MUSIC fans in the town have already had the chance to judge for themselves just how charismatic Vasily Petrenko, young conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra really is.

He proved that beyond doubt to a recent audience at the Town Hall when he conducted the orchestra and Huddersfield Choral Society in a concert which received huge applause.

What was quickly clear to the audience was that it wasn’t just the orchestra who responded well to the man who is their principal conductor.

Singers, too, seemed to have built up a warm rapport with this tall, striking conductor.

He’s back on Sunday, December 9, with the orchestra that he has already formed a powerful relationship with.

Thirty-one-year-old Petrenko joined the Royal Liverpool in September last year and within six months of arriving on Merseyside had had his contract extended to 2012.

Conductor and orchestra return to Huddersfield Town Hall for an afternoon concert which is part of a series run by Classic FM’s series.

The idea is to banish those winter blues with good music played by quality musicians.

The concert is timed to start at 2.30pm, to attract as large an audience as possible. It will be compered by Classic FM presenter Mark Forrest.

The orchestra, the second oldest in Britain, has a long-standing partnership with Classic FM and the two have recently struck a deal which will see the broadcasters recording 25 concerts in Liverpool featuring the orchestra.

It is the classical station’s biggest ever live music deal.

In its Huddersfield concert the orchestra will play a series of pieces which will be familiar to many concertgoers.

The concert will open with Mozart’s iconic overture to Don Giovanni, an opera widely regarded as one of the finest ever written.

The opera is based on the timeless story of Don Juan and the music is among the best-known and loved of Mozart’s work.

The afternoon continues with two pieces originally composed as incidental music to accompany theatrical productions, Grieg’s Peer Gynt; Suite No.1 and Vaughan Williams’s overture to The Wasps, full of good spirit and lively tunes.

These will be followed by Sibelius’s Finlandia and the programme concludes with two pieces inspired by the atmosphere and history of Italy; Verdi’s overture to Les Vêpres siciliennes and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 4, also known as the Italian Symphony.

This varied range of pieces will be introduced in a talk at 1.40pm.

But it is the music itself, played by an orchestra which many feel has undergone a major transformation since Petrenko’s arrival, which will speak loudest.

Petrenko is the youngest principal conductor in the orchestra’s history.

His exceptional talent is underlined by the fact that at the age of 21 he had been appointed resident conductor at the St Petersburg State Opera and Ballet.

He went on to conduct the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic and the Hamburg State Opera before being appointed to his post in Liverpool.

Tickets are £7 to £20.50 (plus concessions) from Kirklees booking offices (ticket hotline 01484 223200).

If you are under 26 you can buy a ticket for £4.