A musical odyssey with this superb young orchestra that opens with Britten’s ever-popular Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra before Wayne Marshall plays Gershwin’s showstopping Rhapsody in Blue the way Gershwin did – directing from the piano. They close the concert with the magnificent melodies of Holst’s masterpiece, The Planets.
When memories turn into music, the personal becomes universal. Alban Berg was haunted by the death of a young girl: his Violin Concerto ‘to the memory of an angel’ distils pain into piercing beauty. Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen rose from the ashes of wartime Germany, asking difficult questions even as it lays bare its heart. Brahms, meanwhile, wrote his Second Symphony on the sunlit slopes of the Austrian Alps – but happy memories have their own truth, and Edward Gardner and violinist Isabelle Faust will bring the same insight and commitment to every note, whether tragic, troubled or glowing with joy.
For LPO Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski, every concert is an opportunity to explore, and with our ‘Moments Remembered’ theme as inspiration, he’s conceived an intensely personal programme. Two towering choral works face each other across the centuries, and at first glance, John Adams’s tribute to the dead of 9/11 could hardly seem more different from Haydn’s joyous Mass setting. But even here, the drums of conflict rumble ominously in the distance. In between comes a moment of solemn reflection from György Kurtág: music that invites us to search our own memories, and find our own meanings.
Experience highlights from the hit BBC series on the big screen with live orchestral music from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted and presented by the series’ composer George Fenton.
An evening-long meditation on life and the hereafter, devised by Sakari Oramo and featuring the UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s astonishing final masterpiece Hush.
Sarod Grand Master Amjad Ali Khan was born to a family steeped in Indian classical music and is regarded as one of the undisputed icons of the music world, bringing a new and yet timeless interpretation to the technique of playing the Sarod. His sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash are virtuoso performers in their own right, and tonight they come together with conductor (and regular collaborator) Lidiya Yankovskaya and the LPO at the centre of a concert that spans continents and cultures – from a flamboyant new overture by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail to the hugely popular Bollywood film scores of AR Rahman, the composer they call the ‘Mozart of Madras’.
Celebrating Pierre Boulez and his influences, in the composer’s centenary year: his beloved Debussy, alongside three intriguing world premieres.
‘A mighty hero, in his veins the blood of ages …’ Lemminkäinen was a warrior like no other: loving, hunting, and challenging death itself. As a proud Finn, Sibelius knew all those ancient tales, and his Lemminkäinen Suite retells them in music that’s as vivid as a film score and as powerful as any fantasy epic. LPO Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis does nothing by halves; she opens
with Sibelius’s gripping evocation of the Viking age before joining Benjamin Grosvenor in the majesty, beauty and unchained melody of Mozart’s 21st Piano Concerto. Expect both sunlight and shadow from this much-loved British pianist.
Please note start time.