I went to this concert (live!) last night. It was recorded for Radio 3 as well (Monday). I didn't enjoy it very much, rather to my surprise, but that may have been because I was tired and the hall was so hot that I felt physically miserable. The new pieces by Hesketh and McCabe were OK, though I found the McCabe over-long and quite boring. The Hesketh piece was so short that there wasn't time to get bored, and in any case it seemed more interesting. (Sign of age - Kenneth Hesketh was a choirboy at Liverpool Cathedral, and I still think of him as that - I was shocked to discover he's not far off 40!)

I enjoyed the Ravel Scheherezade the most, and being a Britten fan I have fun spotting the bits he pinched for his juvenile French songs (composed when he was 14). I'd never seen Kate Royal before, though I've heard her on the radio - she is very glamorous and looked as if she should have been on the catwalk. She sang beautifully and very expressively, I thought. Her fan club appeared to be there.

The Rachmanininov Symphonic Dances were unfamiliar to me, and I didn't enjoy them much. The rest of the audience seemed to, and there was a big ovation at the end. But then the Vasily Petrenko fan club was out in force as usual. If all else fails in Liverpool, you can always look at Vasily  .