Award winning conductor Vasily Petrenko’s exceptional abilities as a renowned, inspiring conductor with major media appeal set him apart from the majority of his contemporaries. He is the youngest ever Principal (now Chief) Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. His commitment to musical education has led him to act as Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and to be a founding member of the board of the UK’s "Building on Excellence: Orchestras for the 21st Century” scheme, which endeavours to increase the participation in classical and cultural events amongst British youth.

On this release he conducts the RLPO in Rachmaninov’s third and most expressive symphony, paired with his capriccio on gypsy themes, the Caprice Bohémien. This is the first of a run of exciting releases focusing on the Russian music of Petrenko’s heritage.

Since Petrenko took up the baton as the RLPO’s Principal Conductor, this partnership has flourished and the orchestra is now described as “premier league”. The partnership of Petrenko and the RLPO has been making critics and audiences sit up and take notice, particularly in their interpretations of music by the Russian masters. Petrenko chose to open the 2011 Autumn season with an all-Rachmaninov concert.

Caprice Bohémien is one of Rachmaninov’s earlier works, composed just before his First Symphony, and is a colourful fantasy on a gypsy theme. Much of the inspiration came from the composer’s one act opera Aleko, based on The Gypsies by Pushkin (and with which he graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatory with a rare gold medal).

Although Rachmaninov had not lived in Russia for a while, the Symphony No.3 is the most expressively Russian of his symphonies, even though he wrote it at his house on Lake Lucerne. His outlook remained quintessentially Russian wherever he was living: Russian was always his main language, and the family observed Russian customs, entertained Russian visitors and employed Russian servants (both in Switzerland and New York).

Originally written for voice (tenor or soprano) and piano – the last of 14 songs (Op.34), there are many different arrangements of Rachmaninov’s melancholy work Vocalise, confirming the popularity of the piece. Rachmaninov himself transcribed the piece for orchestra 3 years after he composed it.

"Petrenko instinctively conveys the essential quality of soul that the interpretation of Rachmaninov requires." ***** - The Telegraph