Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra: Online Concert Programme | Thu 16 Oct 2025
- Extended Concert Programme
Bristol Beacon presents
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko
Thu 16 October 2025, 7pm
This evening’s performance:
Vasily Petrenko Conductor
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Liadov Baba Yaga
Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 ‘Leningrad’
Please note that there will be no interval
Welcome
One of the great joys of planning our Bristol Beacon orchestral season is the opportunity to invite some of the finest national orchestras to perform in Bristol.
Amazingly, tonight is the first performance by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Bristol Beacon for 21 years. We last welcomed the RLPO in April 2004 when their programme (conducted by Gerard Schwarz) included Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. It seems rather fitting that they return to Bristol with another Shostakovich symphony in this year of performances to commemorate 50 years since the composer’s death.
Bristol Beacon and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic share many similarities, including the acclaimed halls overseen by both charities, the significant music education programmes, and a commitment to developing music and audiences across a broad spectrum of work.
Thank you for joining us tonight and we hope it won’t be another 21 years until we welcome our Liverpool colleagues back again to Bristol!
With best wishes,
Simon Wales
Chief Executive, Bristol Beacon
Jonathan Dimbleby
Chair of the Board of Trustees, Bristol Beacon
Anatoly Liadov (1855-1914): Baba Yaga
Anatoly Liadov could have been one of Russian music’s brightest stars. It was clear early on that he was hugely talented, but his productivity was hampered, partly due to depression, and not helped by a fondness for vodka. The tragedy is that when he did manage to compose, the results were often magical, as in this vivid little tone poem. It portrays one of the grimmest figures in Russian folk-legend, the witch Baba Yaga. Skeletally thin, she has a terrifying appetite for human flesh (she’s particularly fond of children) which she devours with her iron teeth! Her home is a fantastical hut on fowl’s legs, deep in the forest, from which she flies out in search of her prey on a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder. Liadov’s vivid score follows her on one of her adventures. Does she succeed in her quest, or does her intended victim escape? That’s for the listener to find out.
© Stephen Johnson
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 7 ‘Leningrad’
1. Allegretto
2. Moderato (poco allegretto)
2. Adagio
3. Allegro non troppo
The story of the creation and early performance of Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony is the stuff of legend. Towards the end of 1941, invading Nazi troops had encircled the city of Leningrad (now St Petersburg). But despite desperately dwindling food supplies and the dire effects of the worst winter for over a century (at one point temperatures reached minus 45), Leningrad managed to hold out for two and a half years, by which time the tide of the war had turned irreversibly in Russia’s favour.
In the midst of all this horror, Shostakovich was hard at work on a new symphony. Eventually the Soviet authorities realised that it could be a major propaganda weapon. With three movements of the symphony already completed, Shostakovich was evacuated in October 1941 to Kuibyshev, safely east of Moscow. The symphony was premiered there in December, then in Moscow the following March, and the score was then flown to the US on microfilm for a performance under Arturo Toscanini in New York. Then on August 13, 1942, the symphony was played by a freshly augmented Leningrad Radio Orchestra in the still-besieged city, and broadcast on the streets and beyond on huge loudspeakers, an achievement which at that time seemed little short of miraculous. At the end, the applause lasted over an hour.
It’s hard to miss the mood of stern defiance that animates the opening section of the first movement. Quieter lyrical reflection seems to convey a sense of more innocent times; but peace is gradually shattered by a sequence of martial variations over a sustained side-drum rhythm. Initially perky, the tune gradually turns horrific. Catastrophe follows, then devastation, but the theme associated with the city at the symphony’s beginning is not quite destroyed. Hope still flickers in the ashes.
The lighter Moderato that follows hints at further memories of happier times. These are shattered by the acid-toned, much faster-paced middle section, which has come to be known as a ‘dance of death’. The ending is hushed, delicately scored, and now more clearly elegiac. The wind and harp chorale that opens the Adagio, alternating with anguished recitatives for full violins, has a quality of an austere ritual. Shostakovich is said to have been inspired by the Biblical Psalms when writing this symphony, especially those that call for vengeance for bloodshed. At length, then comes an expectant hush, and the finale begins to rouse itself. More intense struggles follow, then comes a long slow section, funereal in character, before the symphony rouses itself for the last time. The thunderous ending may be heard as resolute, even triumphant, but there is room for doubt. It is music that seems to shout ‘I will survive!’, whilst at the same time registering the appalling human cost.
© Stephen Johnson
Vasily Petrenko
Conductor
Vasily Petrenko is Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he took on in 2021, becoming Conductor Laureate of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra following his hugely acclaimed 15-year tenure as their Chief Conductor from 2006-2021. He is the Associate Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and has also served as Chief Conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (2015-2024), Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (2013-2020) and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009–2013). He stood down as Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ in 2022 having been their Principal Guest Conductor from 2016 and Artistic Director from 2020.
Petrenko has worked with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), St Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic and NHK Symphony Orchestras, and in North America has lead the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and the San Francisco, Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. He has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, Grafenegg Festival and made frequent appearances at the BBC Proms. Equally at home in the opera house, and with over 30 operas in his repertoire, Vasily Petrenko has conducted widely on the operatic stage, including at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Opéra National de Paris, Opernhaus Zürich, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
The award-winning Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is the UK’s oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra. The origins of the Orchestra’s concert series date back to the formation of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society by a group of Liverpool music lovers in 1840.
The Orchestra is central to Liverpool’s cultural offering, Liverpool Philharmonic being the largest music organisation in the region. The Orchestra performs over 100 concerts each year in its home, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and have long been an ambassador for Liverpool through an extensive touring schedule throughout the UK and internationally, including three tours to Japan.
Liverpool Philharmonic is one of the most active Orchestra’s in the UK for premieres and commissions of new music, with over 300 works premiered and commissioned in the last 20 years. In recent seasons, the Orchestra has given world premiere performances of major works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir John Tavener, Karl Jenkins, Stewart Copeland, Michael Nyman, Michael Torke, Nico Muhly, James Horner, and Sir James MacMillan alongside works by Liverpool-born and North-West based composers. The Orchestra give regular broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM, and over 1 million people in 180 countries listen to Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra recordings each month on Spotify. The Orchestra and Hindoyan also feature on several Medici.tv broadcasts with soloists including Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Sonya Yoncheva and Nobuyuki Tsujii.
Recordings are an important part of the Orchestra’s work and recent releases on the Onyx Classics label include: an exploration of the melancholy and emotional depths of Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’ & Souvenir de Florence; Music from the Americas I: Venezuela!, which brings vivid colour, clarity to a programme of music that includes works by Evencio Castellanos, Juan Bautista Plaza and Inocente Carreño; Verismo, an album of orchestral intermezzi from Italian operas, an album of works by Puerto-Rican composer Roberto Sierra: and a disc of French works by Roussel, Debussy and Dukas – all conducted by Domingo Hindoyan. With their Principal Guest Conductor, Andrew Manze, releases include Vaughan Williams complete symphonies and Job: A Masque For Dancing (also all on Onyx Classics), the complete Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle with Boris Giltburg, conducted by Laureate Vasily Petrenko, who also conducted the Orchestra for the complete symphonies of Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky. liverpoolphil.com
Orchestra Credits
Violin 1
Thelma Handy
Sarah Brandwood Spencer
Mihkel Kerem
Peter Liang
Martin Richardson
Concettina Del Vecchio
Stephan Mayer
Ruth McNamara
Susanna Poole
Elizabeth Lamberton
Emily Mowbray
Rebecca Steventon
Qian Wu
Claire Stranger-Ford
Helen Boardman
Katie Foster
Violin 2
Kate Richardson
Sophie Coles
Kate Marsden
James Justin Evans
Sally Anne Anderson
David Rimbault
Olga Smoleń
Frances Evans
Chu-Yu Yang
Emily Pettet
Marino Capulli
Celia Goodwin
Nathan Fenwick
Viola
Catherine Marwood
Nadia Debono
Fiona Stunden *
Rachel Jones
Sarah Hill
Ian Fair
Amy Hark
Daniel Sanxis
Emily Davies
Ben Kearsley
Ray Lester
Harriet Mitchell
Cello
Ren Ford
Hilary Browning
Ian Bracken
Gethyn Jones
Ruth Owens
Alexander Holladay
Mark Lindley
Anna Crawford
Lucy Hoile
Georgina Aasgaard
Double Bass
Marcel Becker
Ashley Frampton
Nigel Dufty
Anthony Williams
Richard Lewis
Sian Rowley
Imogen Fernando
Georgia Lloyd
Flute
Cormac Henry
Sofia Patterson Gutierrez
Piccolo
Lily Vernon Purves
Oboe
Helena Mackie
Catrin Ruth Davies *
Cor Anglais
Drake Gritton
Clarinet
Miquel Ramos Salvadó
Emma Burgess
Jill Allan
Bass Clarinet
Benat Erro Diez
Bassoon
Greg Crowley
Rebekah Abramski
Contra Bassoon
Gareth Twigg
Horn
Timothy Jackson
Simon Griffiths
Stephen Nicholls
Timothy Nicholson
Tim Doyle
Robert Ashworth
Erin Cooper Gay
Emily Douglas
Peter Richards
Trumpet
Fábio Brum
Peter Athans
Gary Farr
Mark Addison
James Nash
Jac Thomas
Trombone
Simon Cowen
Simon Powell
Tom Peacock
Tony Boorer
Gemma Riley
Bass Trombone
Simon Chappell
Mark Frost
Tuba
Robin Haggart *
Timpani
Neil Hitt
Percussion
Matthew Brett
Josephine Frieze
Scott Lumsdaine
Gareth Ceredig
Ben Gray
Francesca Lombardelli
Ed Cervenka
Harp
Elizabeth McNulty
Mary Reid
Piano
Ian Buckle
Names correct at the time of publishing.