Page 349 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

The rest of the programme brings a symphonic favourite and a fairy tale ballet. Bartók’s
pantomime, inspired by Hungary’s folk music, tells the captivating story of a prince who uses
a wooden replica of himself to woo a flirtatious princess. Whilst Dvořák’s powerful Ninth
Symphony evokes the expansive landscapes and native musical traditions drawing on his
Bohemian roots.

A strange highlight of the evening for me is watching the percussion section. Quite how a
single musician playing the triangle manages to make the sound of this diminutive instrument
be heard so clearly over around 80 other instruments, I cannot tell you. I’m fascinated
watching him play perhaps the simplest instrument ever created, yet he plays it with such
precision and delicacy, to make such a tremendous sound! Of course, he also gets to play the
enormous cymbals.

I was also pleased to see a group of young students in the audience enjoying the performance
and discussing it in detail. How pleasing it is to see today’s youth engaging with classical
music. It has been a truly fabulous evening of music performed by a powerful and skilled
orchestra and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to more classical music events and
cannot recommend them highly enough.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra played the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham on
16 November