Vasily Petrenko conducts Mahler, Royal Albert Hall

Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko makes his debut conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, celebrating its 70th birthday this year, in one of the mightiest pieces in the orchestral repertoire, Mahler’s monumental Symphony No 2, the Resurrection.

Petrenko, who is already chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and, since last year, European Union Youth Orchestra, and who trained in St Petersburg, brings a countryman’s insight to the symphonies of his fellow Russian Shostakovich, but has also made a study of the symphonies of Elgar.

In the Resurrection Symphony, first performed by 18895, he will find the passion and pain of both those contrasting composers. A success in the composer’s lifetime, the lavishly scored 90-minute symphony radiates with the prospect of a euphoric afterlife, and as it unfolds the orchestra is joined by voices - on this occasion the Philharmonic Chorus and the soloists Ailish Tynan (soprano) and Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano).