Review: Music of the Americas at Philharmonic Hall ****1/2

America celebrates a big birthday this July 4^th. And just to show we here in the ‘old country’ don’t bear a grudge at being shown the door 250 years ago, the Phil went all-American in this exuberant Thursday night concert.

Lest we forget, for many of those years Liverpool was the gateway to the ‘new world’, and those transatlantic links remain strong. But this was also a wider international affair, with the equally exuberant German pianist Frank Dupree making his first (but hopefully not last) visit to Hope Street to spread a little much-needed joy in a performance of cheerful brilliance.

Musically, George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F is more classically-wrought than his Rhapsody in Blue, although it also sings with the Brooklyn-born genius’s musical theatre voice, with the adagio second movement in particular packed with toothsome, bluesy melodies (hints his later Porgy and Bess) which the Phil sections – particularly winds and brass - lovingly burnished.

Over at the Steinway meanwhile, Dupree caressed the concerto’s seductive opening theme into life with a gossamer-like touch, roaming the keyboard in a performance which married impish infectiousness with unimpeachable tone and technique. Inviting the orchestra – and audience – along with him, it was thrilling and virtuosic rollercoaster ride that prompted a spontaneous and well-deserved burst of applause at the conclusion of the opening allegro alone.

Simply smashing.

Above: Frank Dupree celebrates his Caravan encore with members of the RLPO percussion section. Top: Dupree plays Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F. Photos by Gareth Jones.

The Hope Street audience wasn’t about to let Dupree disappear without an encore after that, and he obliged with what seems to be his favourite party piece, a thrilling ride through Duke Ellington’s Caravan, for which he roped in the percussion section - supplanting the violin front desks - and Marcel Becker to slap that bass, while even Hindoyan (following Simon Rattle’s appearance on percussion with the Merseyside Youth Orchestra alumni last year) was keen to take a role. As someone said to me at the interval, we need to snag Dupree as an artist in residence tout suite.

The Gershwin was preceded by Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Port of Call – which the Phil performed at the Proms last September, and followed after the interval by Copland’s Symphony No.3.

Hailstork’s 1984 work embraces hints of Bernstein in its propulsive opening, while later there are evocative jazz era Gershwin-a-like moments courtesy here of the excellent Miquel Ramos Salvado on clarinet.

Above: Domingo Hindoyan conducts the RLPO in Copland's Symphony No.3. Photo by Gareth Jones

Elsewhere the Phil captured perfectly the raw energy of a bustling American city (a precursor to the bruising opening movement of Copland’s symphony), juxtaposed with more tender lyrical passages through the strings.

Even those who aren’t au fait with Copland’s third and final symphony will recognise the theme which emerges in its final movement – the composer’s stirring Fanfare for the Common Man – albeit introduced not stridently by the brass but softly by the winds.

Not only that, but if you listen closely, you can hear brief elements of it scattered throughout the post-war work, performed with vigour by the Phil, particularly the allegro molto second movement, heralded by Neil Hitt’s thunderous timpani (Hitt getting a moment centre stage having watched, arms folded as percussion had all the fun with Dupree) and delivered with dash and panache.

Domingo Hindoyan guided the orchestra neatly through the delicate andantino, with its hint of Latin American vibes, before the Fanfare rose up and was passed around the sections, building all the time as the evening hurled towards what proved a triumphant and exhilarating close.