Page 38 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

Quartet called CityBand, and helped open the Damascus Opera House by
performing at its opening concert. He’s celebrated for bringing high-energy

improvisation and riotous clarinet virtuosity to the orchestral scene. Before those
qualities are showcased by the LPO with the UK premiere of his Clarinet Concerto

and a late-night chamber concert in January, we can enjoy the dusky colours,
relentless build and improvisatory freedom of his Suite for Improvisor & Orchestra.

Kinan Azmeh – Suite for Improvisor & Orchestra: III. Wedding

Kinan Azmeh clt / Deustches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin / Manuel Nawri cond

English National Opera

Over 50% of all ENO attendees are now first-time bookers, and the new season

certainly presents something for everyone. Jake Heggie’s operatic retelling of the
film classic It’s A Wonderful Life will have its UK premiere, while Jo Davies will direct

the company’s first-ever production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the
Guard. Then, in 2023, there’s a production of Korngold’s youthful gem The Dead City

and a European premiere for Blue, exploring police violence against African
American communities. The score is by Broadway composer Jeanine Tesori, who
creates a fascinating hybrid; an ominously percussive Prologue gives way to jazzy

syncopations in ‘Damn, Girl’, which soon blossoms into the heartfelt lyricism of ‘I
Love Him’.

Jeanine Tesori – Blue: Act 1 Scene 1, I Love Him

Briana Hunter / Washington National Opera Orchestra / Roderick Cox cond

London Chamber Orchestra

Now entering its second century, the LCO is looking to the future with youth at the
heart of its programme. Hot on the heels of Freya Waley-Cohen will be their new

Composer-in-Residence, 29-year-old Dani Howard; she’s had a stellar few years,
having debuted with the London Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and last year won a
Royal Philharmonic Society Award for her Trombone Concerto for Peter Moore and

the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Howard’s Fanfare will be the very first notes
sounded in the LCO’s new season, while later her new saxophone concerto will be

premiered by Jess Gillam. Other ones-to-watch include appearances from horn