Page 348 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

22 November 2022

Music Review: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Orchestra at the Royal Concert Hall

Kevin Stanley reviews the RLPO's concert at the Royal Concert Hall...

Having grown up near Liverpool I was excited to watch their wonderful orchestra playing
live in Nottingham. Domingo Hindoyan is our conductor for the evening. He explains the
programme will be made up of Bartók: Suite from The Wooden Prince, Dohnányi: Variations
on a Nursery Song. And in the second half of the evening Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 ‘From
the New World’.

Hindoyan is blessed with style and poise, and instructs his orchestra with precision and
tempered excitement. Isata Kanneh-Mason wears a stunning sparkling emerald jumpsuit and
thrills the audience with spectacular piano playing accompanied by the orchestra. Kanneh-
Mason is one of the UK’s fastest rising classical stars and she has already appeared on TV
several times including the BAFTAs and the BBC Proms. She treats the appreciative
audience to Ernst von Dohnányi’s ingenious set of eleven variations on Twinkle, Twinkle,
Little Star, which deftly pokes fun at a host of familiar composers. The tune of Twinkle,
Twinkle, Little Star is instantly recognisable, but anyone thinking - I can play this - was
swiftly put in their place when she began to race through the rest of the extremely complex
piece of music at quite a tempo! Amusingly, Dohnányi said of his own work that it was
written to: "delight people with a sense of humour, and to annoy everyone else.” But it
wowed the audience here tonight.

Kanneh-Mason is one of the UK’s fastest rising classical stars