Review: Petrenko & the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Leeds Town Hall

Saturday, January 23, 2016

THE long-running partnership of Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic remains one of the most potent musical forces of our time.

Tchaikovsky's Italian Caprice sounded so fresh that the ink could have barely dried. Petrenko elicited a rainbow spectrum of colours from his Orchestra. Clarity was not for an instant compromised by the breakneck speeds, certainly not the electrifying rhythmic energy of the Finale.

Whipcrack fast tempi were similarly adopted in the outer movements of Shostakovich's youthfully beguiling Piano Concerto No 2. Soloist Boris Giltburg's mastery of the rapid leaps and tricky 7/8 rhythms was mesmerising; his palette of delicate tonal colours combined with the RLPO's Violins' ardent descending phrases.

The elegance and wit of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony No 1 in D was was projected with such élan. The bustling Allegro opening was followed by hushed pianissimo strings in the Larghetto, a truly dance-like Gavotte and a high-octane, rollicking Finale.

Petrenko was in even more visible dance mode for the Suite No 3 from Khatchaturian's exotic music for the ballet Gayane. A percussionist nonchalantly played his way around the stage in the Dance of the Old Men. The frenetic Sabre Dance complete with splendid whooping tuba almost raised the roof. A capacity Town Hall erupted with wild enthusiasm and was rewarded with an encore - the Waltz from Khatchaturian's symphonic suite for the play Masquerade.

by Geoffrey Mogridge