We have been staying with dear friends in the great city of Liverpool \u2013 designated as the European Capital of Culture in 2008, and had the added pleasure of hearing the City\u2019s own orchestra in the excellent acoustic of their spacious concert hall.<\/p>\n
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the oldest concert-giving organisations in the world, and the second oldest in Britain. The origins of its concert series dates back to 1840. The Orchestra acquired the title ‘Royal’ in 1957. In 1991 it was the first organisation to be granted the freedom of the City of Liverpool and a further honour of Meritorious Service was granted by the City in 1997. It was a good feeling to be amongst an audience proud of its orchestra, comparable to the affection Manchester has for the Halle.<\/p>\n
It was a colourful concert designed for pleasure and conducted with panache by Martyn Brabbins. It began with some sophisticated ballet music by Shostakovich followed by Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 played by the elegant German violinist Viviane Hanger. The work was originally written for Pablo Sarasate whom we met in these articles in September 2005, and is full of the brilliance one associates with this composer. After the interval we heard Ravel\u2019s \u2018La Valse\u2019 with its superb evocation of a lost world of Viennese opulence, ending with its furious and bitter climax.<\/p>\n
Finally an electric performance of Rachmaninov\u2019s \u2018Symphonic Dances, his last composition and a great favourite of mine. Although I have had two recordings of the work, I have never been present at a performance before. It\u2019s an exhilarating yet ultimately disturbing piece, and Brabbins and his fine orchestra caught the rhythmic athleticism of the dances quite perfectly for me. Fascinated by the virtuoso writing for the orchestra \u2013 everybody busy it seems all the time – I was bowled over by its impact. I can hear it still.<\/p>\n
We were not the only visitors to the city. The previous evening there had been a concert of local talent in the Philharmonic Hall to an invited audience, as part of the extraordinary visit-in-tandem of Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw to the N.W. Dr. Rice was staying in the hotel where we had a meal before our concert. As a consequence the city was full of police and protesters : plenty of the former, more of the latter.<\/p>\n
B.R.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have been staying with dear friends in the great city of Liverpool \u2013 designated as the European Capital of Culture in 2008, and had the added pleasure of hearing the City\u2019s own orchestra in the excellent acoustic of their spacious concert hall. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the oldest concert-giving organisations in the world, and the second oldest in Britain. The origins of its concert series dates back to 1840. The Orchestra acquired the title ‘Royal’ in 1957. In 1991 it was the first organisation to be granted the freedom of the City of Liverpool and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n