Review: White Nights at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall *****

There’s always a sense of occasion on the return of the Phil’s prodigal son – and while the fatted calf may have lived to graze another day, the welcome afforded Vasily Petrenko was as warm as summer heat from the continent.

These annual White Nights concerts have become a much-anticipated occasion, and the auditorium was brimming with evident cheer. Not just from the audience either, because it seemed from Petrenko’s effervescent showmanship (bordering on the giddy at times) that the delight was mutual.

Next year is 20 years since he was appointed the RLPO’s chief conductor, and five since he left Liverpool for London.

The conductor also turns 50. Yes, I know! But if, unlike his 40^th, he’s not celebrating the landmark day on stage at Hope Street, his 2026 White Nights concert a couple of days later should still be quite the celebration. Book now to avoid disappointment.

In the meantime, there was plenty to celebrate in an enticing all-Russian programme which opened with Weinberg’s keenly orchestrated Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes, performed with close attention to detail by Petrenko and the orchestra.

The medley of folk songs ranges from the mournful and disquieting to enjoyably sprightly, ending with a Klezmer-like passage, and was punctuated by lovely solos from oboe, clarinet and trumpet.

Weinberg was a close friend of Dmitri Shostakovich – they often played piano together, so it was apt to pair them in this first half of the programme with two complementary pieces.

Suite for Variety Orchestra is surely Shostakovich at his most playful.

A world away from the weight of his powerful, political – and personal - symphonies, this moreish 25 minutes of ebullient melodies, compiled from some of the composer’s many stage and screen scores by his contemporary, arranger Levon Atovmyan, gave Petrenko and the Phil the opportunity to cut loose in impish fashion.

Opening with a swirl of a March followed by Dance I – a sort of stripping-the-willow at warp speed involving a gallop for saxes and winds, the Phil span on through a second dance and ‘little polka’ to the enticingly expansive Lyric Waltz, which revealed a deliciously airy theme introduced on sax and echoed by clarinet, and Waltz I.

Petrenko, who had been casting conspiratorial grins at the audience between movements, was in full dance mode by now as the orchestra reached the famous off-kilter, oom-pah-pah melody of Waltz II (a favourite of filmmakers) and into the finale.

It had more fizz than a Schweppes bottling plant. And everyone on stage certainly deserved a drink at the interval!

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, and old friend of conductor and orchestra, completed the triumvirate of programme pieces.

The long opening movement was one of infinite variety. It included a pleasing bassoon melody from Arvid Larsson (who enjoyed a busy evening) and there was a satisfying cinematic quality to the whole, very much in the vein of an MGM soundstage spectacular.

A radiant andantino second movement and an aural punctuation of a scherzo with its pizzicato strings and staccato brass were followed by a dynamic and explosive finale led by conductor laureate with head back like Eric Liddell reaching for the finishing line.

Could the evening of music making have been improved upon? Petrenko, ever the perfectionist, might say yes, but if so, it wasn’t apparent how.