Well it certainly came to the Royal Albert Hall last night as Vasily Petrenko held a capacity audience in the palm of his hand.
Whilst the Phil's own hall is undergoing major refurbishment ahead of their 175th birthday season, it is a great opportunity for some touring.
In an otherwise reflective programme, the RLPO began with Richard Strauss's rarely heard Festival Prelude, a work very well suited to the venue and a suitably grandiose opener. Ian Tracey joined the orchestra at the RAH organ and the whole ensemble made a fine sound. It looked splendid too, with double timpani and a large brass section on their feet in the closing pages.
What followed could hardly have been a greater contrast, with the orchestra leaving the stage to be replaced by the BBC Singers and four soloists for Strauss's Deutsche Motet. This is sombre and thoughtful music and notoriously difficult to sing.
The choir and soloists gave a fine reading with great clarity, while from my seat I did lose the solo lines at times. Great for a prom audience to see another facet of Vasily Petrenko, as he returned to the unaccompanied choral conducting that he began his musical training with.
The first part of the concert closed with the Strauss Four Last Songs, Inger Dam-Jensen joining the orchestra for a beautifully understated and balanced performance. Special note to Timothy Jackson, principal horn, who gave some exceptional playing, as did leader James Clark, and Inger Dam-Jensen's singing floated elegantly over the rich orchestration.
To close was Elgar's second symphony, another work that has great introspection. This is music that Vasily has very much taken to his heart. I recall hearing it under his baton early in his tenure with the Phil, and was astounded then. Last night's performance shows how finely he has honed his reading with the RLPO. Really giving the music time to breathe, he drew beautiful playing from the orchestra, a song of longing and reflection that ended with the audience in complete stillness as the conductor's hands fell slowly.
This silence, that we also heard after the Strauss songs, is telling of a performance that created a very special atmosphere. As Peter Bazalgette commented last night: "...great music from a great city".
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