Many a Liverpudlian who has never darkened the door of the Philharmonic Hall will recognise the face of Domingo Hindoyan, the 44-year-old Venezuelan conductor of the orchestra based there. His image hangs on posters from lampposts across the city, promoted as the charismatic front man of Merseyside’s most rarified musical act.

Imagine, then, the rapture of the faithful who actually buy tickets as Hindoyan returns to the Phil’s stage for the start of a new season – the Hall looking lighter and brighter after a refurb that has seen it closed since May.

The musical programme for this triumphant return was not as blockbuster as it might have been, and while not exactly niche, it was certainly more for the purists than last year’s season opener which featured Bernstein, Gershwin and Rachmaninov. Perhaps the decision was that for this year’s curtain-raiser, it didn’t need to be, for it was a full and enthusiastic house that listened to Plaza, Strauss and Mahler and responded with a standing ovation and shouts of “Bravo!”

Leave it until mid-season to do Gershwin, wheel out Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1, and get bums on seats with Danny Elfman’s music from Tim Burton movies. This roster was not exactly niche, and its centrepiece, Mahler’s Symphony No 1 in D Major, is a pretty regular feature of concert programmes around the world. I suspect, however, that I was not the only attendee to be discovering Juan Bautista Plaza, a Venezuelan compatriot of Hindoyan whose Vigilia opened the concert and thus the entire season, for the first time.

I am happy to say that Vigilia is sweeping, lyrical and romantic. It is (I can now authoritatively report, having read the programme notes) a “symphonic poem”, written in 1928 shortly after the composer met and fell for his future wife, and sounds just like the work of a man in love. It was altogether more engaging than the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss, despite the best efforts of soprano Sarah Wegener to inject life into them. The Mahler, which filled the second half, was by contrast full of emotion, building from the almost tentative, call and response start of the first movement to the tumultuous, expansive fourth (the name of which roughly translates as stormily agitated), taking in along the way a minor key version of Frère Jacques, the childhood melody transformed into a melancholy yet beautiful funeral march.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performed the whole thing with both feeling and the world-class skill one would expect. When they rose to receive the audience’s acclaim, the audience cheered for them – and for Hindoyan, of course.

By Fran Yeoman

Main image: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Season Opening Concert, conducted by Domingo Hindoyan. Credit Gareth Jones.

All photos by Gareth Jones.

 

For details of the rest of the season and to book tickets, follow this link: liverpoolphil.com