Rlpo reveals new live and online concert programme

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is planning a fresh series of On Demand concerts – with a quartet of performances conducted by Vasily Petrenko.

The RLPO’s chief conductor, who leaves Hope Street this summer after 15 years, will record four special programmes of music with the orchestra while the Philharmonic Hall remains closed to audiences because of Covid lockdown restrictions.

The hour-long concerts will then be broadcast online as part of the Phil’s successful On Demand series.

In the first, available from April 6, Petrenko and the orchestra will be joined by pianist Steven Osborne in a programme of Stravinsky.

Other concerts include works by Mendelssohn, Schubert and Beethoven (from April 20), a programme of Poulenc, Gerhard and Falla (from May 4), and Hindemith, Shostakovich and Schreker (from May 11).

Meanwhile cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason returns to the Philharmonic Hall to record Dvorak’s cello concerto for an online broadcast, with Rory Macdonald conducting. It will be available to view from June 1.

Above: Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Top: Vasily Petrenko - photo by Mark McNulty

The first concert with a live audience is expected to be on May 20 when Huyton-born superstar pianist Paul Lewis joins the RLPO and Petrenko. Lewis will play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 1, with the concert repeated on May 23.

Dates depend on the current Government roadmap out of lockdown.

Meanwhile Petrenko will also conduct concerts on May 27 and 28. It had been hoped Liverpool favourite Nobu Tsujii would perform Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 1 in C minor. However, travel restrictions mean he can no longer appear in the city on those dates. A replacement soloist is yet to be confirmed, but the programme also features trombonist Richard Cowen.

Conductor Steven Verhaert leads the orchestra in a live concert of Mussorgsky, Shostakovich and Rimsky-Korsakov on June 10, while Clark Rundell takes conducting duties for an evening of Astor Piazzolla on June 12 – postponed from February.

Klezmer-ish will perform tracks from their album Disty Road in the Lockdown Songbook on June 14.

And incoming chief conductor Domingo Hindoyan will be on the podium for concerts on June 17 (featuring trombone player Peter Moore) and June 20.

For full details of the concerts and tickets visit the website HERE