Seascapes and Mountains: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
On a grey, drizzly day in the city, a packed Philharmonic Hall is ready to escape the gloom outside for an aural expedition that will take us from the wilds of the Scottish Hebrides to the heights of Swiss Alps.
Conductor Laureate (and ‘honorary Scouser’ as of 2009) Vasily Petrenko is greeted like an all-conquering hero and doesn’t hesitate to whisk us off on the first part of our journey as the familiar strains of Mendelssohn’ Hebrides overture, ‘Fingal’s Cave’ fill the hall.
Petrenko is so ‘at one’ with his orchestra, it’s as if he never left. The magnificent harmonies swell together to bring the vast arches and columns of Staffa’s famous sea cave, and Mendelssohn’s musical inspiration, to life. The swaying of conductor and orchestra alike mirrors the waves that one can picture cra...