Season of new works for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

May 13 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

THERE will be more new commissions in the new season of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic season, just announced.

It will bring the number of commissions by the Phil, the Capital of Culture Company and the BBC, to close on 40 during the year.

The new commissions include a piece, Graven Image, written by Merseyside composer Kenneth Hesketh, which will be premiered at the BBC Proms by the orchestra.

They will later perform it in Prague before it opens the Phil’s season on September 12. All these concerts will be conducted by principal conductor Vasily Petrenko.

Hesketh is currently the Phil’s Composer in the House and is also composing works for Ensemble 10/10, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Choir and a carol for Christmas.

Ensemble 10/10, the Phil’s special group for contemporary music, will also premiere works by British composers John Casken, Gary Carpenter and Ian Stephens as well as American composer Michael Torke.

Liverpool composers Mark Simpson and Stephen Pratt will have new works premiered. Simpson’s as yet unnamed work on October 11 and Pratt’s Uneasy Vespers Part II on October 23. Part I was performed in 1991 as part of the Phil’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

The Phil will also give the UK premiere of American composer Jennifer Higdon’s violin concerto on May 28 next year, with Hilary Hahn as soloist.

The season will have a strong vocal theme which will include a collaboration with the Liverpool- based European Opera Centre on November 22 for two one act comic operas by Offenbach and Wolf-Farrari.

Visiting conductors include Liverpool-born Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Charles Mackerras and former principal conductor Libor Pesek.

The Phil will also tour north Germany and Holland during the season.