directors' cut

By Catherine Jones on Sep 13, 07 02:38 PM

If it's Wednesday it must be a 1938 Soviet film scored by Prokofiev.
Alexander Nevsky tells the stirring tale of how the Russians led by Prince Alexander fought back against German invaders and emerged victorious, proving if a man fought on his own soil he was going to win.
Alas, as we sat at FACT munching our popcorn, the Russians were losing 3-0 against England at Wembley.

The film was the choice of Philharmonic golden boy Vasily Petrenko who was the latest cultural 'celebrity' to present the Directors' Cut event at the Wood Street venue.
Petrenko had had a long day and after more than an hour talking a a question and answer session he bunked off the film to go and watch the footie.
Bet he wished he hadn't bothered!
It is embarrassing how eloquent and amusing the young Russian is considering English isn't his first language.
He talked about his upbringing in Leningrad/St Petersburg and how his father was a double bass player in a Dixieland jazz band when that kind of music was frowned upon. Petrenko senior also played bass guitar in a restaurant.
His mother was some sort of teacher before she retired, and according to her less than kind son, her singing voice was less than impressive.
He spoke about the competitive nature of the Capella boys school where he won one of 25 places against 450 other boys, but where every year the boys who got the lowest grades at school were weeded out so only eight out of the 25 eventually graduated.
We were also given a bit of an insight into how important it is that a conductor 'gels' with an orchestra within the first five minutes, or doesn't at all.
And that on concert days the RLPO first play a game of football before final rehearsals and the concert itself.
I'm not sure I particularly envy him his constantly nomadic lifestyle, as he puts it: "airports, aircraft, suitcases", or the one week's holiday a year (last month, fishing near St Petersburg).
But I suspect there are worse jobs, and I don't think Petrenko regrets one bit choosing conducting over his other great talent, swimming.
He could have been an Olympic contender, but as he put it, what would be his life by now? Training or coaching other younger, better swimmers. "Music is for life."
One of Petrenko's big challenges now is really putting the RLPO on the map. Liverpool know the Phil is brilliant, but unless the orchestra can find more sponsorship to do more foreign tours, the rest of the world may never find that out.
Maybe they should speak to Phil Redmond? They could be put in his Cultural Clearing programme.
If anyone has the odd £50,000 about their person, I know one Russian who would be interested in a call.....