Vasily Petrenko reviews

Spring is the theme of three relatively youthful works. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring provides the substantive, cathartic climax, but Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) preface it with two lesser known pieces by Rachmaninov and Debussy. Petrenko is a convincing advocate for the latter’s Printemps, an attractive work that, despite several moments that are prophetic of the composer’s mature style, struggles to establish its distinctiveness.

In many respects, Vasily Petrenko is the ideal interpreter for this ripe overheated music with its strong echoes of Liszt, Wagner and Tchaikovsky. He knows instinctively how to sustain momentum, particularly in the Second Symphony’s more repetitive sequential passages. He also ensures that Scriabin’s propensity for unleashing constant surges in sound in the faster-paced movements does not become self-defeating, and that the biggest climaxes of all really have the greatest impact. 

It’s a measure of Peter and the Wolf’s brilliance that no amount of theatrical histrionics or ‘fashion’ can spoil a score of such spare, enchanted perfection. Its economy of means – both in words and music – give it a mirror-like quality, reflecting the changing ethos of the times.