THE thunderous applause that greeted the final notes of Tchaikovsky’s Manfred in no way reflected the composer’s fears that his longest orchestral work would be “doomed to failure and to be ignored”.

More than a century after its UK premierE, at another Prom in 1898, the symphonic rendering of Byron’s epic poem had lost none of its drama in an exhilarating London performance by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Two years since the Phil’s last Proms concert, the musicians appeared very much at home on a stage trimmed with boxes of flowers and surrounded by pillared archways.

But, acoustics aside, the orchestra had no need of a grand concert hall to evoke a thrilling atmosphere – its audience would have been captivated if they’d played it in a barn.

Under the baton of chief conductor Vasily Petrenko, the RLPO coaxed the conflicting emotions from Tchaikovsky’s score – from the tormented first movement, introducing Manfred cloaked in melancholic woodwind and jarring strings, to the fragility of the delicate Scherzo as the Alpine Fairy made her entrance.

The piece moved between frenetic and despairing as its hero wandered in the Alps, troubled by memories of his lost love Astarte and plunging himself into occult sciences.

Petrenko’s storytelling was remarkable, capturing the symphony’s dark colour, his gestures boarding on balletic.