Founded in 1840 by a group of Liverpool music-lovers, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is the UK’s oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra and one of the world’s oldest concert societies.
Vasily Petrenko was appointed principal conductor of the orchestra in September 2006 and in September 2009 became chief conductor. Petrenko joins a distinguished line of musicians who have led the orchestra, including Max Bruch, Sir Charles Hallé, Sir Henry Wood, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir John Pritchard, Sir Charles Groves, Walter Weller, David Atherton, Marek Janowski, Libor Pešek KBE, Petr Altrichter and Gerard Schwarz.
The orchestra performs over 70 concerts each season at its home, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, across other venues in the city, and also performs widely throughout the UK and internationally, most recently touring to China, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic and Japan.
The orchestra has given world premiere performances of major works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir John Tavener, Karl Jenkins, Stewart Copeland, Michael Nyman, James Horner and
Sir James MacMillan alongside works by Liverpool-born and North West-based composers.
The orchestra has a distinguished discography with international record labels. Recent additions include a third volume of Vaughan Williams’ symphonies, award-winning surveys of Rachmaninov’s symphonies, orchestral works and complete piano concertos with Simon Trpčeski and the complete symphonies of Shostakovich, Elgar, and Tchaikovsky’s symphonies and piano concertos which have garnered worldwide critical acclaim. The recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 5, won Recording of the Year and Orchestral Recording of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2017.
For more information, visit liverpoolphil.com.
Photo: Mark McNulty |