Marin Alsop, our Principal Guest Conductor, and singer Sasha Cooke delve into the rich emotional world of Gustav and Alma Mahler.
We’re all the heroes of our own lives. Strauss’s contemporaries couldn’t see the funny side of Ein Heldenleben (‘A Hero’s Life’): a riotously tuneful self-portrait of the artist as superhero, written for a colossal orchestra and featuring some of the most stupendous sounds ever imagined. The great Sir Mark Elder brings all his matchless flair for musical storytelling to a concert that opens in the shimmering wonderland of Ravel’s fairytale ballet, and stars Canadian virtuoso James Ehnes in the underrated sequel to Bruch’s ever-popular First Violin Concerto. It’s almost never heard – and it’s a delight.
A smash-hit Broadway play turned movie, David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly metamorphoses into music theatre as the UK premiere of Huang Ruo’s operatic reworking takes wing.
A bold expression of what classical music can be, Nonclassical at 20 sees pioneering promoters of the best new music, Nonclassical combine forces with the legendary London Symphony Orchestra.
Mists swirl, the air shivers and somewhere, far away, a solitary horn sounds a call to adventure. There might be symphonies that open more beautifully than Bruckner’s Fourth, but we can’t think of any! And that’s just the beginning of a musical journey that sweeps from forest shadows to sunlit peaks; quiet melancholy to heaven-storming joy. In Bruckner’s 200th anniversary year, the LPO’s inspirational Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis makes it the climax of a deeply romantic programme that also stars cellist Truls Mørk in the tender, passionate music of Robert Schumann – a composer with the soul of a poet.
Please note start time.
Composers being playful: early Beethoven’s wit and jokes pair with a cat-and-mouse chase around the orchestra from Ondřej Adámek. Plus to celebrate Student Pulse's launch month we'll be handing out a free drink token with your ticket for the bar!
Expect epic visions and piano playing that’s out of this world when Kirill Gerstein and Sakari Oramo champion Ferruccio Busoni’s stupendous Piano Concerto, as well as music by Grazyna Bacewicz.
Waves crash, tempests rise, and emotions surge and roar so fiercely that the words to express them simply don’t exist. That’s where music comes in, and when LPO Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis is holding the baton, there’ll be no holding back. Passion is the key tonight, whether Kaija Saariaho’s opening Lumière et Pesanteur, Beethoven’s darkest concerto (with the charismatic Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko at the keyboard) or Tchaikovsky’s tragic, autobiographical final symphony. ‘Pathétique’ means ‘full of emotion’ and if you’ve already experienced Canellakis’s special chemistry with the players of the LPO, you’ll know to bring the tissues.
‘Magical’. ‘Flawless’. ‘A hypnotic presence at the keyboard’. The critics ran out of adjectives when Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson played at the Royal Festival Hall last year, and if you’ve heard him in action, you’ll understand why.We’re thrilled to welcome Víkingur back for Brahms’s tempestuous First Piano Concerto: a volcano of poetry and emotion from the wounded heart of a young genius. It could have been written for Ólafsson – but there’s no letting up after the interval, as Edward Gardner conducts Bartók’s kaleidoscopic ballet, and celebrates the special magic of one of the 21st century’s true sonic alchemists: Freya Waley-Cohen.
*Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.