Page 407 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

command of orchestral textures — and the way he uses them to create very distinct atmospheres

— is exceptional.

Phantasma is a dream-like fantasy on Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze, the gloriously kitsch
wall painting in Vienna’s Secession Building, which in turn was inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth

Symphony. However, if there is any trace of Beethoven in Deutsch’s writing — apart, perhaps,

from the odd vaguely familiar rhythm — it escaped me.

Instead he reflects the frieze’s glittering surface and surreal invention in a swirling kaleidoscope
of sound. It begins gently with lots of tinkly percussion and shimmering downward scales, then

works up a violent frenzy characterised by smeary trombone glissandi, like out-of-control

chainsaws, before subsiding again.

Just 13 minutes long, it also has a touch of wit. It is said that Klimt admitted people into his

studio only if they knew the “secret knock” on the door, so Deutsch frames the piece with a

distinctive rat-a-tat-tat, clinked out on claves.

Reunited with their former music director Vasily Petrenko, the RLPO played with superb

precision and concentration here, then let rip in Scriabin’s Third Symphony, The Divine Poem,

with no fewer than nine horns menacingly lined up at the top of the stage. Though written more
than a century earlier than Deutsch’s new work, the symphony complements it well, projecting

much the same hyper-emotional psychological state, albeit at much greater length and with far

more pomposity. Petrenko wisely kept it flowing and lyrical, rather than letting its bombastic

qualities dominate.

And between the two orchestral works, a last-minute rescue act. When the advertised soloist fell

ill on the afternoon of the concert the Liverpool-born soprano Jennifer Johnston stepped in to

sing Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. I’ve heard more gently beguiling performances,

but Johnston delivered wonderful power and assurance on very little rehearsal — what a trouper.

On BBC Radio 3 on May 24, then BBC Sounds

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