Page 353 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

2 December 2022

Mighty Shostakovich from Andris Poga and the

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

By Peter Connors,

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s latest concert, with Latvian conductor Andris
Poga, opened with Fanfares liturgiques by French composer Henri Tomasi. It is unlikely
that many of the audience had ever heard this remarkable work before. Tomasi wrote an
opera on the Don Juan story in 1944 though it was not performed until 1956. It had a strong
religious element as the elderly libertine repents of his sins and turns to the church, whence
the liturgique of the title. Tomasi took four excerpts from it and created a work for brass and
percussion alone.

Jess Gillam
© Robin Clewley