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Thursday 4 December 2008

City revival

Mark Glazebrook on Liverpool, the European City of Culture

Commerce, industry and the arts can combine, however, and between 1756 and 1800 there were at least eight separate exporting Liverpool porcelain factories, including Richard Chaffers, Samuel Gilbody and the Pennington family. In the field of opera, the fact that Donizetti’s Emilia di Liverpool was premièred in Naples in 1824 must surely say something culturally significant even if only that it wasn’t called Emilia di Glasgow. Emilia di Liverpool was performed in January this year in Liverpool’s magnificently restored St George’s Hall. The fact that ‘The Phil’ — the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra — originated in 1840 makes it one of the oldest concert-giving organisations in the world. Vasily Petrenko, the acclaimed current principal conductor, stands in the shoes of great predecessors. Furthermore, Liverpool-born Sir Simon Rattle is bringing the Berlin Philharmonic to the city this year.

In the field of architecture, Rodney Street, named after the famous admiral, was laid out by William Roscoe in 1783. Many Rodney Street houses are listed buildings now. It was the birthplace of William Gladstone and Nicholas Montsarrat. As far as 19th-century buildings are concerned, one only has to consult Sharples’s Pevsner guide of 2004 to understand John Betjeman’s enthusiasm for Liverpool. The book’s jacket highlights the Walker Art Gallery seen through the colonnade of the mighty St George’s Hall. ‘Liverpool has the most splendid setting of any English city,’ the guide begins. From the docks you can look up and register the outlines of two major 20th-century cathedrals, ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’ by Gibberd and, to the right, the vast Anglican Gothic Revival one by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

In Liverpool visitors can now enjoy Art in the Age of Steam at the Walker Art Gallery. No historical stone has remained unturned to make this a thorough and scholarly survey. Augustus Egg mingles with Manet. Paul Delvaux surprises surrealistically with large nude ladies reclining in railway stations. At Tate Liverpool there is a superb small exhibition of large Stanley Spencers. Upstairs is a well organised Nikki de Saint Phalle retrospective. This troubled artist evidently enjoyed shooting at her own paintings with a gun during the Sixties, while wearing a special white suit, in order to produce a trickle-down effect from concealed bags of pigment. The later work is happier, less gimmicky and more satisfying visually. At the end of this month we have a major Klimt show to look forward to.

More articles from: Mark Glazebrook | this section

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