Southbank Centre Beethoven, Ludwig van 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

Anneke Scott and Kathryn Cok

Virtuoso works for natural horn and fortepiano

Two leading talents from the emerging generation of period performers present an exciting and dramatic programme of late classical music for natural horn and fortepiano.

Works by Haydn and Beethoven are juxtaposed with compositions by their acclaimed contemporaries Kuhlau, Ries and Danzi in a vibrant and wide-ranging concert.

'Anneke Scott...one of the finest horn soloists I have ever heard... this was absolute perfection' (Andrew Benson-Wilson for Early Music Review).

'Have valveless horns ever sounded so trouble-free for modern players?' (James R. Oestreich for The New York Times).

Further information on the artists can be found at annekescott.com and kathryncok.com.

Start Date:

Monday 5 March 2012 - 19:45

End Date:

Monday 5 March 2012

Ticket Prices:

£14 £12 £10

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Anneke Scott horn
Kathryn Cok piano

Repertoire:

Friedrich Kuhlau: Andante e polacca for horn & piano
Ferdinand Ries: Horn Sonata in F, Op.34
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Horn Sonata in F, Op.17
Interval
Joseph Haydn: Piano Sonata in E flat, Hob.XVI/52
Franz Danzi: Sonata in E flat for horn (or cello) & piano, Op.28

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

m.critcher

Queens, Heroines and Ladykillers: Curtain raisers and high drama

Marin Alsop conducts a dramatic evening of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann.

Concerts don't get much more dramatic than this. The evening begins with Mozart's Idomeneo, which builds from a brooding start to a heady climax before subsiding to where it began. It's the perfect curtain-raiser for a series of dramatic arias written for the female voice.

Schumann's Second Symphony is perhaps his least-known, but it has been hailed as the composers most complete vision for the orchestra and contains some hugely powerful music - not least in the blazing final movement.

Queen Elizabeth Hall at 5.45pm - OAE Extras. As part of the Royal Philharmonic Society's anniversary celebrations we look at how Schumann's Symphony No.2 came to be commission by them and at the musical scene in London at the time.

This concert is part of the Royal Philharmonic Society's 2013 Bicentenary Celebrations.

Start Date:

Friday 8 March 2013 - 19:00

End Date:

Friday 8 March 2013

Ticket Prices:

£38 £22 £9

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availablilty)

Performer(s):

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Marin Alsop conductor
Emma Bell soprano

Repertoire:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture, Idomeneo, re di Creta
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: O smania! O furie! O disperata Elektra! from Idomeneo
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Overture, Leonore No.3
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Abscheulicher, wo eislt du hin ... Komm, Hoffnung from Fidelio
Carl Maria Von Weber: Ocean! Though mighty Monster from Oberon
Interval
Robert Schumann: Symphony No.2 in C

Facility Description:

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Images

London Philharmonic Orchestra

peter.mallon

Beethoven & Tchaikovsky

Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts the London Philharmonic in a programme of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Fate. It has hung dagger-like over the art of music since Beethoven seized it by the throat. In 1877, Tchaikovsky felt its weighty hand on his shoulder. His artistic response was a symphony unlike anything he'd created before. 'This is fate,' he revealed to his confidante Nadezhda von Meck, explaining the opening notes of his heart-on-sleeve Fourth Symphony. But by the Symphony's final chapter, Tchaikovsky's darkness had turned to light. 'Rejoice in other's rejoicing,' he urged Nadezhda, and the symphony veered towards the sort of unstoppable, ebullient confidence and joy that Beethoven captures so gloriously in his First Piano Concerto.

Royal Festival Hall at 6pm - Thomas Blunt conducts the Foyle Firsts for UK premieres of Steampunk by David Bruce and By the Screen in the Sun at the Hill on the Gold by Luke Bedford. Free

Start Date:

Saturday 28 April 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Saturday 28 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£39, £33, £27, £21, £16, £12, £9, Premium £65

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Yan Pascal Tortelier conductor
Hong Xu piano

Repertoire:

Olivier Messiaen: Les Offrandes oubliées - meditation symphonique
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1
Interval
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

50th Anniversary Celebration Concert

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The Purcell School

A concert to mark the 50th anniversary of The Purcell School, featuring its Symphony Orchestra and famous alumni. Founded in 1962, The Purcell School is Britain's oldest specialist school for talented young musicians. In 2003 the School was awarded the UNESCO Mozart Gold Medal in recognition of its unique contribution to music, education and international culture.

Start Date:

Monday 19 March 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Monday 19 March 2012

Ticket Prices:

£40 £20 £10

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Purcell School Symphony Orchestra
Paul Daniel conductor
Jianing Kong piano
Jack Liebeck violin
Robert Cohen cello
Nicholas Daniel oboe
Tim Thorpe horn
Catrin Finch harp

Repertoire:

Joseph Phibbs: New concertante work for oboe, horn, harp & orchestra
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Triple Concerto
Interval
Gustav Holst: The Planets

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

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Andris Nelsons conducts Strauss and Beethoven

Soprano Angela Denoke performs Strauss songs conducted by Andris Nelsons, who ends the concert with Beethoven's iconic Symphony No.5.

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony became a symphonic archetype for the Romantic generation. Its emotional journey from darkness to light, rescuing victory from the jaws of Fate, can be heard resonating strongly in music over the next century and beyond.

Even the young firebrand, Richard Strauss, could not escape its omnipotent presence, as witness his mesmerising tone poem Tod und Verklärung ('Death and Transfiguration'), an extraordinary achievement for a 25-year-old, which traces an artist's final moments before being transported to 'the infinite reaches of Heaven'.
Strauss' songs are magical distillations of his creative genius - he claimed that it took him around ten minutes to compose each one!

Start Date:

Thursday 28 February 2013 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 28 February 2013

Ticket Prices:

£40 £31 £25 £20 £15 £12 £9 Premium seats £48

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Andris Nelsons conductor
Angela Denoke soprano

Repertoire:

Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklarung
Richard Strauss: Waldseligkeit, Op.49 No.1
Richard Strauss: Ruhe, meine Seele, Op.27 No.1
Richard Strauss: Cacilie, Op.27 No.2
Richard Strauss: Allerseelen, Op.10 No.8
Richard Strauss: Das Rosenband, Op.36 No.1
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No.5

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Ivan Fischer, Imogen Cooper & Budapest Festival Orchestra

peter.mallon

Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra come to Royal Festival Hall to perform the piece for which they are perhaps most renowned, Bartók's colourful Concerto for Orchestra.

One of the last works that Bartók composed, his Concerto for Orchestra is also one of his most accessible. Over five movements listeners are treated to Bartók's love of Eastern-European folk melodies, his famously eerie 'night music', complete with dazzling harps and chiming celestas, and exciting full-orchestra tutti.

Hungarian pianist-composer Ernö Dohnányi was a contemporary of Bartok's and famed for his performances of Beethoven. His own music bears the musical imprint of Brahms. The Symphonic Minutes, a forgotten gem, are full of un-ashamed Romantic lyricism and pastoral melodies.

In the first half, the celebrated Imogen Cooper performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1, an early masterpiece by the composer completed in 1797. Adeptly assimilating the styles of his predecessors Mozart and Haydn, it brims with positive energy.

Start Date:

Monday 22 April 2013 - 19:30

End Date:

Monday 22 April 2013

Ticket Prices:

£45.00 £37.00 £29.00 £22.50 £17.00 £12.00 Premium £65.00

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Budapest Festival Orchestra
Iván Fischer conductor
Imogen Cooper piano

Repertoire:

Ernö Dohnányi: Symphonic Minutes
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1
Interval
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

London Philharmonic Orchestra

peter.mallon

Jurowski conducts Beethoven and Schoenberg

Jurowski conducts a powerful and gripping programme of Beethoven and Schoenberg.

Few composers have done more to overthrow tyrannies both real and creative than Schoenberg and Beethoven. Images of the misuse of power pervade Schoenberg's outspoken Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, a cutting, visceral creation after Byron that was created in political circumstances but more functionally designed to mark 20 years of the League of Composers.

Most members of that organisation had been freed to some extent by the theoretical upheavals of Beethoven, whose mighty Fifth Symphony changed the way music was conceived - in the head and on the stage. Freedom reigns in this evening of powerful musical gestures.

Free pre-concert event, 6.15pm until 6.45pm, Royal Festival Hall
Composer and academic Silvina Milstein looks at the works of Nono and Schoenberg.

Free post-concert event on The Clore Ballroom Floor at Royal Festival Hall
Artists involved in the performance will discuss the evening's programme.

Start Date:

Wednesday 28 November 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Ticket Prices:

£39 £33 £27 £21 £16 £12 £9 Premium £65

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Sir Thomas Allen narrator
Annabel Arden director
Gentlemen of the London Philharmonic Choir

Repertoire:

Ludwig Van Beethoven: Overture, Fidelio
Luigi Nono: Julius Fucik
Arnold Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon for reciter, piano & string quartet, Op.41
Arnold Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw, Op.46
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No.5

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

Sunday Matinee: Andris Nelsons conducts Strauss and Beethoven

Arabella Steinbacher performs Berg's Violin Concerto with conductor Andris Nelsons in a programme which includes Strauss Till Eulenspiegel and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.

This programme features three highly autobiographical masterworks. The 'Pastoral' Symphony is Beethoven's ultimate musical response to nature, his most cherished and dependable companion in life.

In Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche ('Till Eulenspiegel's merry pranks') the exuberant young Strauss clearly associates himself with the main character as he gleefully wreaks havoc in a market place and upsets a group of passing nuns, disguised as a clergyman.

Berg's Violin Concerto, composed to 'the memory of an angel', is a heartbreaking lament for Manon Gropius, the beautiful daughter of Alma Mahler (composer Gustav's widow) by her second marriage.

Start Date:

Sunday 3 March 2013 - 15:00

End Date:

Sunday 3 March 2013

Ticket Prices:

£40 £31 £25 £20 £15 £12 £9 Premium seats £48

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Andris Nelsons conductor
Arabella Steinbacher violin

Repertoire:

Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
Alban Berg: Violin Concerto
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No.6 (Pastoral)

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

Arabella Steinbacher performs Beethoven

This Philharmonia debut for conductor David Afkham includes Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Arabella Steinbacher alongside Brahms' Symphony No.3.

'The reputation the famous F major has acquired makes me want to cancel all my engagements!' So successful was Brahms' Third Symphony that the composer feared the weight of expectation in its wake.

The shortest of Brahms' four symphonies, it is reflective and yearning in tone, in contrast to the relative sobriety of the First and pastoral charm of the Second.

Here it is preceded by Beethoven's concise yet suitably statuesque 'tone poem' Coriolan and followed by the groundbreaking Violin Concerto.

This concert marks the Philharmonia debut of charismatic young German conductor David Afkham.

Start Date:

Thursday 6 December 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 6 December 2012

Ticket Prices:

£40 £31 £25 £20 £15 £12 £9 Premium seats £48

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
David Afkham conductor
Arabella Steinbacher violin

Repertoire:

Ludwig Van Beethoven: Overture, Coriolan
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.3
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Violin Concerto

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

Salonen Conducts Beethoven's Choral Symphony

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Beethoven's Choral Symphony with an all-star cast, alongside Beethoven's First Piano Concerto played by Leif Ove Andsnes and Kurtág's Beethoven-inspired Quasi una Fantasia.

Beethoven's influence on future generations was incalculable. At first, György Kurtág's Quasi una Fantasia, with its strategically placed mouth organs throughout the hall, may appear anything but Beethovenian, but even here Beethoven acts as a spiritual mentor. The clue is in the title Quasi una Fantasia and opus number 27, which is taken from a pair of Beethoven's piano sonatas that includes the Moonlight.
The remainder of the new season's opening concert shows how far Beethoven travelled musically in just 30 years, from the sheer exuberance of the First Piano Concerto, performed here by Leif Ove Andsnes, to the epoch-making Ninth Symphony, with its epic 'Ode to Joy' choral finale.

6pm at Royal Festival Hall - pre-concert talk featuring Esa-Pekka Salonen. Free

Start Date:

Thursday 27 September 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 27 September 2012

Ticket Prices:

£45 £36 £29 £24 £18 £15 £11 Premium seats £60

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Leif Ove Andsnes piano
Giselle Allen soprano
Anne-Marie Owens mezzo-soprano
Andrew Kennedy tenor
James Rutherford bass
Philharmonia Chorus
Philharmonia Voices

Repertoire:

György Kurtág: ...quasi una fantasia... Op.27 No.1
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No.9 (Choral)

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

Sokhiev and Bronfman

Tugan Sokhiev conducts an inspired programme from Mendelssohn's turbulent Hebrides Overture and Elgar's rich Enigma Variations to Bronfman's masterful version of the Emperor Piano Concerto.

Musical inspiration comes in all forms. Mendelssohn's elemental 'Hebridean' Overture sprang from a stormy encounter with the rugged seascape of the Western Highlands.
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.5 flowered from a similarly barren bedrock - the 1809 French occupation of Vienna ('nothing but drums, cannon, men, misery of all sorts'). Yet it remains one of the most original and virtuosic achievements of the concerto canon.

The catalyst for Elgar's perennially popular Enigma Variations was altogether more domestic. A light-hearted piano-side reverie caught his wife's attention. Elgar then extemporised on its theme around various friends and acquaintances. The rest, as they say, is history...

Start Date:

Thursday 11 October 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 11 October 2012

Ticket Prices:

£40 £31 £25 £20 £15 £12 £9 Premium seats £48

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Tugan Sokhiev conductor
Yefim Bronfman piano

Repertoire:

Felix Mendelssohn: Overture, The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave)
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor)
Interval
Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

London Philharmonic Orchestra

German Romanticism

A programme featuring Beethoven's most delicate, luminous concerto, and two works by Schumann born of tragedy and despair.

The dark course of fate shaped Schumann's Overture to Schiller's tragedy The Bride of Messina. But it was Schumann's own demons that surrounded his Second Symphony.

'I have tried to prevail against my physical condition,' wrote Schumann of the piece, and the music's ultimate triumph suggests he succeeded. Fighting from the very start, the symphony burns towards moments of thrilling invention and ultimately to uplifting renewal and optimism.

Start Date:

Wednesday 14 November 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Ticket Prices:

£39 £33 £27 £21 £16 £12 £9 Premium £65

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conductor
Baiba Skride violin
Daniel Müller-Schott cello
Lars Vogt piano

Repertoire:

Robert Schumann: Overture, Die Braut von Messina, Op.100
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Triple Concerto
Interval
Robert Schumann: Symphony No.2 in C

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Kurt Masur conducts Beethoven

Kurt Masur returns to his former orchestra for this concert of life-affirming masterworks from his homeland.

Schumann's Cello Concerto is among the composer's most inspired creations - an isle of bliss in an otherwise troubled life. You can hear it in the music as through the touching song of the cello it marries sweeping greatness with technical brilliance, radiating content through its very human beauty.

It's a fitting prelude here to the furious energy of Beethoven's most impulsive symphony - itself a journey through steady, poignant contemplation to one of the most momentum-filled musical dynamos in history.

Start Date:

Saturday 20 October 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Saturday 20 October 2012

Ticket Prices:

£39 £33 £27 £21 £16 £12 £9 Premium £65

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Kurt Masur conductor
Alban Gerhardt cello

Repertoire:

Felix Mendelssohn: Overture, Ruy Blas
Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No.7

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

London Philharmonic Orchestra

peter.mallon

Shostakovich Symphony No.10

Vassily Sinaisky conducts Shostakovich's most powerful symphony - the mighty, uncompromising Tenth.

In July 1953, shortly after the death of Joseph Stalin, Shostakovich started composing his Tenth Symphony. Years of psychological torture at Stalin's hand found their way into the symphony's compelling obsession and relentless drive.

Gone, Shostakovich believed for a moment, was the censorship that had curtailed him for decades. In the most powerful symphony he wrote, we glimpse a liberated composer unleashing his all.

With Beethoven's own manifesto for musical freedom and the first UK performance of Australian composer Carl Vine's Second Piano Concerto, here's a concert that promises to seize a fulsome hold on the emotions.

Carl Vine's Second Piano Concerto was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Supported by Garf and Gill Collins.

Free pre-concert event, 6.15pm until 6.45pm, Royal Festival Hall
Pianist Piers Lane discusses the UK première of Carl Vine's Piano Concerto No. 2

Start Date:

Wednesday 17 October 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Ticket Prices:

£39 £33 £27 £21 £16 £12 £9 Premium £65

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vassily Sinaisky conductor
Piers Lane piano

Repertoire:

Ludwig Van Beethoven: Overture, Leonore No.3
Carl Vine: Piano Concerto No.2 (UK premiere)
Interval
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No.10 in E minor

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

m.critcher

Look! No conductor!

Celebrated cellist Steven Isserlis, pianist Robert Levin and violinist Isabelle Faust perform and lead the OAE at this concert looking at what happens when the conductor disappears.

We're joined by this concert by three exceptional soloists who each direct a piece from their instrument.

The evening starts with Haydn's London Symphony - his musical response to the bustling 18th century city.

Isabelle Faust then directs and is soloist for Mozart's Violin Concerto, by turns bright, dance-like, tragic and playful.

The concert culminates with all three soloists combining for Beethoven's Triple concerto for violin, cello and keyboard.

Queen Elizabeth Hall at 5.45pm - OAE Extras. Robert Philip looks at the evolution of concertos and virtuoso performers. Admission free

Start Date:

Thursday 3 May 2012 - 19:00

End Date:

Thursday 3 May 2012

Ticket Prices:

£38 £28 £20 £12 £6, Premium £50

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Robert Levin piano, director
Isabelle Faust violin, director
Steven Isserlis cello, director

Repertoire:

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.104 (London)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No.3 in G, K.216
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Triple Concerto

Facility Description:

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

p.goudal

Salonen and Uchida

An evening of high drama, with Schoenberg's Piano Concerto performed by Mitsuko Uchida and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting Beethoven's sparkling Symphony No.7.

When Schoenberg was composing his Piano Concerto, his markings at the beginning of each movement suggested an autobiographical connection - 'Life was so easy', 'Suddenly hatred broke out', 'A grave situation was created' and 'But life goes on'. Although these markings were removed in the final published version, the underlying dramatic structure still affects the listener intensely.

Beethoven's Symphony No.7, with its driving rhythms and sparkling joie de vivre, is full of bright orchestral colours. The slow introduction to the first movement lays out the skeleton of the entire work, which is coloured in over the course of the work. The finale is based on a stamping peasant dance with 'whooping horns' providing a joyous climax.

Start Date:

Thursday 1 March 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 1 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
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Mitsuko Uchida piano

Repertoire:

Johannes Brahms: Variations on a theme by Haydn (St. Anthony)
Arnold Schoenberg: Piano Concerto
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No.7

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

Dohnányi conducts Brahms

The Philharmonia's Honorary Conductor for Life conducts Brahms's Second Symphony.

Brahms certainly had a sense of humour. He wrote to his publisher that his Second Symphony was melancholy in tone and that the score must sound like mourning. In fact his Symphony No.2 is cheerful, lighthearted and picturesquely pastoral in style, with one of Brahms's friends commenting 'Why, it is all blue sky, babbling streams, sunshine, and cool green shade!'.

Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto is similarly sparkling and lively in its outer movements, though its sombre and etiolated slow movement - widely associated with the image of Orpheus taming the Furies - provides a moment of contrast.

Start Date:

Thursday 7 June 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 7 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
Christoph von Dohnányi conductor
Andreas Haefliger piano

Repertoire:

Felix Mendelssohn: Overture, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4
Interval
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.2

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

p.goudal

Edward Gardner conducts Janácek

Janácek's Sinfonietta, scored for an extraordinary 14 trumpets, expresses his patriotic motivation, as does Dvorák's Symphony No.7, suffused with musical references to the Czech nation.

Janácek was inspired to write his festive Sinfonietta, scored for an extraordinary 14 trumpets, after listening to brass bands performing in his native Czechoslovakia. Dedicated to the Czech Armed Forces, Janácek said that it was intended to express 'contemporary free man, his spiritual beauty and joy, his strength, courage and determination to fight for victory.'

Dvorák's motivation in composing his Seventh Symphony was equally patriotic. 'What is in my mind is Love, God, and my Fatherland', he said of it, and it is suffused with musical references to the Czech nation, in particular in the final movement, which he said was symbolic of the determination of the Czech people to resist political oppression.

Start Date:

Thursday 31 May 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 31 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
Edward Gardner conductor
David Fray piano

Repertoire:

Leos Janácek: Sinfonietta
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No.22 in E flat, K.482
Interval
Antonin Dvorák: Symphony No.7

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

Beethoven, Liszt & Brahms

Brahms took 21 years to complete his First Symphony. In the event it was a monumental success, paired in this evening's concert with Liszt's Second Piano Concerto, composed during the composer's Virtuoso Period.

Overwhelmed by the spectre of his hero Beethoven's symphonic achievements, Brahms took 21 years to complete his first symphony. In the event it was a huge critical success, celebrated around Europe as 'Beethoven's 10th' and full of conscious homage in its idiom and musical language.

It is paired in this evening's concert with music by Beethoven himself, one of his workings of the Leonore material from his opera Fidelio, and by his close contemporary Franz Liszt. Liszt's Second Piano Concerto is less frequently performed than his First, but is widely regarded as the more original and interesting of the two works, composed during Liszt's Virtuoso Period and one of the first concertos to represent a true dialogue between soloist and orchestra.

Start Date:

Thursday 3 May 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 3 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
Philippe Jordan conductor
Simon Trpceski piano

Repertoire:

Ludwig Van Beethoven: Overture, Leonore No.3
Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No.2 in A
Interval
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.1

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images