Review: Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Philharmonic Hall *****

Monday is not a usual music-making night at the Phil, but when one of Liverpool’s most famous sons (Sir Simon Rattle) drops in with one of the world’s foremost orchestras (the Bavarian Radio Symphony), it would be rude not to break with convention.

And there was certainly a real sense of occasion in the auditorium for this bonus highlight of the 2025/26 season.

Rattle, who turned 70 earlier this year, and his latest crack German outfit, are on a whistlestop European autumn tour, and where better to start than in their conductor’s birthplace?

Hall and orchestra both hold a special place in Rattle’s heart. It was in Hope Street in October 1970 that a then mop-headed teenager watched his hero Rafael Kubelik conduct the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth.

For Rattle, the concert changed his life. On the BRSO’s website he explains: “The orchestra’s visit to Liverpool made a profound impression on a teenager who wished to be a conductor – to experience such a symbiotic relationship between conductor and players, and the unanimity of concept and philosophy was as evident as the sheer pleasure the musicians emanated. This concert became a kind of benchmark for me, a goal towards which musicians should strive.”

Perhaps there was a teenager in the hall last night who was made to feel the same way? I for one won’t be around in half-a-century to find out, but I’d like to imagine there are young people out there inspired by what they saw and heard, because it was certainly an evening to savour.

Read a review of the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra concert including an appearance by Sir Simon Rattle

There was no Beethoven this time around, although his spectre hangs over Schumann’s (erroneously titled) Second Symphony which filled the first half. Schumann and his contemporaries were trying to get out of the shadow cast by Beethoven’s symphonies, the Ninth perhaps most of all.

Symphony No 2 in C was composed in the mid-1840s when Schumann had just recovered from a bout of depression and wasn’t yet disillusioned with life in dreary Dresden, and if he was still to meet a young Johannes Brahms, it's more than likely the 35-year-old composer still had those other two Bs – Bach and Beethoven – in the back of his mind.

Rather like a swan, the symphony seems to glide gracefully and serenely on the surface while there are churning currents propelling it from beneath. A beatific opening melody swayed through the strings, Rattle (sans score) pulling gently on its threads, before waves of crescendo and decrescendo, peppered with sharp punctuation, built it into something more torrid and troubling.

Above: Sir Simon Rattle conducting at the Philharmonic Hall. Photo by Astrid Ackermann. Top: Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The scherzo second movement was nicely playful – with the added bonus of a delightful yearning theme in the strings, and the allegro finale as exuberant and dashing as a finale should be. And in between Rattle spun some sublime musical magic in an adagio, complete with solo oboe and some very impressive quiet playing, which was meltingly tender.

There was more sustained magic after the interval with The Firebird, where the massed forces of the orchestra crammed on to the Phil platform delivered a captivating performance of Stravinsky’s full score that conjured in vivid and evocative aural colour the atmosphere of the balletic tale of enchantment within a concert hall setting.

Technical excellence, gripping drama, laser focused playing in every section and the winds – including the BRSO’s celebrated principal oboe Stefan Schilli, who had a busy evening - knocking it out of the park as the Firebird took flight.

Concertmaster Anton Barakhovsky produced a tone so sweet it could give you type 2 diabetes, while there was also a delightful viola solo.

At one point a trio of muted trumpets appeared in the circle, while at another a quartet of similarly muted Wagner horns filed on to the stage, briefly played, then quietly melted away again.

Then there was the lustrous solo from principal horn Carsten Carey Duffin which had Rattle – who had shimmied on the podium like a sorcerer throughout the piece - wading into the band at the end to encourage him to his feet so he could receive some love from the applauding auditorium.

The Liverpool audience weren’t going to let a beaming Rattle go without an encore, and he obliged with a little gift from Fauré’s incidental music for Pelléas et Mélisande.

The orchestra continues its tour at Symphony Hall in Birmingham tonight and London’s Barbican tomorrow before crossing the Channel for a series of eight dates over nine days.