Arts Diary: MUSIC RLPO and Schwarz, Philharmonic Hall.

Byline: GLYN MON HUGHES

THE Royal Liverpool Philharmonic has always had a reputation for excelling in their interpretation of the works of English composers.

This weekend's concert proved that they had not lost anything of that fame. If anything, they have added to it.

The concert, recorded by BBC Radio 3 combined Walton and Delius with the solidity of Beethoven's Third Symphony.

They opened with a dramatic exclamation: Gareth Wood's Fanfare: Listen Up! It's the theme tune to the BBC's extensive music festival.

Then it was time to settle into the tranquillity of two Delius works: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring and Summer Night on the River.

The first piece was serene, even if rather fast. The strings were quite outstanding, although it's always amusing to hear the cuckoo singing away in the lower woodwind: a bird with a broken voice.

The Summer Night was equally dreamy, its Debussy overtones strikingly familiar. It was a delicate, precise interpretation.

Ralph Kirshbaum's performance of Walton's Cello Concerto packed a powerful punch.

In many ways, it's something of an odd work. It's not one of those showy pieces designed to wow the audience with the skills of the player. It's a much more contemplative work, complex, nonetheless.

That's very much the spirit of the opening movement where Kirshbaum and conductor Gerard Schwarz were at one with each other.

The second movement was quite magical in understatement while the finale was a terrific explosion of vigour, leading to a quiet ending.

The performance of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony was robust with some excellent brass playing. Schwarz chose a quite relaxed and flexible approach to the first movement but was much stricter in the second movement -- the funeral march.

In the finely paced third movement, you could almost see the audience tapping its toes while the whole work came to a dramatic conclusion.