The year 1946 had its moments. The UN held its first meeting, Winston Churchill delivered his “iron curtain” speech and in London Sir Thomas Beecham founded the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Over 80 years, few ensembles have been as inventive or chameleonlike, embracing everything from film soundtracks such as The Bridge on the River Kwai to pumped-up rock anthems in Hooked on Classics.
This birthday celebration may have looked a little safe on paper, but each work represented a creative leap forward: in 1804, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto was the first to feature an entire piano trio as concertante soloist; in 1899, Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben was the composer’s most colossally orchestrated score to date. Vasily Petrenko, the latest in a line of RPO music directors that includes Rudolf Kempe and André Previn, proved an obliging accompanist in the Beethoven before delivering an affectionate and spacious account of the Strauss.
