Page 347 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

Kanneh-Mason, evidently greatly enjoying herself, brought a clean lightness of touch and
sweetness of tone to the shifting variations on Twinkle Twinkle – at one point more tinkle
tinkle in a gorgeous duet with harp that evoked the chimes of a musical jewelry box (you
could almost see the turning ballerina).
Among its 11 variations was a delightfully giddy waltz, and hints of Tchaikovsky, Debussy
and luscious Rachmaninov-style phrasing.
Every chief conductor has their own particular musical passions and stamps their own
style on an orchestra to one extent or another.

Above: Domingo Hindoyan. Photo by Brian Roberts. Top: Isata Kanneh-Mason. Photo
by John Davis

Hindoyan brings French, German and Latin American repertoire to the party. Vasily
Petrenko created what was billed as ‘the best Russian orchestra outside Russia’. And
before both of them, Libor Pešek turned the RLPO into ‘the best Czech orchestra west of
Prague’.
The Czech conductor, who died last month, was remembered with an addition to the
programme – a warmly-played Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance no 2 in E minor.
But in fact, despite the season being decided long before his death, the whole second half
was something of a tribute – if an unexpected one - to him, with the Slavonic Dance a
starter and Dvořák’s Symphony No 9, From The New World, the main course.
Hindoyan, eschewing a score (just as he did for Beethoven’s Ninth last autumn), drove
the opening movement with punch and lots of pace, while there was good clarity to
harmonic progressions in the largo – along with a luxuriant performance of its famous
theme from David Hasler on cor anglais.
The molto vivace third movement had a rushing, spirited core, and the finale – heralded
by brass and with Hindoyan making wide sweeping gestures to the violas and basses,
brought Dvořák’s cyclical symphony to a delightfully satisfying conclusion.