The Full Works Concert: Friday 16 January 2015, 8pm

Catherine Bott continues our year-long celebration of the 175th anniversary of Classic FM’s Orchestra in North West England - the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

In tonight’s RLPO concert, Vasily Petrenko and pianist Simon Trpceski continue their successful partnership with a superb performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2. Composed between 1900 and 1901, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is often described as the greatest piano concerto ever written - it's certainly the most popular, judging by the thousands of votes it receives every year in the Classic FM Hall of Fame. The composition of his Piano Concerto No. 2 marked Rachmaninov's full recovery after a deep depression and it's a good job he took his time over it: every memorable phrase, swelling cello line, and weighty piano chord is beautifully placed to create a musical masterpiece. Glorious melody after glorious melody flows from the keyboard; the dialogue between orchestra and soloist is divine.

GALLERY: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra: 15 facts about Classic FM's Orchestra in North West England >

Haydn's Symphony No. 100 in G major - the eighth of the 12 so-called London Symphonies - got its nickname "Military" from the second movement, which features prominent fanfares written for trumpets and percussion effects. One reviewer wrote after the premiere that the second movement evoked the 'hellish roar of war increas[ing] to a climax of horrid sublimity!'

Ludwig van Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus - Overture
Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2
Piano: Simon Trpceski
Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 100 in G major (‘Military’)
Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Anatole Liadov: The Enchanted Lake
Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No.5 in D major, ‘Reformation’
Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra