LIVERPOOL is unusually blessed with extraordinary concert venues.
The Philharmonic Hall is one of the UK’s leading places when it comes to music making. But to have two cathedrals, innumerable churches and other halls in which people make music is a luxury about which other cities can merely dream.
Among those venues is the Small Concert Room, in St George’s Hall. The room has been expertly restored to look exactly as it was at its opening in 1854 and the 450-seat auditorium, in the “cultural quarter”, features strongly in the Capital of Culture year, but is also set to be the base for concerts by Ensemble 10/10, the new-music outfit of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, as well as the Rodewald Concerts’ Society, which promotes chamber concerts in the city.
Talking about the overall refurbishment of St George’s Hall, Graham Boxer, head of heritage at the Liverpool Culture Company said: “Liverpool is very lucky to have a stunning concert venue, a heritage centre and community exhibition centre all rolled into one magnificent building.”
So what’s afoot?
Try the series of premieres – more than 30 from the RLPO and associated ensembles – in the coming months. Indeed, Ensemble 10/10 and the Rodewald Chamber Concerts more or less make their home in St George’s Hall for this season.
In January, 10/10 will perform two new works especially commissioned for the European Capital of Culture by Michael Torke and Ian Gardiner, as well as a rare and much-anticipated performance of Messiaen’s highly emotional and massively significant performance of his Quartet for the End of Time – written while the composer was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in the Second World War.
Come May, and there is a premiere of a new work by Liverpool-based BBC Young Musician of the Year Mark Simpson and, in June, a not-to-be-missed performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, with soprano Sally Burgess.
Claire Martin, co-presenter of Jazz Line-Up on BBC Radio 3, performs in October, while Oysterband – performing with the energy of punk – will be on stage in November.
Get down there for acts in the Cains Liverpool Irish Festival, which surely proves this venue is home to new music, jazz, folk and much more besides.
Book a ticket to Lime Street now. It’s the place to be in 2008.
