Life finds a way, and even under Soviet repression, composers were testing boundaries and telling forbidden truths. Arvo Pärt drew on the music of the past to liberate explosive new creative forces. Lutosławski reached for all the colours of a full symphony orchestra, and launched glittering sonic fireworks into grey Cold War skies. Eva Ollikainen rediscovers two modern classics, and Colin Currie – in the words of one critic, ‘surely the world’s finest and most daring percussionist’ – explores new ways of listening, with the extraordinary, culture-crossing Water Concerto by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon composer Tan Dun.
Please note venue.
Three French composers rub shoulders in this captivating Sunday afternoon concert.
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Âme creative studio returns to Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room with violist Lawrence Power to transform the space into an immersive multimedia instrument, vibrating with kaleidoscopic video, beautiful music and dynamic sound design.
‘Peace Shall Defeat War’ wrote Boris Lyatoshynsky on the score of his Third Symphony, and the message of this great 20th-century Ukrainian composer has never felt more urgent or compelling. LPO Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski believes passionately that it needs to be heard, and you’ll be gripped by its epic sweep and uncompromising emotional power. Jurowski has paired it with music from Prokofiev’s operatic tale of Ukrainian struggle, and Mussorgsky’s pitch-black, darkly comic songs – perfect for a singer as dramatic, and as characterful, as the British bass Matthew Rose.
For Vilde Frang, ‘music is the noblest form of communication, a constant interaction’ – and that generous philosophy, combined with her luminous, deeply expressive sound, has made this remarkable Norwegian violinist a real favourite with British audiences. Tonight, she explores the special poetry of Schumann’s only violin concerto: the tender heart of a concert that begins with Beethoven’s drama-fuelled Coriolan Overture, and ends with the wide-open spaces and pure, sunlit energy of Schubert’s unstoppable Ninth Symphony. It’s known as ‘the Great’ – and with LPO Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski bringing all his insight and imagination, you’ll hear why.
Two towering works of 20th-century chamber music, bringing together the violinist Alina Ibragimova and three of her closest colleagues.
If you enjoy Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony (No.9), you’re going to love the one that he wrote back home in the heart of Bohemia. Hymn tunes, birdsong and folk dances; village bands, summer sunsets and blazing triumph – they’re all here, in what might be the single happiest symphony by any great composer (and, definitely, one of the most tuneful). For guest conductor Eduardo Strausser, it’s a natural way to end a concert that positively glows with Central European sunshine. The award-winning violinist Liya Petrova steps into the limelight in Korngold’s soaring Violin Concerto – composed in Hollywood by a composer with his heart in Vienna. And there’s a chance to discover a real neglected gem: the folk-inspired Suita Rustica by Vítězslava Kaprálová, who lit up Czech music between the wars.
The harp takes centre stage in this free early-evening performance by members of the Philharmonia Orchestra.
‘The greatest graduation piece of all time’ crowns this evening of 20th century classics.
Imagine a swelling river of sound; a musical voyage that begins amid the tranquillity of nature and ends in a surge of triumph. That’s Sibelius’s Second Symphony, and there are few experiences in classical music more invigorating, or more stirring. For the young Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, Sibelius is a national hero. There’s another tale about memory to be told here, as Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki takes centre stage to showcase the grandeur and glory of Beethoven’s mighty ‘Emperor’ Concerto – a work dedicated to the composer’s patron and friend, Archduke Rudolf.
Pianist Sunwook Kim multi-tasks with the high octane Chamber Orchestra of Europe in a concert featuring a Beethoven double.
The Philharmonia pairs Shostakovich’s extraordinary final symphony with the famous overture quoted in its first movement.
Orchestral fireworks with early Shostakovich and Schnittke, joined by the London Symphony Chorus for some stirring Brahms.
The artistry of the multiple award-winning, ‘stunningly gifted’ pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii brings to life some of the instrument’s greatest classics.
Elgar’s Enigma Variations began as a parlour game – a series of musical portraits of the composer’s nearest and dearest. It grew into the warmest, tenderest and most stirring masterpiece in all of British music: who isn’t moved by the profound emotion of Nimrod? Few artists understand British music better than former English National Opera music director Martyn Brabbins, and tonight Enigma crowns an all-British programme that opens with the serenity of Vaughan Williams and stars another great champion of British music, pianist Mark Bebbington, in the Piano Concerto by Sir Arthur Bliss. It’s not heard all that often, but it’s an absolute knockout: an art deco blockbuster, written on the eve of the Second World War. The greatest piano concerto you’ve never heard? Judge for yourself…
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Three outstanding young singers unite in a programme of love, loss, and remembrance, where Schubert and Errollyn Wallen are entwined in Britten’s five haunting canticles.
‘I think and feel in sounds’ said Maurice Ravel, and in his ballet Daphnis and Chloé you can almost feel the sun on the back of your neck, hear every flurry of birdsong and see each ray of glistening light. It’s as fantastic as it sounds, and this rare full-length performance under LPO Principal Conductor Edward Gardner is just the centrepiece of a whole evening of orchestral wonder. In La valse, memory plays a part, with its dangerously seductive rhythms portraying a gorgeous, haunted vision of a civilisation dancing into the abyss. This concert has been especially developed with the Southbank Centre and Circa, Australia’s internationally renowned circus company, and will feature cross-artform performance, with further details to be announced.
Please note start times.
Please note there will be no interval.
‘I think and feel in sounds’ said Maurice Ravel, and in his ballet Daphnis and Chloé you can almost feel the sun on the back of your neck, hear every flurry of birdsong and see each ray of glistening light. It’s as fantastic as it sounds, and this rare full-length performance under LPO Principal Conductor Edward Gardner is just the centrepiece of a whole evening of orchestral wonder. In La valse, memory plays a part, with its dangerously seductive rhythms portraying a gorgeous, haunted vision of a civilisation dancing into the abyss. This concert has been especially developed with the Southbank Centre and Circa, Australia’s internationally renowned circus company, and will feature cross-artform performance, with further details to be announced.
Please note start times.
Please note there will be no interval.
Part of Southbank Centre’s festival Multitudes
Three choirs, eight starry singers and one of the largest orchestras ever put on stage: there’s a reason why Mahler’s Eighth is often called the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’.‘Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound’ declared Mahler; ‘There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.’ Exaggeration? Judge for yourself. Mahler’s Eighth is quite simply one of the most overwhelming experiences that music has to offer. Every performance is an occasion, and with Edward Gardner conducting a truly world-class team, this should be a season finale to set the heavens ringing. This concert has been especially developed with the Southbank Centre, with further details to be announced.