The Idyll came with just the right degree of gemutlich sentimentality and while the eight-minute Cadenza ranged from crooning double-stops to fire-siren glissandi, the clear-cut lyricism of its opening revealed Valencia's very special musicianship.
A short Chaconne by the American Jonathan Leshnoff, especially composed for this year's Johansen International String Competition, was Santiago's encore - played with the same cool assurance that took the 16-year-old to second place in this event just six weeks ago.
Earlier in the concert, Peter Scholes' own Relic exerted a certain evocative power, benefitting from a version that strengthened its string component.
Occasionally diffuse and too abrupt in its shifts, it was nevertheless a showcase for the graceful Yi Jing, her harp creating unexpectedly gamelan-like colours with Shane Currey's rototoms.
Richard Strauss' Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite, which opened the concert, was a mite ambitious, with strings not always able to come up with the Viennese cream that this composer demands.
A little more sighing and swooning would not have gone amiss in this score, although even Strauss benefitted from a star turn - cellist Eliah Sakakushev's gorgeous solo in the Andante of the final movement.
What: Auckland Chamber Orchestra
Where: Raye Freedman Arts Centre
