Southbank Centre Vocal Events

Philharmonia Orchestra

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Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem

Brahms's German Requiem is achingly beautiful, dwelling on the hope of the resurrection as well as consoling those who remain on earth.

Brahms first considered writing a Requiem Mass after the death of his close friend Robert Schumann, but was only catapulted into its composition a decade later after the death of his mother caused him inconsolable grief. He completed his tribute to her four years later with a mass unlike any conventional Requiem.

Ein deutsches Requiem sets sections of Luther's translation of the Bible, dwelling far more on the hope of the resurrection than on the fear of Judgement Day. The first movement, 'Blessed are they that mourn', consoles those that remain on Earth with achingly beautiful suspensions from the chorus. The work moves through divinely beautiful music to the dramatic highlight of Brahms's tone-painting of the resurrection of the dead. Yet the work ends back on an earthly level, a reminder that we cannot know what awaits us.

Click here to buy the Philharmonia Orchestra Beethoven Symphony No.4 CD.

Start Date:

Thursday 16 February 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 16 February 2012

Ticket Prices:

£38 £29 £23 £18 £14 £11 £8 Premium seats £45

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi conductor
Susan Gritton soprano
Thomas Hampson baritone
Philharmonia Voices
Philharmonia Chorus

Repertoire:

Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No.4
Interval
Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

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Roméo et Juliette

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a performance of Berlioz's mammoth Roméo et Juliette.

'His orchestration is so dirty that I have to wash my hands after turning over the pages of his scores,' said Mendelssohn of Berlioz.

Berlioz was never one to do things by halves, and Roméo et Juliette is probably one of his most ambitious projects - the first performance had an orchestra of more than 100 players, a chorus of 101 voices plus soloists.

It is a passionate, lush piece which pushed the limits of what an orchestra could do and its vivid and dramatic scene-setting upstages that of many operas.

£70 premium box seats include an post-performance wine reception.

Weston Roof Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall at 5.45pm - OAE Extras. Berliz expert David Cairns talks about this rarely-performed piece.

Start Date:

Saturday 18 February 2012 - 19:00

End Date:

Saturday 18 February 2012

Ticket Prices:

£39 £33 £27 £21 £14 £9 £6 Premium £60 Premium box seats £70

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Sir Mark Elder conductor
Sonia Ganassi mezzo-soprano
John Mark Ainsley tenor
Orlin Anastassov bass
Schola Cantorum
BBC Symphony Chorus

Repertoire:

Hector Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette
No interval

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

The Yeomen of the Guard

John Wilson brings his unique touch to The Yeomen of the Guard, one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operettas.

John Wilson brings his unique touch to one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operettas, regarded as Sullivan's finest score. The Yeomen of the Guard is set in the 16th century at the Tower of London and is the darkest and most emotionally engaging of the Savoy Operas, notable for the marked absence of their characteristic satires of British institutions and ending with a broken-hearted protagonist and two very reluctant engagements rather than the more usual happy ending.

Start Date:

Sunday 15 April 2012 - 15:00

End Date:

Sunday 15 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£38 £29 £23 £18 £14 £11 £8 Premium seats £45

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
John Wilson conductor
soloists to be announced

Repertoire:

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard or The Merryman and his Maid
(concert performance)
Interval
continued

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

m.critcher

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, taking the listener on a truly transcendental journey through this mighty work.

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony takes the listener on a truly transcendental journey. In Mahler's own words, 'The first movement depicts the titanic struggles of a mighty being still caught in the toils of this world, grappling with life and with the fate to which he must succumb - his death'.

The last movement deals with 'the resolution of the terrible problem of life - redemption'. In Mahler's original programme, he details the sounding of the Last Trumpet, the resurrection of the dead with wailing and gnashing of teeth, and then the fading away of all noise as everything 'ceases to be' before the enormous E flat major climax, with a chorus joined by soprano and alto soloists and pealing bells, representing souls reborn in Heaven.

Although Mahler later withdrew his detailed 'programme', this enormous work clearly represents a huge personal journey. Mahler wrote of the last movement, 'The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don't know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.'

The first half of the programme is the London première of a co-commission with The Anvil, Basingstoke: composer Joseph Phibbs's soundworld has been described as offering 'a kaleidoscopic range of colour (The Times).'

Start Date:

Thursday 28 June 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 28 June 2012

Ticket Prices:

£38 £29 £23 £18 £14 £11 £8 Premium seats £45

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Kate Royal soprano
Ekaterina Gubanova mezzo-soprano
Philharmonia Chorus

Repertoire:

Joseph Phibbs: New work (London premiere)
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Resurrection)
Interval

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

The Bach Choir

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St Matthew Passion

The Bach Choir's annual tradition of performing Bach's St Matthew Passion in English dates back to 1930. Today's audiences continue to appreciate the relevance and immediacy of the performances. Joining The Bach Choir is a ripieno choir of children drawn from schools in and around London. Please note, there is a long lunch interval between Parts I and II. Part II begins at 2.15pm.

This performance is dedicated to the memory of Kathleen Ferrier, soloist with The Bach Choir on many occasions in the 1940s. 22 April 2012 is the 100th anniversary of her birth.

Start Date:

Sunday 1 April 2012 - 11:00

End Date:

Sunday 1 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£40 £32 £27 £22 £16 £9 Premium seats £50

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Florilegium
David Hill conductor
James Gilchrist Evangelist
Brindley Sherratt Christ
Lisa Milne soprano
Susan Bickley mezzo
Andrew Kennedy tenor
Timothy Mirfin bass
The Bach Choir

Repertoire:

Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion
(complete, performed in English)
Interval

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Philharmonia Orchestra

peter.mallon

Shostakovich's Babi Yar

Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts Shostakovich's Symphony No.13, the composer's most outspoken critique of the Soviet regime. Written for enormous forces, it is an epic piece full of powerful emotion.

Shostakovich's Symphony No.13 takes this critique as far as he ever publicly went in his lifetime. Setting poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the first movement describes the mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis in Babi Yar, near Kiev, during the Second World War, in a series of theatrical episodes including a depiction of the story of Anne Frank. The movement ends with the breaking down of the door to the Franks' hiding place, in a haunting and menacing illustration.

The remainder of the symphony mocks the Soviet government and aspects of Soviet life. Written for enormous forces, including chorus and soloist, it is an epic piece full of powerful criticism.

Royal Festival Hall at 6pm - Anthony Burton interviews Vladimir Ashkenazy about the evening's programme. Free.

Start Date:

Thursday 24 May 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 24 May 2012

Ticket Prices:

£38 £29 £23 £18 £14 £11 £8 Premium seats £45

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Nobuyuki Tsujii piano
Sergey Aleksashkin bass
Philharmonia Voices

Repertoire:

Sergey Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3
Interval
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No.13 in B flat minor (Babi Yar)

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

p.goudal

Britten's War Requiem

Benjamin Britten's work, interspersing elements of the traditional Latin mass with settings of poems by Wilfred Owen, is one of the most beautiful and heart-rending works of the 20th century, performed this evening by Lorin Maazel and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Although titled as a Requiem, Benjamin Britten's work intersperses elements of the traditional Latin mass with settings of poems by Wilfred Owen. This juxtaposition emphasises the tragic loss of life during the First and Second World Wars (the work was composed in 1961-62), and Britten makes the contrasts all the more apparent through his emotional music and use of separate instrumental groups, who only join together in full force towards the end of the last movement as the tenor and baritone soloists sing 'Let us sleep now' whilst the choruses sing 'Into Paradise lead them'. This is truly one of the defining works of the 20th century.

Royal Festival Hall at 6pm - Pre-concert talk. An introduction to the evening's concert. Free.

Start Date:

Sunday 25 March 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Sunday 25 March 2012

Ticket Prices:

£38 £29 £23 £18 £14 £11 £8 Premium seats £45

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Lorin Maazel conductor
Nancy Gustafson soprano
Mark Padmore tenor
Matthias Goerne baritone
Philharmonia Chorus
Tiffin Boys' Choir

Repertoire:

Benjamin Britten: War Requiem
No interval

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images