Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at Leeds Town Hall

A DRAMATIC all-Tchaikovsky programme showcased the celebrated creative partnership of Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Previous chief conductors have unquestionably improved playing standards; but under this young Russian maestro the RLPO has acquired something more. Petrenko’s inspired interpretive energy has produced a sheen of virtuosity in every section of the orchestra. The lustrous beauty of the elegantly articulated clarinet phrases replicated by a horn in the opening pages of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 2 in G illustrated Petrenko’s elevation of instrumental detail to telling interpretive point.

The opulent “Liverpool sound” was most noticeable in the strings, built on just five double basses and six cellos. The depth, richness and volume of tone in the opening theme of the concerto, and later in the Fourth Symphony, belied these figures. The intimacy of the central Andante movement was crowned by lovingly shaped extended solo passages for violin and cello. Petrenko laid out a magic carpet of sound for the pianist Nikolai Lugansky, whose lyrical command of the keyboard elicited a rainbow spectrum of colours. The poetry of Lugansky’s solo line in the Andante movement and his mercurial brilliance in the final movement shared a jewel like clarity of texture.

Petrenko and the RLPO extracted every nuance of emotion and drama from Tchaikovsky’s tempestuous Symphony No 4 in a thrilling performance that had this writer on the edge of his seat. The searing power of the “Fate” theme led into the balletic grace of the waltz. The recapitulation brought the long first movement to an incandescent climax of almost overwhelming force.

In the second movement, the 45 strings sumptuously conveyed the underlying mood of anguish. A playful Scherzo, in which the plucked strings were faultlessly counterbalanced by the woodwind, led without a pause into the stupendous F major tutti. Petrenko propelled the orchestra to an astounding white-hot climax.

By Geoffrey Mogridge