Grieg’s Piano Concerto – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
“Easy on the banjos!” warned Eric Morecambe when André Previn (or Andrew Preview) famously attempted to conduct the Grieg Piano Concerto in the classic 1971 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special. The one time I ever saw a banjo on stage with the RLPO my Facebook post quoting this zinging one-liner garnered precisely zero likes. It must be a generation thing.
For this 2024 performance, Liverpool welcomed back its prodigal son and former Chief Conductor, Vasily Petrenko. Turning from the podium, orchestra poised to start, to acknowledge an errant mobile phone ringtone with a wry raise of the eyebrow, he held the audience in the palm of his hand - comic timing worthy of the much-missed double act themselves.
First on the programme was Bohuslav Martinů’s La Bagarre, composed ...