Southbank Centre Ravel, Maurice Events

Philharmonia Orchestra

m.critcher

LUTOSLAWSKI CENTENARY: MUSIC IN POLAND 1913-2013

Salonen conducts this special Lutoslawski anniversary concert which includes Musique funebre, the Piano Concerto with soloist Olli Mustonen and culminating in Ravel's stirring Daphnis and Chloë.

Tonight's concert opens the celebrations for the exact centenary of Lutoslawski's birth tomorrow. What better, therefore, than to open proceedings with his Musique funèbre, which the composer himself described as 'my first word in a new language.'
The Piano Concerto is, by comparison, one of Lutoslawski's last completed works, a glorious summation of his creative achievement that belongs in the great tradition of Romantic piano concertos stretching all the way back to Chopin and Liszt.

There is also a rare opportunity to hear Ravel's complete ballet score Daphnis et Chloé, which shares with Lutoslawski's distinctive soundworlds a meticulous attention to detail that is ravishing and utterly magical.

6pm at Royal Festival Hall - pre-concert event with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Free

Start Date:

Wednesday 30 January 2013 - 19:30

End Date:

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Ticket Prices:

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

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Krystian Zimerman piano
Philharmonia Voices
Philharmonia Chorus

Repertoire:

Witold Lutoslawski: Musique funèbre for string orchestra
Witold Lutoslawski: Piano Concerto
Interval
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé (complete)

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Lawson Trio

This dynamic and award-winning British piano trio frames three premieres by leading UK composers with two staples of the trio repertoire - Haydn's exuberant, enduringly popular Gypsy trio and the virtuosic masterwork by Ravel. The Lawson Trio is delighted to premiere works written for them by Anthony Powers and Camden Reeves, following their Southbank Centre debut in 2010, and are joined by students from the Junior Royal Academy of Music for the London premiere of Cheryl Frances Hoad's Olympic-inspired work for double piano trio.

Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall at 6.45pm - Chamber Music 2000 Student Concert, given by students from various institutions. Including works by Hoad and Powers. Admission free.

Start Date:

Tuesday 10 April 2012 - 20:00

End Date:

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£14 £10

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Lawson Trio

Repertoire:

Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio in G, Hob.XV/25 (Gypsy Rondo)
Camden Reeves: The dead broke blues break for piano trio (World premiere)
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Five rackets for trio relay (London premiere)
Interval
Anthony Powers: Piano Trio (World premiere)
Maurice Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Philharmonia Orchestra

LUTOSLAWSKI CENTENARY: MUSIC IN POLAND 1913-2013

Salonen conducts the final concert in the Lutoslawski series which includes his Symphony No.4, alongside works by Ravel. The concert also features soloists Jennifer Koh and Matthias Goerne.

The meticulously fashioned soundscapes of Ravel form the perfect musical backdrop to this final tribute to Lutoslawski in his centenary year.

Les espaces du sommeil ('The Spaces of Sleep') is a mesmerising setting of a poem by French surrealist Robert Desnos in which Lutoslawski imagined 'the singer is telling us about his dreams,' while Chain 2 continues to explore the element of chance that had been an important part of Lutoslawski's music since the 1960s.
Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted the premiere recording of the Fourth Symphony, the crowning achievement of the composer's distinguished career, just three months before the composer passed away.

6pm at Royal Festival Hall - pre-concert recital with Esa-Pekka Salonen featuring Polish contemporary music. Free

Start Date:

Thursday 21 March 2013 - 19:30

End Date:

Thursday 21 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
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Jennifer Koh violin
Matthias Goerne baritone

Repertoire:

Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose) Suite
Witold Lutoslawski: Symphony No.4
Interval
Witold Lutoslawski: Les espaces du sommeil (Spaces of sleep) for baritone & orchestra
Witold Lutoslawski: Chain 2 - dialogue for violin & orchestra
Maurice Ravel: La valse

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

London Philharmonic Orchestra

peter.mallon

Revolution in Paris

Uplifting music from Ravel and Prokofiev, with Stravinsky's revolutionary work The Rite of Spring.

Paris had seen revolution and turmoil, yet it didn't quite know what to think of Stravinsky's epoch-making ballet The Rite of Spring and the curious footing of Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, both of which were premièred in the city.

The Rite went down rather badly, its language based in deranged rhythm rather than civilised harmony, its choreography changing the point of expression from the ankle to the pelvis.

Ten years later, one of the few to take a shine to Prokofiev's Violin Concerto at its premiere was Stravinsky, who revelled in its childlike beauty and innocence.

Start Date:

Saturday 16 February 2013 - 19:30

End Date:

Saturday 16 February 2013

Ticket Prices:

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

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor
Leila Josefowicz violin

Repertoire:

Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose), ballet complete
Sergey Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.1 in D, Op.19
Interval
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Evocations of Spain

Enrique Mazzola brings his flair to a concert influenced by the sultry heat of Iberia.

A shimmer of Andalusian light shines over the movements of Manuel de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain - an exotic slice of delicate, glistening orchestral writing that together with Ottorino Respighi's blazing picture of the city of Rome is about as evocative of a place as is possible in music.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it was a foreigner who seemed to get most excited by the prospect of evoking Spain in music. A foreigner, and arguably the greatest orchestrator who ever lived - Maurice Ravel - whose firecracker Rapsodie Espagnole rounds off this concert with infectious panache and bite.

Start Date:

Saturday 9 February 2013 - 19:30

End Date:

Saturday 9 February 2013

Ticket Prices:

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

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Enrique Mazzola conductor
Javier Perianes piano
Maria Luigia Borsi soprano

Repertoire:

Ottorino Respighi: Fountains of Rome
Manuel de Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain for piano & orchestra
Interval
Ottorino Respighi: Il Tramonto (The Sunset) for mezzo-soprano & strings
Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
Maurice Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Yuja Wang

m.critcher

In her early 20s, Yuja Wang is internationally admired for 'a practically superhuman keyboard technique with an artistic eloquence that is second to none' (San Francisco Chronicle) and 'playing that possesses urgency, personality, imagination and colour' (International Piano).

The young Chinese musician gained international recognition while still in her teens, with a debut concert in Canada conducted by Pinchas Zukerman in 2005. Named 2009's Young Artist of the Year at the Classic FM Gramophone Awards, she has signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and her second CD, entitled Transformation, was Gramophone's Record of the Month on its release in 2010.

'Simply the most important pianist to appear in recent years, period' (The Detroit News).

Start Date:

Tuesday 1 May 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Ticket Prices:

£28 £21 £15 £10 Premium £35

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Yuja Wang piano

Repertoire:

Sergey Rachmaninov: Etude-tableau in A minor, Op.39 No.6
Sergey Rachmaninov: Etude-tableau in B minor, Op.39 No.4
Sergey Rachmaninov: Elégie in E flat minor, Op.3 No.1
Sergey Rachmaninov: Etude-tableau in E flat minor, Op.39 No.5
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Sonata in E flat, Op.27 No.1 (Quasi una fantasia)
Alexander Scriabin: Sonata No.5, Op.53
Interval
Sergey Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No.6 in A, Op.82

Facility Description:

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Images

Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Adès

p.goudal

Concentric Paths

Had Ades not had an epiphany in his teens that led to composing he may have chosen a career as a pianist and it is at the piano where we find him for the opening of this concert - a solo performance of Couperin's kaleidoscopic and seductive Les barricades mysterieuses.

A French strand threads its way through the programme as Ades conducts works by Couperin, his own Three Studies on Couperin and Ravel's tribute to the memory of 18th century French music.

This compelling concert climaxes with Ades' own Violin Concerto performed by mercurial Pekka Kuusisto. Subtitled Concentric Paths, each of the concerto's three movements has its own circular design containing spiralling high jinks, shifting harmonic sands and other-worldly soundscapes.

Queen Elizabeth Hall at 6.15pm - Pre-concert talk with Pekka Kuusisto. Free.

Start Date:

Monday 27 February 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Monday 27 February 2012

Ticket Prices:

£32 £26 £20 £14 £7

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Britten Sinfonia
Thomas Adès conductor, piano
Pekka Kuusisto violin

Repertoire:

François Couperin: Les baricades mistérieuses (Pièces de clavecin, Ordre No.6)
François Couperin: Les baricades mistérieuses arr. Thomas Adès
Thomas Adès: 3 Studies from Couperin
Maurice Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin
Igor Stravinsky: Le chant du rossignol arr. Stravinsky & Dushkin for violin & piano (from Le Rossignol, Scene 2)
Igor Stravinsky: Marche chinoise arr. Stravinsky & Dushkin for violin & piano (from Le Rossignol, Scene 2)
Igor Stravinsky: Suite No.1
Igor Stravinsky: Suite No.2
Thomas Adès: Concerto for violin & chamber orchestra (Concentric Paths)
Interval

Facility Description:

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Images

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

peter.mallon

French Impressionists

Sir Simon Rattle conducts a programme of Romantic music, featuring Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing Ravel's Piano Concerto for the left hand.

Our season ends with a bang as we bring our Principal Artist Sir Simon Rattle and the renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard to London, following a European tour.

The concert features four masterpieces rarely heard on period instruments, with all the added clarity and energy that they can bring.

The evening concludes with Debussy's powerful and sublimely detailed evocation of the sea - it's almost like seeing a picture painted in front of your eyes... but by an orchestra.

£70 Premium Box seats include an interval wine reception.

Royal Festival Hall at 5.45pm - OAE Extras. Robert Philip looks at French orchestral style in the early 20th century. Admission free

Start Date:

Sunday 10 June 2012 - 19:00

End Date:

Sunday 10 June 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 Simon Rattle conductor
Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano

Repertoire:

Gabriel Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, Op.80
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto for the left hand
Claude Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Claude Debussy: La mer

Facility Description:

Royal Festival Hall

Images

Takacs Quartet

p.goudal

Southbank Centre Associate Artists the Takács Quartet return to close the International Chamber Music Season with a programme of three great chamber classics.

The first half juxtaposes Haydn's inventive and ever-popular 'Lark' quartet with Ravel's impressionist masterpiece. Considering the melodic inspiration and harmonic flair Ravel poured into this work, it is remarkable that the French composer wrote only one string quartet.

The concert ends with Shostakovich's popular Piano Quintet. The piece is as ironic and expressive as the composer's greatest string quartets, yet - through its commanding piano part - exhibits a sweeping grandeur redolent of his symphonies.

Start Date:

Wednesday 16 May 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Ticket Prices:

£28 £21 £15 £10 Premium £35

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Takács Quartet
Aleksandar Madzar piano

Repertoire:

Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D, Op.64 No.5 (The Lark)
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet in F
Interval
Dmitry Shostakovich: Quintet in G minor for piano & strings, Op.57

Facility Description:

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Images