Final preparations for a Viennese ball at St George's Hall, Liverpool _320
FINAL preparations are under way in anticipation of this weekend’s Viennese balls.
The two extravagant dances, to be held at St George’s Hall on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, are likely to be among the most memorable events of 2008.
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO), conducted by Vasily Petrenko, will provide the Strauss soundtrack to the free ticket-only event, which was fully subscribed within hours of being made available.
Gordon Ross, musical programme manager for the Liverpool Culture Company, said the weekend’s events would be the culmination of more than 12 months of research, including a trip to Vienna and consultation with the Austria Club of Great Britain, who organise similar events in London.
Mr Ross said: “We have planned hard for this and it’s been quite a big job, because nobody’s ever done anything quite like this before.
“There were more things to take into consideration than we originally thought.
“For example, you can’t have continuous waltzes all night long as people will get dizzy – the same with polkas, so that gave us the idea to not just work with the orchestra and bring in something a bit more contemporary.
“Based on what we saw in Vienna, you can’t have an orchestra playing for three hours and people don’t want to dance for three hours – it’s more than being in a room with music playing.”
Strictly Come Dancing team Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag will lead four demonstration dances at the beginning of each ball, including the Strauss classic Blue Danube.
Jazz band Kings of Swing will break up the performance by the RLPO.
In other areas of St George’s Hall, Lewis’s store is providing hair and beauty experts to maintain any floppy ‘dos or make-up malfunctions during the dance; there will be a special Champagne bar made entirely of ice; and photographers Ede and Ravenscroft will be on hand to take professional portraits.
Demand has been enormous for the two balls, for which only 450 tickets could be allocated for each, for health and safety reasons.
Mr Ross said: “We knew people would be interested but we had no idea it would be like this, but it has really touched a nerve. We didn’t expect people to be so passionate about it.
“We could have sold out 10 or 15 times over.
“People are very excited to be able to get into St George’s Hall, for one thing. People love being in that venue, and it gives the chance for people to really participate in a 2008 event. A lot of things are audience-based but this time people can perform.
“It reaches to an older audience than the Culture Company often focuses on – a third of those with tickets are over 65 – so it’s something that is really reaching out for everyone.”
The inspiration for the Viennese balls is the forthcoming Klimt exhibition, which comes to the Tate gallery next month.
