Domingo Hindoyan leads an energetic Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra through Dukas and Ravel – review

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Chief Conductor Domingo Hindoyan - (Gareth Jones)

There are very few better places to listen to an orchestra than Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall. Opened only months before World War II was declared, its wonderful art deco features and elegant auditorium have survived to outclass all of the concert halls built in Britain since. The old hall burned down in 1934, but how lucky we are that its successor was designed when it was: a perfect fusion of modernity and attention to music's best interests.

For the concert of French music by Ravel (Mother Goose Suite), Canteloube (Songs of the Auvergne) and Dukas (Symphony in C) its acoustics make the music so immediate it’s as though we’re wearing headphones. Paul Dukas, born in 1865 (so a decade or two later than Ravel and Canteloube), was such a perfectionist that he destroyed a huge proportion of his work. Among the survivors are some of the loveliest songs in French from the time, while his portrayal of The Sorcerer's Apprentice – not on tonight’s menu, for once – became so popular he probably wished he’d destroyed that, too.