of expanding the dynamics so that Saint-Saëns's song was as passionate as possible.

Don't you ever shout?" he asked Kim, after likening one of Saint-Saëns's climaxes to a healthy bout of altercation. She agreed, with a smile. Capuçon's response was quick and to the point.

"Then show me how you do it on the cello."

The generous two-and-a-half-hour session included a good deal of Capuçon himself playing extracts from the four students' works - indeed, at one point with Saint-Saëns the Frenchman seemed lost in reverie with the beauty of his countryman's music.  Many in the audience must have wished that this lovely concerto was also on the bill for his NZSO appearances over the weekend, alongside Dvořák and Walton.

Question time was led by James Tennant, whose inspirational teaching is responsible for such a gathering of cello talent in our Music Department. Had Capuçon come across the works of Gareth Farr or John Psathas, Tennant asked, quick to stand up for the local composer. Capuçon professed that he had not, but interest may just have been sparked. Needless to say, Tennant was quick to recommend Psathas's Three Island Songs as a fitting work to take back to his violinist brother Renaud and pianist Frank Braley.