It was a privilege to listen to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, with well-loved classical masterpieces accompanied by a thrilling world premiere of current talent.
It was a privilege to listen to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) on Thursday evening. Domingo Hindoyan conducted the already well-loved classical pieces Bacchus and Ariadne, Op. 43: Suite No.2 by Albert Roussel, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op. 47 as well as the exciting world premiere of Eleanor Alberga’s first piano concerto, performed by Leeds International Piano Competition 2021 winner Alim Baisembayev and the RLPO.
Alberga’s new concerto had to be the highlight of the night. Hearing a new, beautiful piece performed live for the first time by such an accomplished and exciting pianist was quite the honour. The concerto, split into four distinct movements, was commissioned especially for Baisembayev as part of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society Contemporary Prize, and the crowd applauded rapturously for several long minutes as Hindoyan, Alberga and Baisembayev took their bows together before the interval. My favourite was the slow third movement, in which chimes resonated like the call of a large cathedral bell, and the piano often called to mind the sound of running water. Though there is no set narrative behind Alberga’s concerto, it was nevertheless very emotive and it was easy to let your imagination run wild while listening to create a personal narrative to the highly dynamic music.
The three pieces performed across the evening flowed well thematically and were flawlessly performed, in accordance with the RLPO’s reputation. Bacchus and Ariadne is swiftly coming to be considered a signature piece for Hindoyan after its inclusion in his critically acclaimed 2022 debut album, and was the opener of the evening. Composed in 1930 as part of the ballet Bacchus and Ariadne, The Second Suite makes up the second half of the story, where a distraught Ariadne throws herself from a cliff on the island of Naxos after being abandoned by the hero Theseus, but is caught by the god Bacchus. They fall in love, and she is eventually welcomed to Olympus as a goddess. The piece has some beautiful, romantic sections for strings that conjure up the swift, elegant rhythm of the ballet dancers even when listened to in isolation, but is as changeable and full of contrasts as the mischievous trickster god himself, with some big, bold sections interspersed. Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5 is the perfect showstopper. It was composed in 1937 after Stalin himself denounced the composer’s most recent opera. This symphony and its reception was quite literally a matter of life and death for Shostakovich, and this lingering threat can be heard throughout with a dark, menacing first ‘Moderato’ movement including ominous percussion and brass, as well as more mournful string sections in the third ‘Largo’, before finishing with triumphant fanfare. It was a rousing and moving listening experience that showed off the best of the RLPO, making a bold finale to a highly accomplished evening.