★★★☆☆
Vasily Petrenko conductor
Mari Samuelsen violin
Hakon Samuelsen cello
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
The RLPO's first concert in their newly refurbished home consisted of Debussy Ibéria, the world premiere of Horner Pas de Deux: Double Concerto and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5. The concert was conducted by Petrenko with the Samuelsen siblings playing violin and cello in the double concerto.
Before I talk about the concert itself, I feel it only right to give a brief review of the refurbishment of the Philharmonic Hall. The long-awaited modernisation, a job which desperately needed doing, transformed the Philharmonic Hall from a dusty, old remnant of the post-war period into a modern and stylish venue, finally bringing the orchestra's home into line with those of their competitors. It was a refurbishment that needed to be carried out, and one which I am mightily impressed by. Best of all that awful, moving, monstrosity of a sculpture has been removed from the behind the stage, and hopefully destroyed!!
Upon the Petrenko's entrance to the stage there was a timpani roll, to which everybody stood up for the National Anthem played by the orchestra- a ritual that I have never seen take place at the Philharmonic before. The rendition was nicely arranged though I don't wish to provide a review of that, as it probably won't make for good reading at all!
After the formalities where dealt with, the orchestra commenced with Debussy. It was a hard performance to fault, the orchestra were playing well and appeared to be engaging with the music. Petrenko on the other hand was getting on with his conducting in his typical exaggerated and unnecessary style (I am sure that my dislike of Vasily will become more and more apparent as the season and reviews go on!)
With the token Debussy out of the way, two soloists entered accompanied by two music stands. Yes that's right, the concerto soloists had to read off the music- a distinctive sign of very poor B-list soloists indeed. My impressions of the Samuelsens appear to have had some foundation- their playing went on to confirm my initial suspicions. Horner's Pas de Deux: Double Concerto was ghastly. The first movement was a boring, unoriginal attempt to rip-off Vaughn Williams. The movement dragged on, occasionally Horner excited the audience with a perfect cadence, signalling the end, only to start the whole sorry affair off again for what felt like another hour and a half. The soloists were the epitome of mediocrity and even managed to make Petrenko look like a semi-competent conductor! The second movement was perhaps even more arduous than the first and was musically bland- the Samuelsens didn't do much to counteract this at all. After those two awful movements came the third- an immature, rushed attempt at serious concert music by a film composer. It was during this movement that Horner's mask slipped and he was revealed as the cheesy, generic Hollywood composer that he is. A sorry attempt by Horner to try and be taken seriously. If I was to rate the concert based on this performance alone it would be struggling to get one star. The RLPO approached the work with a brave face and managed to keep it ticking over. This concerto is what prevented me from rating the concert four stars. Horner's attempt at writing a concerto was pitiful.
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 was the perfect piece to cleanse our ears after Horner's hack-job concerto. The performance was good but not remarkable. Petrenko managed to make himself look foolish with stupid, childish gyrations where they really weren't called for. Aside from this the orchestra managed to give a pleasing interpretation of the symphony. It was by no means one of the better performances of Tchaikovsky 5 that I have ever heard, but it was impressive and admirable nonetheless.
The concert was on the most part enjoyable, the RLPO seemed to be playing well and I congratulate them on this performance. Sadly however the concerto really ruined it for me, it was both composed by an amateur and played by two amateurs. My advice to James Horner, who was brave enough to take a bow after his piece was premiered, would be to stick to film scores- his attempt to be taken seriously as a legitimate composer was cringeworthy.
Mari Samuelsen violin
Hakon Samuelsen cello
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
The RLPO's first concert in their newly refurbished home consisted of Debussy Ibéria, the world premiere of Horner Pas de Deux: Double Concerto and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5. The concert was conducted by Petrenko with the Samuelsen siblings playing violin and cello in the double concerto.
Before I talk about the concert itself, I feel it only right to give a brief review of the refurbishment of the Philharmonic Hall. The long-awaited modernisation, a job which desperately needed doing, transformed the Philharmonic Hall from a dusty, old remnant of the post-war period into a modern and stylish venue, finally bringing the orchestra's home into line with those of their competitors. It was a refurbishment that needed to be carried out, and one which I am mightily impressed by. Best of all that awful, moving, monstrosity of a sculpture has been removed from the behind the stage, and hopefully destroyed!!
Upon the Petrenko's entrance to the stage there was a timpani roll, to which everybody stood up for the National Anthem played by the orchestra- a ritual that I have never seen take place at the Philharmonic before. The rendition was nicely arranged though I don't wish to provide a review of that, as it probably won't make for good reading at all!
After the formalities where dealt with, the orchestra commenced with Debussy. It was a hard performance to fault, the orchestra were playing well and appeared to be engaging with the music. Petrenko on the other hand was getting on with his conducting in his typical exaggerated and unnecessary style (I am sure that my dislike of Vasily will become more and more apparent as the season and reviews go on!)
With the token Debussy out of the way, two soloists entered accompanied by two music stands. Yes that's right, the concerto soloists had to read off the music- a distinctive sign of very poor B-list soloists indeed. My impressions of the Samuelsens appear to have had some foundation- their playing went on to confirm my initial suspicions. Horner's Pas de Deux: Double Concerto was ghastly. The first movement was a boring, unoriginal attempt to rip-off Vaughn Williams. The movement dragged on, occasionally Horner excited the audience with a perfect cadence, signalling the end, only to start the whole sorry affair off again for what felt like another hour and a half. The soloists were the epitome of mediocrity and even managed to make Petrenko look like a semi-competent conductor! The second movement was perhaps even more arduous than the first and was musically bland- the Samuelsens didn't do much to counteract this at all. After those two awful movements came the third- an immature, rushed attempt at serious concert music by a film composer. It was during this movement that Horner's mask slipped and he was revealed as the cheesy, generic Hollywood composer that he is. A sorry attempt by Horner to try and be taken seriously. If I was to rate the concert based on this performance alone it would be struggling to get one star. The RLPO approached the work with a brave face and managed to keep it ticking over. This concerto is what prevented me from rating the concert four stars. Horner's attempt at writing a concerto was pitiful.
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 was the perfect piece to cleanse our ears after Horner's hack-job concerto. The performance was good but not remarkable. Petrenko managed to make himself look foolish with stupid, childish gyrations where they really weren't called for. Aside from this the orchestra managed to give a pleasing interpretation of the symphony. It was by no means one of the better performances of Tchaikovsky 5 that I have ever heard, but it was impressive and admirable nonetheless.
The concert was on the most part enjoyable, the RLPO seemed to be playing well and I congratulate them on this performance. Sadly however the concerto really ruined it for me, it was both composed by an amateur and played by two amateurs. My advice to James Horner, who was brave enough to take a bow after his piece was premiered, would be to stick to film scores- his attempt to be taken seriously as a legitimate composer was cringeworthy.
