A Night with Beethoven

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra makes a welcome return to Huddersfield Town Hall on May 26th with Beethoven’s mighty Missa Solemnis.

RLPO were regular and much-loved visitors under Vasily Petrenko, so it is a bit of a surprise to realise that it’s now 9 years since they last performed with HCS in Huddersfield (in Mendelssohn’s St Paul, 2014). In fact our last performance of Missa Solemnis (2011) was with our Liverpool colleagues under Petrenko’s baton, with back-to-back concerts in Huddersfield and Liverpool. To sing this massive work on two successive nights was a real challenge, and both performances were rapturously received. Petrenko’s ability to draw the best from his singers was very much in evidence.

We can also look back with pride to the award-winning recording of Shostakovich’s 13th symphony ‘Babi Yar’, made in concert in 2013 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall as part of Petrenko’s complete cycle of Shostakovich symphonies.

So it’s with great anticipation that we look forward to RLPO’s return in May. Many in the choir will be singing this work for the first time, and it is an unmissable experience both for singers and audience. Beethoven himself wrote that it was ‘the greatest work I have composed so far’, and coming in his late period that is saying something.

If you have noticed that the date is rather later than would be usual for our ‘spring’ subscription concert, you’d be right. In the aftermath of 2020-21, orchestral schedules have been thrown into disarray and are only gradually returning to normal. To book the right orchestra and soloists for this concert we had to move away from Easter - but we can now offer a May bank holiday treat instead!

Tickets are still available for this concert from the Box Office.