London Philharmonic Orchestra 2022/23 season brochure - Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall

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2022/23 concert season at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall


Highlights 2022/23

September

Principal Conductor Edward Gardner opens the season with Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder featuring Lise Lindstrom, Karen Cargill and Robert Murray. Page 06

January

In a tale of wonder, truth and irresistible imagination, Tan Dun conducts the UK premiere of his Buddha Passion. Page 21

October

Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis conducts two concerts including works by Brahms, Beethoven, Sibelius and Brett Dean. Page 10–11

February

Thomas Adés conducts two of his own works: his Inferno Suite, and the UK premiere of his Suite from the Tempest, alongside works by Sibelius and Tchaikovsky.

November

Edward Gardner conducts Tippett’s epic oratorio A Child of Our Time featuring Nadine Benjamin, Sarah Connolly, Kenneth Tarver and Roderick Williams.

December

In the final concert of 2022, Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski leads the Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. Page 19

Page 18

March

‘An imaginary notebook’: Vimbayi Kaziboni conducts the UK premiere of Heiner Goebbels’s A House of Call. Page 31

April

Klaus Mäkelä returns with a programme of Shostakovich, Thomas Larcher and Mahler. Page 36

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A selection of this season’s concerts will be filmed and streamed (delayed broadcast) on Marquee TV.

May

Edward Gardner closes the season with Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, Dvořák’s Four Slavonic Dances and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Alina Ibragimova. Page 36

FUNharmonics

FUNharmonics Family Concerts are the perfect way to introduce the joy of classical music to our youngest audience members. Page 41

A selection of this season’s concerts will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and available for 30 days after broadcast on BBC Sounds.


INTRODUCTION

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A warm welcome to our 2022/23 season

We are thrilled to share with you a new season – the 90th anniversary of our beloved London Philharmonic Orchestra – a season that celebrates incredible creativity, and shares a profound sense of humanity. It is an enticing season of discovery. Reflecting upon the Orchestra’s illustrious 90-year history, we will perform some now-indispensable music written especially for the LPO, including Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. A major focus on composers born in our country sees performances of both symphonies by Elgar, multiple compositions by Tippett and Thomas Adès, as well as four major works by Vaughan Williams in celebration of his 150th anniversary. The Orchestra’s commitment to everything new and creative includes world premieres of Mark Simpson’s Piano Concerto and Composer-inResidence Brett Dean’s In spe contra spem, as well as the UK premiere of Heiner Goebbels’s immersive spectacle A House of Call. We have also commissioned new works from a diverse range of composers from around the world – including Agata Zubel, Elena Langer and Vijay Iyer – whose contributions have been marginalised for too long. Reflecting the narratives of our time, a recurring theme of the 2022/23 season is our connection to the issues of belonging and displacement.

The feelings of kinship and place will be explored through such masterpieces as Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, Smetana’s Má Vlast and George Walker’s Lilacs. Just what is the concept of home to people who have experienced exile, homelessness or despair as a result of wars, political instability or racism – conditions that have forced countless refugees to leave their homes and to flee their native countries? We will survey music by composers whose work reflects upon the social and political transformations underpinning their lives, such as the Austrians Erich Korngold and Paul Hindemith, the Hungarian Béla Bartók, the Cuban Tania León, the Ukrainian Victoria Vita Polevá, and the Syrian Kinan Azmeh. And, of course, the theme of displacement will help us embrace the musical representations of very different cultures from all over the globe and the vibrancy created when these different cultures meet. We are joined in these explorations by our Principal Conductor Edward Gardner, Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis and Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski, plus, as always, world-renowned guest artists including Víkingur Ólafsson, Danielle de Niese, Miloš Karadaglić, Beatrice Rana, Randall Goosby, Gil Shaham, Leif Ove Andsnes and many others. We look forward to the future with excitement and welcome you to join us at the Royal Festival Hall for a season of adventure!

Elena Dubinets Artistic Director

David Burke Chief Executive


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A lp ace to call home The music of exile and belonging


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What do we mean by ‘home’? A safe haven behind carefully-guarded walls? Or can it mean something broader – a culture, a place, a time or simply a feeling of belonging? And what is the meaning of home to people who have experienced exile, displacement, homelessness or despair? For an artist, a sense of home can be central to finding an individual voice – to the stories they tell, and the language in which they tell them. Music is no exception, and throughout our 2022/23 season the LPO and its guests will be exploring these questions and re-telling these stories – whether Dvořák, Smetana and Janáček wrestling a new and often joyful national voice out of the political and cultural ferment of 19th- and early 20th-century Central Europe, or an outsider like Elgar, expressing inner doubts in the midst of national celebration. Other composers faced crueller choices. Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos became a financial lifeline for a composer who lost everything except his genius when he fled Communist Russia. For Erich Korngold, writing music for Hollywood was literally a matter of life or death – an American visa was all that stood between his family and murder at the hands of the Nazis. The music of Bartók, Prokofiev and Hindemith echoes the tensions between new homes and old – between hope and despair – that shaped so much of 20th-century life and art. Few major composers were unaffected by that experience: Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time focuses on one particular 20th-century injustice, ‘Kristallnacht’, but draws its power

from the African-American choral tradition, as well as Tippett’s own experiences of alienation as a gay man and a pacifist. Henri Dutilleux meditates on the words of Russian dissidents; an experience of inner exile that would have been familiar to Galina Ustvolskaya, who compared artistic life under Soviet rule to working ‘in a black hole’. And the story hasn’t ended, as wars, political instability, racial tension and economic suffering continue to force refugees across the globe to seek what might – or might not – be a better life. 21st-century music exists at a crossroads between ethnicities, traditions and identities, and although it has some tragic stories to tell, that intersection is also a place of tolerance, creativity and hope. We’ll be hearing from composers who’ve created a musical home that reflects their own identity and experience: the Syrian soul of Kinan Azmeh’s new Clarinet Concerto, Vijay Iyer’s cross-cultural visions, and Brett Dean’s powerful reckoning with Australia’s past. We’ll hear George Walker, Douglas J Cuomo and Derrick Skye all speaking honestly (and hopefully) about their dreams for America. And we’ll give the UK premiere of Heiner Goebbels’s A House of Call – a major, genre-defying new work that dismantles the traditional borders between performers and audience, drawing upon voices from across Europe and Asia to create a place where diversity, imagination, tradition and innovation can come together to form a new kind of harmony. A place, perhaps, to call home.


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A MUSICAL PARTNERSHIP

Edward Gardner and Karina Canellakis

It feels like no time at all since our Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis made her debut with the LPO back in 2018 – and even less since Edward Gardner succeeded Vladimir Jurowski as our Principal Conductor in September last year. Still, as a genius once put it (well, almost), to do great things all you need is a plan and not much time. ‘An inspired choice’, declared The Daily Telegraph after Edward Gardner’s inaugural concert in 2021, while Karina Canellakis’s performances in the 2021/22 season had critics talking about an ‘explosive chemistry between this conductor and orchestra’. Both conductors are front and centre in our 2022/23 season. Following last year’s headline-making opening performance of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, Gardner

raises the roof once again with Schoenberg’s colossal, multicoloured choral spectacular Gurrelieder. The whole season is defined by his musical passions: Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation’ Symphony, Lutosławski’s iridescent Fourth Symphony, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Mahler’s Fifth, an Elgar symphony cycle and two more choral blockbusters with the London Philharmonic Choir – Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass and Berlioz’s extraordinary Damnation of Faust. Gardner caused a sensation when he conducted Terry Gilliam’s staging of Faust at English National Opera in 2011; expect some serious drama when he brings it home to the Royal Festival Hall. Edward Gardner’s position at the LPO is generously supported by Aud Jebsen.

‘An inspired choice’


A MUSICAL PARTNERSHIP

Canellakis, meanwhile, teams up with some of the LPO’s most inspiring musical friends. Emanuel Ax is the soloist in Brahms’s tempestuous First Piano Concerto, and the same concert features the powerful Three Memorials by LPO Composer-inResidence Brett Dean. Pianist Daniil Trifonov and violinist Augustin Hadelich join her in concertos by Prokofiev and Sibelius.

But she’ll also be pouring all her energy and insight into Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth – music that positively demands an outsize artistic personality, and the perfect showcase for what one critic called ‘a musical partnership that looks set to be one of the most exciting and rewarding in London’.

‘A musical partnership that looks set to be one of the most exciting and rewarding in London’

Both images © Mark Allen

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SEPTEMBER

Gardner conducts Gurrelieder

Saturday 24 September 2022 | 7.00pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Edward Gardner conductor Lise Lindstrom Tove Karen Cargill Wood-Dove David Butt Philip Waldemar Robert Murray Klaus the Fool James Creswell Peasant London Philharmonic Choir Members of the London Symphony Chorus Edward Gardner

‘To the city of Gurre you are commanded! Today, the dead ride forth!’ When Arnold Schoenberg retold the old Danish legend of Gurre Castle, he didn’t just create a Game of Thrones-like musical saga of love, death and the supernatural. Gurrelieder is quite simply one of the most ambitious choral works of all time, written for a colossal orchestra and filled with music of intense emotion and breathtaking beauty. Every performance is an event, and to open our new season Edward Gardner has brought together two great choruses and a world-class cast. If you love Strauss or Mahler, you need to hear Gurrelieder: this should be spectacular. Please note start time. Sung in German with English surtitles.

© Benjamin Ealovega

Schoenberg Gurrelieder

© Rosie Hardy

Lise Lindstrom


SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER

Exiles and Dreamers A place to call home

Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture) Dutilleux Correspondances Walker Lilacs Dvořák Symphony No. 7 Edward Gardner conductor Jennifer France soprano Jennifer France

Grand Passions, High Ideals A place to call home

Wagner Overture, Tannhäuser Vijay Iyer Human Archipelago (world premiere) Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5 (Reformation) Edward Gardner conductor Inbal Segev cello

© Grant Legan

Inbal Segev

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Wednesday 28 September 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

A place to call home … for Antonín Dvořák, inspiration came from the culture and aspirations of his native Bohemia. Henri Dutilleux took the words of exiles and dreamers and transformed their hopes and sorrows into ravishing tenderness and beautiful sounds, while George Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Lilacs gives Walt Whitman’s elegy for Abraham Lincoln a resonance that gains extra power from his own experience as an African American. Launching our season-long exploration of the music of identity and displacement, Edward Gardner conducts music drenched in longing, in hope, and (like Tchaikovsky’s impassioned Overture) in the boundless horizons of the human heart.

Saturday 1 October 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Only the young Felix Mendelssohn could have taken a subject like the Reformation and turned it into music as radiant and as stirring as his Fifth Symphony. And perhaps only Vijay Iyer – described by The New York Times as ‘social conscience, multimedia collaborator, rhapsodist and multicultural gateway’ – could take the refugee testimonies of Human Archipelago and transform them into a cello concerto like no other. Music can do that, and Edward Gardner begins with the Overture to Wagner’s Tannhäuser: an opera whose sensuality shocked 19th-century audiences, by a composer who was forced into exile for his political ideals.




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Canellakis conducts Brahms

OCTOBER

Wednesday 19 October 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Karina Canellakis conductor Emanuel Ax piano

Emanuel Ax

There’s something extraordinary about the partnership between the LPO and its Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis: ‘Conductor and orchestra have explosive chemistry’, declared one review earlier this year. So imagine the intensity when she joins the celebrated American pianist Emanuel Ax in Brahms’s First Piano Concerto: a volcanic outpouring of passion and poetry from a genius at the height of his youthful powers. Brett Dean’s Memorials, meanwhile, retell three modern tragedies in vivid orchestral colours – and The Wild Dove, by Brahms’s great friend Dvořák, finds dark secrets within a Czech folk tale. More than meets the ear … Generously supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation.

Karina Canellakis

© Maurice Jerry Beznos

Dvořák The Wild Dove Brett Dean Three Memorials Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1


OCTOBER

Canellakis conducts Beethoven

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Friday 21 October 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Karina Canellakis conductor Augustin Hadelich violin

Augustin Hadelich

The opening chords of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony are like a jolt of electricity – and some would say that classical music is still reeling from the shockwaves. Forged in an age of revolution, this is a symphony on an uncompromising scale, delivered with a directness that never gets any less startling. In other words, it’s perfect for the LPO’s charismatic Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis – just as the fire and ice of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto are ideally suited to our soloist Augustin Hadelich: a violinist who’s been praised for his sense of ‘tightrope danger’ and ‘no-holds-barred approach’. He should be in his element.

© Mark Allan

Sibelius Violin Concerto Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)


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A MAN ‘ WITH HIS EYES ON A DIFFERENT HORIZON’

Vaughan Williams 150

So naturally, Vaughan Williams’s 150th birthday feels very personal to us, and we’ll be celebrating by playing some of his bestloved works. Works like the Serenade to Music and The Lark Ascending – for many listeners, the ultimate expression of Vaughan Williams’s gift for capturing something eternal in the British landscape, and evoking it in music that

speaks directly to the heart. And pieces like the Five Sacred Songs and the revolutionary Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis – in which Vaughan Williams ventured into the remote past of British music and found the material for a masterwork that even today sounds entirely new. But if there’s one quality that defines the Vaughan Williams we knew, it was his determination to look further than his contemporaries. Few modern composers cared more passionately about future generations, so it’s fitting that we’re pairing his music with a brand new Violin Concerto by Tom Coult. We’re also inviting Andrew Manze – whose recent Vaughan Williams symphony cycle has been described as ‘unsurpassed, and quite possibly unsurpassable’ – to conduct Vaughan Williams’s rarely-heard Ninth Symphony: for Manze, the final testament of a great 20th-century visionary, a man ‘with his eyes on a different horizon’.

© Alamy

‘How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music creep in our ears …’ And on a rapturous swell of sound, the 65-year-old Ralph Vaughan Williams launched his Serenade to Music. The year was 1938, the venue was the Royal Albert Hall, and the orchestra was the London Philharmonic, though it wasn’t the LPO’s first Vaughan Williams premiere, and it wouldn’t be the last. We were privileged to work with ‘RVW’ on many occasions – creating a tradition, and building a relationship with the music of this most individual (and beloved) of British composers that flourishes to this day.


OCTOBER

Visions of England A place to call home

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis Tom Coult Violin Concerto: ‘Pleasure Garden’ (London premiere) Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 9 Andrew Manze conductor Daniel Pioro violin

Wednesday 26 October 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Think of Vaughan Williams and you probably think of the English countryside – that muchloved lark ascending into blue Cotswold skies, or the deep stillness of the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. But there’s a lot more to this great British master than just tranquillity, and in Vaughan Williams’s 150th birthday year, guest conductor Andrew Manze champions the astonishing Ninth Symphony: music of visionary power by an 86-year-old master with an unquenchable spirit. In between, Daniel Pioro plays Tom Coult’s new Violin Concerto: four utterly individual landscapes, painted in ‘bewitchingly original’ music. VW would have approved.

© Chris Christodoulou

Andrew Manze

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Twilight in Vienna A place to call home

J Strauss II Overture, Die Fledermaus Korngold Violin Concerto Korngold Märchenbilder R Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Suite Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Arabella Steinbacher violin

© Sammy Hart

Arabella Steinbacher

Saturday 29 October 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Imperial Vienna … where playboys and princes waltzed the night away and a teenage genius, born into a musical family, closed his eyes and wove gorgeous musical fairytales. Then the 20th century happened. Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada shares a last, gorgeous glimpse of that opulent world, as imagined by Richard Strauss. And he follows the former Viennese golden boy Korngold into wartime exile in the USA – where Arabella Steinbacher brings all her sensitivity and panache to his bittersweet, desperately romantic Violin Concerto: music written in Hollywood, but singing of a vanished home.


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NOVEMBER

American Dreams A place to call home

Copland Appalachian Spring Douglas J Cuomo Saxophone Concerto: ‘a raft, the sky, the wild sea’ (UK premiere) Derrick Skye Prisms, Cycles, Leaps Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Joshua Weilerstein conductor Joe Lovano saxophone

Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

How would you define the sound of America? For Aaron Copland, son of Jewish parents who emigrated from Eastern Europe, it was all about the simple gifts of open spaces and clear skies – set to gloriously tuneful music in Appalachian Spring. Leonard Bernstein painted a grittier picture, but there’s still hope amid the urban energy of West Side Story. But in a new century, new identities are taking shape: whether the vibrant, fantastic vision of LA-born Derrick Skye – whose heritage embraces Ghanaian, Irish and Native American cultures – or the idea of an ever-changing inner journey in Douglas Cuomo’s brand new sax concerto, played tonight by Sicilian-American jazz icon Joe Lovano.

© Craig Lovell

Joe Lovano

Wednesday 2 November 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

A place to call home

Chen Yi Momentum Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 Brahms Symphony No. 3 Alpesh Chauhan conductor Randall Goosby violin

Randall Goosby

Friday 4 November 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Classical music doesn’t always do exactly what it says on the tin. Brahms never told the story behind his Symphony No. 3 but from impetuous opening to sunset finish, it’s clear that there’s a tale here that runs too deep for words. The same goes for the Chinese-American composer Chen Yi, fusing postmodernist techniques and philosophies with traditional Chinese idioms in her orchestral work Momentum. The young British conductor Alpesh Chauhan opens up vast emotional vistas, and he's joined in Bruch’s hugely popular First Violin Concerto by LPO Alexandra Jupin Award recipient Randall Goosby, whose album Roots was Presto Music’s 2021 Debut Recording of the Year. © Jeremy Mitchell

Randall Goosby plays Bruch


NOVEMBER

Sounding a Century A place to call home

Lutosławski Symphony No. 4 Agata Zubel Piano Concerto (world premiere) Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Edward Gardner conductor Tomoko Mukaiyama piano

Wednesday 9 November 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

When Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris in May 1913, it started a riot – or so the story goes. 109 years on, every performance of The Rite is still an adventure, so expect spine-tingling thrills and explosive playing as Edward Gardner and a super-sized LPO tackle music that refuses to be tamed. It’s a gripping counterpart to Lutosławski’s atmospheric Fourth Symphony, a late masterpiece from one of Gardner’s favourite composers. And because music never stands still, Tomoko Mukaiyama gives the world premiere of an arresting new piano concerto by Agata Zubel – a composer for whom ‘the most important element is exploration’. Supported by

© Benjamin Ealovega

Edward Gardner

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NOVEMBER

A Child of Our Time A place to call home

Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music Tippett A Child of Our Time Edward Gardner conductor Nadine Benjamin soprano Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano Kenneth Tarver tenor Roderick Williams baritone London Philharmonic Choir London Adventist Chorale Soloists of the Royal College of Music Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase | 6.00pm Foyle Future Firsts: Refugee Arson Fahim Journey to the Sea Mark-Anthony Turnage Refugee

Saturday 26 November 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

‘The world turns on its dark side. It is winter.’ Trumpets cry out in pain, then sink wearily downwards, and the chorus murmurs the heartbroken opening words of Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. Composed at the start of the Second World War but provoked by decades of intolerance, Tippett’s landmark ‘modern oratorio’ is built around the soulshaking melodies of African-American spirituals – and for this performance we’re thrilled to welcome the London Adventist Chorale, plus an exceptional team of soloists. Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music – written just a year earlier, by another musical visionary – offers radiant calm before Tippett’s emotional storm. Generously supported by Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet.

Kenneth Tarver tenor Foyle Future Firsts Members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Nadine Benjamin

Sarah Connolly

Kenneth Tarver

Roderick Williams

Sarah Connolly © Christopher Pledger. Roderick Williams © Groves Artists

See page 42 for more details


NOVEMBER / DECEMBER

Bruckner’s Ninth

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Wednesday 30 November 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs Bruckner Symphony No. 9 Robin Ticciati conductor Simon Keenlyside baritone

Robin Ticciati

Anton Bruckner dedicated his Ninth Symphony to ‘my beloved God’. At the end of a lifetime’s spiritual striving, he poured both his unquenchable faith and his agonising doubts into one mighty final testament – and then died before he could complete it. But even in its unfinished form, it’s overwhelming, and there’s no more thoughtful interpreter than Robin Ticciati, a conductor who has a very special relationship with the LPO. First, though, Simon Keenlyside sets the mood with Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs: ‘Such a Truth, as ends all strife/Such a Life, as killeth death …’

© Giorgia Bertazzi

Pre-concert events: LPO Showcase There will be events throughout the day as part of OrchLab Festival Day See page 42 for details

Jurowski conducts Mahler

Saturday 3 December 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Mahler Symphony No. 9 Vladimir Jurowski conductor

© Drew Kelley

Vladimir Jurowski

The very first bars of Mahler’s Ninth seem to falter. The stricken composer put the rhythm of his failing heart into the orchestra and began his Ninth Symphony with a sigh of ‘farewell’. But that’s the beginning, not the end, and over 80 minutes of music Mahler wrings every last drop of sweetness, terror and love from a life of total emotional commitment. Each performance of Mahler’s Ninth is a unique occasion, and there’s no doubt at all that LPO Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski – who describes his relationship with Mahler as ‘extremely precious and personal’ – will have something powerful to say.


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Miloš plays Rodrigo

JANUARY

Friday 13 January 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Karen Kamensek conductor Miloš Karadaglić guitar Miloš Karadaglić

Rachmaninoff’s First A place to call home

Brett Dean Amphitheatre Kinan Azmeh Clarinet Concerto (UK premiere) Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 Enrique Mazzola conductor Kinan Azmeh clarinet Enrique Mazzola

The song of the guitar is the sound of poetry – and no-one understands those emotions like Miloš. ‘Each soft pluck had an incredible gleam and bloom’, said The Times. Tonight he teams up with American conductor Karen Kamensek in a concert that sets Rodrigo’s and de Falla’s famous evocations of Spain alongside the dance music of Mexico, re-imagined in full orchestral Technicolor by Aaron Copland and Gabriela Ortiz. Plus a wonderful surprise: a celebration of musical colour and grace, specially written for Miloš by David Bruce, a composer who always speaks straight from the heart.

Wednesday 18 January 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord’. And taking his cue from those thunderous words, the young Rachmaninoff hurled himself into the mother of all First Symphonies. Dark, turbulent and burning with unrequited passion, it’s a real gothic melodrama – lost (but later recovered) when its composer fled the Russian Revolution for a life of exile. It’s a gripping climax to a concert that begins with Brett Dean’s musical re-imagination of an ancient culture, and features the UK premiere of Kinan Azmeh’s jazz-inspired Clarinet Concerto – music infused with the sounds of his native Syria and performed tonight by the composer himself. Generously supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation.

© Jean-Baptiste Millot

Copland El Salón México David Bruce The Peacock Pavane (world premiere) Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez Gabriela Ortiz Antrópolis de Falla The Three-Cornered Hat: Suites 1 & 2


JANUARY

Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion A place to call home

Tan Dun Buddha Passion (UK premiere) Tan Dun conductor Sen Guo soprano Huiling Zhu mezzo-soprano Kang Wang tenor Shenyang bass-baritone London Philharmonic Choir London Chinese Philharmonic Choir

Tan Dun

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Sunday 22 January 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

‘Please enlighten us: what are you?’ ‘I am … awake.’ Beneath the Himalayas, a little Prince awakens to compassion, and attains enlightenment. In Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion, the legends of Buddhism meet the tradition of Bach’s great choral Passions, drawing on ancient Chinese and Sanskrit texts to retell a story of universal significance: a tale of wonder, of truth and of gentle but irresistible transformation. Tan Dun himself conducts this UK premiere of a work without precedent in the Western concert hall, alive with all the fantasy and uncompromising emotional power we’ve come to expect from the award-winning composer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.


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Three Britons A place to call home

Coleridge-Taylor Solemn Prelude (London premiere) Tippett Piano Concerto Elgar Symphony No. 1 Edward Gardner conductor Steven Osborne piano

Wednesday 25 January 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

British music feels very close to home, but appearances can be deceptive. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in Victorian Holborn, yet his roots were in Sierra Leone. Michael Tippett’s Piano Concerto takes its cue from Beethoven, but it’s soon soaring free into a world of shimmering colours and visionary wonder: and no living pianist plays it with more brilliance than Steven Osborne. The magnificent tune that opens Elgar’s First Symphony, meanwhile, is just the gateway to something infinitely richer and more personal – a deeply emotional self-portrait of an artist on the edge. Edward Gardner will drive straight to its heart.

© Benjamin Ealovega

Steven Osborne

JANUARY

Spirits of Delight

Saturday 28 January 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Edward Gardner conductor Víkingur Ólafsson piano

Víkingur Ólafsson

‘Rarely, rarely, comest thou, Spirit of Delight!’ Elgar’s Second Symphony opens on a mighty surge of confidence and pride. Then something happens – the shadows lengthen, and a great artist starts to lay bare his soul with an honesty unprecedented in British music. Edward Gardner completes his Elgar symphony cycle with a true British classic, and welcomes the extraordinary, multi-award-winning pianist Víkingur Ólafsson to create another. Mark Simpson’s music is exuberant, lyrical and wears its heart unashamedly on its sleeve, and it’s a fair bet that the Spirit of Delight will be very much present in his keenlyawaited new Piano Concerto. Generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE.

© Ari Magg

Mark Simpson Piano Concerto (world premiere) Elgar Symphony No. 2


FEBRUARY

The Damnation of Faust

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Saturday 4 February 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Berlioz The Damnation of Faust Edward Gardner conductor Karen Cargill Marguerite David Junghoon Kim Faust Christopher Purves Mephistopheles Jonathan Lemalu Brander London Philharmonic Choir Members of the London Symphony Chorus London Youth Choir

‘I shall enchant your eyes and ears …’ What would you trade for your wildest dreams? Young Faust makes the deadliest possible bargain, but he has one hell of a time finding out the price. Half grand opera, half roof-raising choral-orchestral spectacular, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust caused a scandal in 1846 when it was first performed, and with its supernatural story and thumping good melodies, it’s still one of 19th-century music’s most thrillingly sinful treats. Join Edward Gardner, massed choruses and a charismatic all-star cast for a night when the Devil really does have all the best tunes. Sung in French with English surtitles.

© Victoria Cadish

David Junghoon Kim




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FEBRUARY

My Homeland A place to call home

Glinka Overture, Ruslan and Ludmilla Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 Smetana Má Vlast (movements 1–4) Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider conductor Kirill Gerstein piano

Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Má Vlast translates as ‘My Homeland’, but when Bedřich Smetana wrote his symphonic tribute to Czech history and culture, he didn’t only create a hymn to a great nation: he stretched the very limits of what orchestral music could express. Our guest conductor Nikolaj SzepsZnaider understands that: he’s a master at drawing grand emotions and rich colours from a full orchestra. So he’s the ideal partner for a pianist as masterly as Kirill Gerstein, in Rachmaninoff’s passionate (and hugely popular) Second Piano Concerto – and just the man to put a rocket under Glinka’s little firecracker of an overture.

© Marco Borggreve

Kirill Gerstein

Friday 10 February 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

Ehnes plays Brahms

Friday 17 February 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Kevin John Edusei conductor James Ehnes violin Kevin John Edusei

When Antonín Dvořák found himself in a new continent, he composed a symphony that looks to new horizons even while it longs for home, and created a classic that never gets any less stirring. Missy Mazzoli, meanwhile, gazes into space, and sees stars and planets spiralling in the music of an old-time hurdy-gurdy: you’ve never heard an orchestra sound quite like this! And on the sunlit slopes of the Austrian Alps, Dvořák’s great friend Brahms wrote a violin concerto as serene as it is songful – perfect for the gleaming sound and endless expressive power of our soloist James Ehnes. Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase LPO Junior Artists See page 42 for details

© Mark Allan

Missy Mazzoli Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) Brahms Violin Concerto Dvořák Symphony No. 9 (From the New World)


FEBRUARY

Adès conducts Adès

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Wednesday 22 February 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Sibelius Prelude from The Tempest Thomas Adès Suite from The Tempest (UK premiere) Thomas Adès Inferno Suite Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini Thomas Adès conductor

© Marco Borggreve

Thomas Adès

There’s something unique about hearing a great composer conduct. And it’s not just their own music that comes alive: a composer’s insight can make even a familiar Shakespearean classic sound as if it’s being re-created before our ears. Thomas Adès takes two of his own recent works – the Dante-inspired Inferno Suite and (in its first UK performance) the suite from his opera The Tempest – and pairs them with two pieces of his own choice; elemental, emotionally-charged pieces of musical storytelling by Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. With Adès himself on the podium, it’s hard to say which will be more electrifying.


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FEBRUARY

From Paris with Love

Saturday 25 February 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte Chausson Poème de l’amour et de la mer Franck Symphony in D minor Bertrand de Billy conductor Danielle de Niese soprano

Imagine a gothic cathedral looming out of the mists. Picture an impressionist landscape beneath pastel skies. And now think of BelleÉpoque Paris in all its ritzy, raucous colour. That’s a very rough idea of what it’s like to hear César Franck’s towering Symphony in D minor – for decades, one of the world’s most popular classics. Our Paris-born guest conductor Bertrand de Billy puts it back up where it belongs tonight: the summit of a Gallicflavoured concert that begins with Ravel’s haunting evocation of a vanished world and stars the phenomenal Danielle de Niese in Chausson’s ravishing Poème: a flood-tide of sensuous beauty. Generously supported by Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet.

© Chris Dunlop/DECCA

Danielle de Niese


MARCH

Gardner conducts Rachmaninoff A place to call home

George Benjamin Sudden Time Grieg Piano Concerto Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances Edward Gardner conductor Leif Ove Andsnes piano

© Helge Hansen/Sony Music Entertainment

Leif Ove Andsnes

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Saturday 4 March 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

‘It was like sudden time in a world without time …’ When the LPO premiered George Benjamin’s Sudden Time in 1993, we launched a modern British classic. Edward Gardner brings it home tonight, and joins Sergey Rachmaninoff in exile in America, grappling with the ghosts of an old world amid the energy of the new in his Symphonic Dances – arguably the greatest symphony he never wrote. First, though, comes Grieg’s Piano Concerto, as fresh and as tender as ever in the hands of the Norwegian keyboard-poet who might just be its finest living interpreter: Leif Ove Andsnes.


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Tchaikovsky’s Fifth

MARCH

Wednesday 15 March 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Beethoven Coriolan Overture Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 Karina Canellakis conductor Daniil Trifonov piano

Daniil Trifonov

‘With desire and passion’, wrote Tchaikovsky over the second movement of his Fifth Symphony, and if you’ve already heard Karina Canellakis in action with the LPO, you’ll already know that she won’t hold back. And if you haven’t? Well, it’s hard to imagine a more combustible mixture than Canellakis, the LPO and the ‘incandescent’ (The New York Times) pianism of the Russian virtuoso Daniil Trifonov: the perfect line-up for Prokofiev’s brilliant, bristling Third Concerto. Add Tchaikovsky at his most expansive, plus Beethoven’s dramatically-charged overture, and this looks set to be another explosive night with Canellakis and the LPO.

© Dario Acosta

Generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE.

A place to call home

Victoria Vita Polevá Nova (world premiere) Elena Langer The Dong with a Luminous Nose (world premiere) Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 Andrey Boreyko conductor Kristina Blaumane cello* London Philharmonic Choir Kristina Blaumane

Saturday 18 March 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Even today, it’s hard to tell whether Shostakovich’s mighty Fifth Symphony tells a story of triumph or despair – or whether his description of it as ‘a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism’ was anything more than a Stalin-era survival strategy. But there’s no such ambiguity about the impassioned Nova by Kyiv-born Victoria Vita Polevá. Or indeed about tonight’s premiere from Elena Langer; in fact, there’s a definite smile on the face of this tribute – part choral work, part cello concerto – to the nonsense verse of Edward Lear. Exactly as you’d expect from the endlessly imaginative composer of Figaro Gets a Divorce. *Chair supported by Bianca and Stuart Roden. © Benjamin Ealovega

Tears and Laughter


MARCH

A House of Call A place to call home

Heiner Goebbels A House of Call (UK premiere) Vimbayi Kaziboni conductor

Vimbayi Kaziboni

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Saturday 25 March 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Composer Heiner Goebbels calls it ‘an imaginary notebook’, and the title A House of Call comes from Finnegans Wake. But words are only a jumping-off point in this eveninglong adventure for orchestra and audience alike: they’re a source of stimulation, of provocation, of distant memories and new beginnings, drawn from literature, conversation and cultures ranging from central Asia to South America, as well as Goebbels’s own journeys, personal encounters and explorations in the archives. Sounds incredible? Wait till you hear it, as the LPO presents a premiere without precedent: the first UK hearing for an instant contemporary classic.




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MARCH / APRIL

Heroes and Heroines A place to call home

Tania León Stride (UK premiere) Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 Sibelius Lemminkäinen Suite Dima Slobodeniouk conductor Beatrice Rana piano

Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

‘A mighty hero, in his veins the blood of ages … but alas, he had his failings.’ In Finnish myth, Lemminkaïnen is a hero with a dark side: loving, hunting and challenging death itself. Sibelius retold his exploits in music that’s as colourful as a film score and as gripping as any fantasy epic – with the eerie Swan of Tuonela at its shadowy heart. The heroine at the centre of Tania León’s Stride, too, is someone ‘who did not take “no” for an answer’ – making it a wonderfully appropriate upbeat to the headlong energy of Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto, played by the dazzling Beatrice Rana.

© Simon Fowler

Beatrice Rana

Friday 31 March 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

A place to call home

Ustvolskaya Symphonic Poem No. 1 Hindemith Violin Concerto Prokofiev Symphony No. 6 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Gil Shaham violin Gil Shaham

Wednesday 19 April 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

What price victory? Prokofiev wrote his Sixth Symphony in the aftermath of the Second World War but although it tells of an epic struggle, it’s far from clear that it ends in anything as simple as triumph. For some listeners, it’s his greatest achievement, and as you’d expect from Vladimir Jurowski, it’s the climax of a whole evening of music that asks as many questions as it answers. Gil Shaham brings all his peerless expressive power to Hindemith’s fiery wartime Violin Concerto, and Jurowski opens in the brooding, intensely dramatic imaginative world of Galina Ustvolskaya – a Soviet composer who refused to be suppressed. Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase Crisis Creates See page 42 for details © Chris Lee

War and Peace


APRIL

Don Quixote Rides Again

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Saturday 22 April 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Telemann Suite for Orchestra: Burlesque de Quixotte Ravel Don Quichotte à Dulcinée Ibert Quatre chansons de Don Quichotte R Strauss Don Quixote Vladimir Jurowski conductor Ludovic Tézier baritone Kristina Blaumane cello* Vladimir Jurowski

Poor old Don Quixote has lost his mind, and wearing rusty armour, he mounts his nag and rides forth on the daftest possible quest. Ever since 1605, when Cervantes’s tragicomic hero first rode out in search of his impossible dream, the figure of Don Quixote has inspired artists, idealists and – naturally – composers. Tonight, LPO Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski gallops through three centuries of madcap musical adventures, from the anarchy of Telemann’s uproarious ‘burlesque’ to Richard Strauss’s spectacular, symphonic retelling: complete with sorcerers, knights, windmills that look like giants and a whole flock of bleating sheep. Hearing is believing …

© Vera Zhuravleva

*Chair supported by Bianca and Stuart Roden.

Mahler’s Fifth

Wednesday 26 April 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Brett Dean In spe contra spem (world premiere)* Mahler Symphony No. 5 Edward Gardner conductor Emma Bell soprano Elsa Dreisig soprano

© Paul Foster-Williams

Emma Bell

A lone trumpet sounds in the darkness and Gustav Mahler begins his great struggle from tragedy to triumph – by way of midnight storms, joyous horn-calls, and the most tender love letter ever written without words: the rapturous Adagietto. ‘The symphony should be like the world’, said Mahler; and with Edward Gardner conducting, 70 minutes of music becomes the emotional experience of a lifetime. It’s a powerful counterpart to a brand new work, written for the voices of Emma Bell and Elsa Dreisig by the LPO’s Composer-in-Residence Brett Dean. Mahler would surely have responded to a title that translates as ‘Hoping against Hope’. *Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the generous support of The Boltini Trust. Generously supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation.


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APRIL / MAY

Music from the Shadows

Saturday 29 April 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 Thomas Larcher Symphony No. 2 (Kenotaph) Mahler Adagio from Symphony No. 10 Klaus Mäkelä conductor Julian Rachlin violin

© Marco Borggreve

Klaus Mäkelä

Mahler thought the symphony should ‘be like the world’. But what sort of world? That’s the question asked by the Second Symphony of Thomas Larcher: a dark and dazzling reinvention of the Western classical tradition from an unmistakably 21st-century perspective. It’ll make a striking complement to the Cold War angst of Shostakovich’s brooding First Violin Concerto – starring Julian Rachlin, a violinist who brings a new perspective to everything he plays. And then Klaus Mäkelä dives deep into Mahler’s final symphonic testament, a voyage to the limits of human emotion that never gets any less heartfelt or strange.

Hymn of the Forests A place to call home

Dvořák Four Slavonic Dances Bartók Violin Concerto No. 1 Janáček Glagolitic Mass Edward Gardner conductor Alina Ibragimova violin Sara Jakubiak soprano Madeleine Shaw mezzo-soprano Toby Spence tenor Matthew Rose bass Catherine Edwards organ London Philharmonic Choir

Saturday 6 May 2023 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 47

‘Always the scent of the moist forest – that was the incense’, declared Leoš Janáček. ‘I felt a cathedral grow before me in the vast expanse of the hills and the vault of the sky.’ For him, the whole of creation was a cause for celebration, and with its jubilant trumpets, thundering organ and raw, unbuttoned lust for life, there’s something primal about his Glagolitic Mass – a choral work unlike any other. Edward Gardner prepares the way with Bartók’s searing First Violin Concerto, performed by Alina Ibragimova, before assembling vast forces to end the season with a colossal shout of joy.


PURCELL SESSIONS

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Purcell Sessions at the Southbank Centre

We are delighted to be performing this season as part of the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Sessions – a year-round series of varied events in the intimate surroundings of the Purcell Room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Between September and January, we will present three hour-long evening chamber concerts with artists from our main season, including Vijay Iyer, Agata Zubel and Kinan Azmeh, displaying their rich and creative talents within an up-close and personal setting. Full details will be announced in due course. Agata Zubel

From top: © Jakub Pajewski © Liudmila-Jeremie © Lynne Harty

Kinan Azmeh

Vijay Iyer


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OPER A R AR A

Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde

Friday 16 September 2022 | 7.30pm Queen Elizabeth Hall Tickets £45–£16 Premium seats £55 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Please note this concert is not eligible for series discounts

Paul Daniel conductor Josh Lovell Prince Casimir Christophe Gay Cabriolo Christophe Mortagne Tremolini Loïx Félix Sparadrap Katia Ledoux Paola Anne-Catherine Gillet Zanetta Virginie Verrez Prince Raphael Antoinette Dennefeld Régina Opera Rara Chorus London Philharmonic Orchestra

A travelling funfair, a lovesick Prince, a lottery ticket and a beautiful young woman pretending to be a waxwork … what could possibly go wrong? Offenbach’s 1869 comic opera La Princesse de Trébizonde is fizzy, funny, brimming with melody and topped off with a delicious little spritz of Gallic sexiness – pure delight, in other words, fresh from the sparkling imagination of the man who invented operetta. We don’t hear it enough, but Opera Rara is out to put that right, and we’re delighted to take part in this rare revival – with ex-ENO Music Director Paul Daniel conducting a hand-picked cast. In association with Opera Rara

Christophe Mortagne

Josh Lovell

Virginie Verrez

Katia Ledoux

Josh Lovell © Simon Pauly. Virginie Verrez © Dario Acosta. Katia Ledoux © Wolf-Dieter Grabner

Offenbach La Princesse de Trébizonde


LPO ON DEMAND

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LPO Concerts on Marquee TV

Special offer for London Philharmonic Orchestra audiences!

‘Wonderful music in the Royal Festival Hall, with superb atmospheric lighting.’ LPO Supporter

‘It’s like getting front row seats.’ Marquee TV subscriber

The London Philharmonic Orchestra collection includes a varied selection of the Orchestra’s live concerts over the last two years, filmed for Marquee TV subscribers. We have teamed up with Marquee to offer you 50% off a year’s subscription. Head to marquee.tv/lpo2022 and use the code LPO2022 to get 50% off. Art lovers can stream the LPO collection alongside the world’s best dance, opera, theatre, and music on demand on Marquee TV. Watch anytime, anywhere With Marquee TV, there are many ways to watch and enjoy our online concerts. You can watch on your tablet, phone or on the big screen via the Marquee app. marquee.tv


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EDUCATION AND COMMUNIT Y EVENTS

Education and Community events

FUNharmonics family concerts are the perfect way to introduce the joy of classical music to the whole family. Concerts last an hour with no interval, and feature a presenter highlighting aspects of the music, plenty of audience engagement, images projected onto the big screen, and lots of free, fun activities in the foyer spaces before the concert.

Free LPO Showcase events offer the opportunity to hear performances by gifted members of our talent development programmes, and the creative output of our community projects. Foyle Future Firsts and LPO Junior Artists present thrilling performances alongside LPO musicians who have mentored them, and adults we work with at Crisis perform original music they have created with an LPO team of musicians and leaders. OrchLab Festival Day invites our community of disabled adults to our Southbank Centre home for a celebration of accessible music-making. More information about our Education and Community programme can be found online, including details about our BrightSparks concert series for schools, our Open Sound Ensemble for teenagers with special educational needs and disabilities, our Junior Artists: Overture orchestral experience days for young musicians, and our growing bank of digital musical resources for schools and disability settings. All can be found at lpo.org.uk/education

FUNharmonics

OrchLab

LPO Junior Artists

Open Sound Ensemble

Clockwise from top left: © Hannah Foakes © James Tye © Hannah Foakes © Benjamin Ealovega

The LPO’s vibrant Education and Community programme unites the music and musicians of the Orchestra with the communities and audiences we serve. Whether that’s a 6-yearold child attending their first ever concert, a talented musician at the start of their career, a teenager with special educational needs or someone who is experiencing homelessness – the LPO seeks to welcome, share and learn from everyone we work with. We warmly invite you to join us at the Royal Festival Hall to experience some of this work.


EDUCATION AND COMMUNIT Y EVENTS

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FUNharmonics Family Concerts

The Young Person’s The Colour Monster Guide to the Orchestra Sunday 2 October 2022 12.00 noon – 1.00pm Join the LPO for a dazzling introduction to the sounds of the orchestra, through Benjamin Britten’s classic work. Meet the instruments of the woodwind, brass, string and percussion families and hear how they fit together to create that distinctive, magical orchestral sound. Conducted by our Principal Conductor Edward Gardner and presented by Rachel Leach. Suitable for children aged six and above.

Sunday 19 February 2023 12.00 noon – 1.00pm The Colour Monster is all mixed up and very confused, and he doesn’t know why. In fact, he’s all over the place! Join the LPO to help untangle the Colour Monster’s messy emotions through the wonder of orchestral music. Inspired by the gorgeous book by Anna Llenas, published by Templar Books, this interactive concert will explore music that is sad, happy, angry, calm and more. A joyful first concert experience recommended for children aged five and above.

Before the Firebird Saturday 13 May 2023 12.00 noon – 1.00pm The traditional story of the Firebird tells of a Prince, a magical bird, and their battle to defeat an evil sorcerer and release 13 captive sisters. But just how did these brave sisters end up under King Katschei’s spell in the first place? Composer Paul Rissmann and librettist Hazel Gould’s new prequel to the story may have the answer. Join us for some compelling storytelling and fantastic new participatory music, inspired by Stravinsky’s original masterpiece.

Published in the UK in 2016 by Templar Publishing. © Anna Llenas 2012

Suitable only for children aged seven and above.

Children £8–£12 Adults £16–£24 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts apply


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EDUCATION AND COMMUNIT Y EVENTS

LPO Showcase

A series of inspiring free performances and events at the Royal Festival Hall, featuring emerging artists nurtured via our Education & Community department’s talent programmes, and celebrating the joy of music-making inherent in everyone. Find out more and get programme updates at lpo.org.uk/lposhowcase

Foyle Future Firsts: Refugee Saturday 26 November 2022 | 6.00pm The LPO’s Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme bridges the transition between education and the professional platform for 17 talented orchestral musicians annually. This year’s cohort join members of the LPO and tenor Kenneth Tarver in a performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s thought-provoking song-cycle Refugee, under the baton of our Principal Conductor Edward Gardner. We also present Journey to the Sea by Arson Fahim, an Afghan composer and pianist who was born a refugee in Pakistan, and is now of a similar age to our Future Firsts. Arson Fahim Journey to the Sea Mark-Anthony Turnage Refugee Kenneth Tarver tenor Foyle Future Firsts Members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Foyle Future Firsts

OrchLab Festival Day Wednesday 30 November 2022 | times tbc OrchLab Festival Day is the culmination of this year’s OrchLab programme, delivered in collaboration with Drake Music – leaders in music, technology and disability. A celebration of accessible music-making with disabled adults, this event throws open the doors of our Royal Festival Hall home to our OrchLab community, for a fun day of live music, accessible instrument demonstrations, interactive workshops and showcasing the creativity of OrchLab participants. This free but ticketed event is open to disabled adults, their families and those who support them (over 18s only). For more information visit orchlab.org/open-events

LPO Junior Artists Friday 17 February 2023 | 6.00pm The LPO Junior Artists Programme supports exceptionally talented teenage musicians from backgrounds currently under-represented in professional UK orchestras. Junior Artists spend a season with us and become fully immersed in the workings of the LPO. They are each mentored by a member of the Orchestra, and take part in a variety of behind-the-scenes and skills-building activities, as well as events to inspire future generations of orchestral players. In this free performance, the Junior Artists perform alongside LPO musicians in a celebration of vibrant young talent.

Crisis Creates Wednesday 19 April 2023 | 6.00pm Members of Crisis – all adults who have experienced homelessness – perform original music they have devised with LPO musicians and a workshop leader during a week-long creative project. Crisis Creates offers a channel for participants to express themselves and to combat the isolation that comes handin-hand with precarious living situations. Using the music of the Orchestra as their starting point, the group creates new and powerful work which they bring to the Royal Festival Hall stage.


SUPPORTING THE ORCHESTR A

Share in the joy of music. Be a part of the LPO.

Find your place within the Orchestra’s incredible community of supporters and help ensure that we can continue to deliver world-class performances, exceptional education programmes and inspiring musical experiences for everybody. From making a checkout donation when you buy your tickets, to supporting a chair in the Orchestra, donations of all sizes make a difference.

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SUPPORTING THE ORCHESTR A

Memberships and donations

We invite you to play a role in the Orchestra. Our members and donors are a vital and valued part of the LPO community. Join our family of supporters who share our love and passion for orchestral music.

Friends

Join and enjoy a range of benefits designed to enhance your experience of our concerts and develop your relationship with the Orchestra. Friends get priority booking for Southbank Centre concerts, and opportunities to attend final rehearsals and meet LPO musicians. Support us as a Friend and help us to share the wonder of orchestral music with a wide and diverse audience. From £6 per month when paying by Direct Debit

Benefactors

Become part of a dedicated circle of supporters and enjoy access to a private bar on concert nights, a programme of special events throughout the year and opportunities to enjoy the LPO at Glyndebourne Festival. From £60 per month when paying by Direct Debit

Thomas Beecham Group

Give a major supporting gift and build significant relationships within the Orchestra. Donors can choose to have their gift associated with a player’s chair. From £5,000

Gifts in wills

Help others to experience the wonder of music by remembering the Orchestra in your will.

lpo.org.uk/support/individuals 020 7840 4212


SUPPORTING THE ORCHESTR A

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Corporate partnerships

The London Philharmonic Orchestra works with businesses to deliver the extraordinary. Both onstage and outside the concert hall, we can meet your strategic goals with bespoke partnerships that deliver results. Working with us can achieve success across multiple business areas through brand visibility, client entertaining, employee engagement and community investment. We know that every business is unique. We look forward to working with you on partnerships tailored to meet your company’s objectives.

LPO Corporate Circle

Join the LPO Corporate Circle to enjoy concerts in our London season at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. With a range of flexible options starting from just £1,800 + VAT, the LPO Corporate Circle allows businesses to meet a wide variety of objectives including entertaining clients, engaging employees and supporting your organisation’s CSR and charitable giving needs. Contact us for more information on what we can do for your business.

lpo.org.uk/corporate 020 7840 4210 corporatecircle@lpo.org.uk


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ONLINE REWARD SCHEME

LPO Plus

Earn points as you spend! LPO Plus is the online reward scheme from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. As a member of LPO Plus, you’ll be rewarded with points every time you book tickets or buy CDs online at lpo.org.uk.* These points will be worth at least 10% of the order you’re making. LPO Plus points can then be redeemed on future orders*, saving you money every time you redeem them with us. For more details and to join LPO Plus go to: lpo.org.uk/lpoplus

*Certain exclusions apply. Our multi-buy series discount is not eligible for the LPO Plus points reward. See our website for full terms and conditions of the scheme.


BOOKING

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Booking information

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Please note that series discounts across the entire 2022/23 season are only available through the London Philharmonic Orchestra ticket office and website. Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Monday to Friday 10.00am – 5.00pm (£4.00 transaction fee) lpo.org.uk (£3.50 transaction fee)

Book more, pay less: series discounts

– Book 3-4 concerts and receive a 10% discount – Book 5-7 concerts and receive a 15% discount – Book 8-10 concerts and receive a 20% discount – Book 11-14 concerts and receive a 25% discount – Book 15+ concerts and receive a 30% discount All discounts are subject to availability and cannot be combined.

Group bookings

With savings of up to 20% on ticket prices, and many other group benefits, everything has been done to help your group have an enjoyable evening with one of the world’s finest orchestras. Benefits include: – 20% discount for groups of ten or more on selected concerts – A pair of complimentary tickets for the group organiser for groups of 20+ – Exclusive ticket offers and special promotions on selected concerts – Flexible reservations until one month before the concert – No booking fee School parties: receive a 50% discount on ticket prices plus one in ten tickets free. Bookings cannot be made online. Book now 020 7840 4205 or groups@lpo.org.uk (Monday to Friday 10.00am – 5.00pm).

Southbank Centre

Our 2022/23 season concerts are part of the Southbank Centre’s classical music multi-buy offer. Book multiple concerts in the same transaction to receive a discount. For full details and to find out which events are included, visit southbankcentre.co.uk/ classicalmusic Ticket Office 020 3879 9555 Monday to Friday 10.00am – 5.00pm Weekends 12.00pm – 5.00pm (£4.00 transaction fee) southbankcentre.co.uk (£3.50 transaction fee) Booking fees apply online (£3.50) and over the phone (£4.00). There are no booking fees for Southbank Centre Members and Supporters Circles. Please note there is a £3.00 exchange fee per ticket for bookings made directly through the Southbank Centre. Ticket prices vary: see the individual concert pages for ticket price information. We reserve the right to adjust ticket prices and allocations according to demand. Premium seats: we have selected the very best seats in the front stalls to be sold at premium price to ensure you the finest acoustic and view. Age guidance: Evening concerts suitable for children aged seven and over unless otherwise stated. Please note: we will be filming a selection of our 2022/23 season concerts at the Royal Festival Hall for future streaming on Marquee TV, during which certain sections of the audience may be captured in the background (we will not be shooting close ups of any audience members). By purchasing a ticket to any of these concerts you give the Orchestra permission to be captured on film for this purpose. Should you have any concerns, please contact admin@lpo.org.uk


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BOOKING

General information

Can I exchange my tickets?

You may exchange them for another concert in the Orchestra’s Royal Festival Hall season or for a credit voucher (valid for one year only). You must contact us at least two working days before the concert if you wish to exchange your tickets. We do not offer refunds unless a concert is cancelled. The right is reserved to substitute artists and vary programmes if necessary.

Limited concessions

50% off all ticket prices for full-time students, benefit recipients (Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Universal or Pension Credit) and under-18s (maximum four per transaction. Not applicable to Family Concerts). Limited availability; appropriate ID will be checked on admission. The Southbank Centre has a limited allocation of concession tickets with a 25% discount for recipients of Universal or Pension Credit, full-time students and under-16s.

Access

Visitors with a disability can join the Southbank Centre’s free Access Scheme. You may be eligible for tickets at concessionary prices and to bring a companion who can assist you during your visit; and to receive information in alternative formats. For information, please email accesslist@southbankcentre.co.uk or visit southbankcentre.co.uk/access Sound enhancement systems are available (subject to availability) at all of the Southbank Centre’s venues. Please ask for a Visitor Assistant at the venue if you require one. The Royal Festival Hall has level access via internal lifts and ramps, and accessible toilets. For further details, please visit southbankcentre.co.uk/access The Royal Festival Hall has wheelchair spaces in the boxes, choir seats, side and rear stalls of the auditorium. Assistance dogs are welcome on site.

London Philharmonic Orchestra Resident at the Southbank Centre and Glyndebourne Festival Opera

89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP David Burke Chief Executive Elena Dubinets Artistic Director HRH The Duke of Kent KG Patron Edward Gardner Principal Conductor* Karina Canellakis Principal Guest Conductor Vladimir Jurowski Conductor Emeritus Pieter Schoeman Leader** Brett Dean Composer-in-Residence Tickets 020 7840 4242 General enquiries 020 7840 4200 lpo.org.uk *Supported by Aud Jebsen **Supported by Neil Westreich

Privacy policy

For details of our privacy policy, please visit lpo.org.uk or call to request details.


TR AVEL INFORMATION

49

Getting to the Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre is situated on the Thames riverside between Golden Jubilee Bridges and Waterloo Bridge.

There are four Blue Badge parking spaces available for visitors located on the Queen Elizabeth Hall slip road off Belvedere Road (between the Royal Festival Hall and the Hayward Gallery). Spaces are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and use of them is free. You are required to display your Blue Badge as you enter the site and vehicles that do not display a Blue Badge are refused entry. Free parking in the National Theatre car park and APCOA Cornwall Road Car Park is available to Blue Badge holders visiting the Southbank Centre. Please note: when the National Theatre building is closed there is no step-free access from the car park.

By underground to Waterloo, Embankment and Charing Cross. By rail to Waterloo, Waterloo East or Charing Cross. By bus to Waterloo. For detailed bus information call 0343 222 1234 or visit tfl.gov.uk/buses

For the latest parking updates you can also visit: southbankcentre.co.uk/ visit/getting-here

Find us

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National Theatre

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Royal Festival Hall

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Golden Jubilee Bridges

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Hayward Gallery

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London Waterloo East

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Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre Belvedere Road London SE1 8XX

London Eye

Waterloo

Waterloo Station


50

FIND OUT MORE

LPO Offstage Podcast

What does a musician’s day look like? What happens on tour? What happens when things go wrong? And why would you pour water over a double bass? Join world-renowned saxophonist and presenter YolanDa Brown as she delves deep into the world of the LPO, chatting to players and special guests to find out exactly what happens behind the scenes. Complete with fascinating stories and, of course, great music, LPO Offstage is your access-all-areas pass to the Orchestra. Listen and subscribe to LPO Offstage wherever you get your podcasts, and find out more at lpo.org.uk/podcast

Playlists from the LPO

With more than 1,000 tracks to discover, make our music part of your everyday. With playlists to help you wind down, focus, socialise or discover, we’ve hand-selected some of our favourite pieces to suit your every need and bring you closer to the Orchestra. Find specific titles

Search by mood or feeling

See our selection of playlists at lpo.org.uk/playlists and stream on Spotify and IDAGIO.


RECORDINGS / DOWNLOADS

51

London Philharmonic Orchestra Label

With a catalogue of over 100 releases, the LPO Label shares highlights of the Orchestra including live, studio, and archive recordings from past Principal Conductors and distinguished guest conductors, including Vladimir Jurowski, Klaus Tennstedt, Bernard Haitink and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Stream or download our music online from Apple Music, Spotify, IDAGIO, Primephonic, Amazon Prime Music and others. CDs are available from all good retail outlets. Explore the full catalogue at lpo.org.uk/recordings

Jurowski conducts Mahler Symphony No. 8

Jessye Norman sings Strauss: Five Songs & Salome

In this live concert recording more than 400 performers, exquisitely brought together by Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski, offer an unforgettable vision of Mahler’s great Symphony.

Recorded live in London in 1986 and conducted by Klaus Tennstedt, the late, great Jessye Norman offers two sides of Richard Strauss’s art: the lyrical and the dramatic.

LPO-0121

‘Perfectly paced’ BBC Radio 3 Record Review, Record of the Week, December 2021

Get social

There’s something for everyone over on our social media channels: performance clips, peeks behind the scenes, interviews with players, quizzes, musical analysis, and a singing dog (seriously!). Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. We’d ‘like’ it a lot.

LPO-0122


52

DIARY

The 2022/23 season

All concerts are at the Royal Festival Hall and start at 7.30pm unless otherwise stated.

September Saturday 24 September 7.00pm Schoenberg Edward Gardner Lise Lindstrom Karen Cargill David Butt Philip Robert Murray James Creswell London Philharmonic Choir Members of the London Symphony Chorus Wednesday 28 September Tchaikovsky Dutilleux Walker Dvořák Edward Gardner Jennifer France

October Saturday 1 October Wagner Vijay Iyer Mendelssohn Edward Gardner Inbal Segev Sunday 2 October 12.00 noon–1.00pm FUNharmonics The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

Wednesday 19 October Dvořák Brett Dean Brahms

Wednesday 9 November Lutosławski Agata Zubel Stravinsky

Karina Canellakis Emanuel Ax

Edward Gardner Tomoko Mukaiyama

Friday 21 October Sibelius Beethoven

Saturday 26 November Vaughan Williams Tippett

Karina Canellakis Augustin Hadelich

Andrew Manze Daniel Pioro

Edward Gardner Nadine Benjamin Sarah Connolly Kenneth Tarver Roderick Williams London Philharmonic Choir London Adventist Chorale Soloists of the Royal College of Music

Saturday 29 October J Strauss II Korngold R Strauss

Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase Foyle Future Firsts: Refugee 6.00pm

Wednesday 26 October Vaughan Williams Tom Coult

Andrés Orozco-Estrada Arabella Steinbacher

November

Wednesday 30 November Vaughan Williams Bruckner Robin Ticciati Simon Keenlyside

Wednesday 2 November Copland Douglas J Cuomo Derrick Skye Bernstein

Pre-concert events: LPO Showcase OrchLab Festival Day times tbc

Joshua Weilerstein Joe Lovano

December

Friday 4 November Chen Yi Bruch Brahms

Saturday 3 December Mahler Vladimir Jurowski

Alpesh Chauhan Randall Goosby

The London Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Arts Council England and the Southbank Centre.

Concert texts Richard Bratby Illustration Simon Pemberton Design JMG Studio Printer Impress (This brochure is produced on paper from a sustainable source). Information in this brochure was correct at the time of going to press. The right is reserved to substitute artists and to vary programmes if necessary.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is a registered charity No. 238045. The Southbank Centre is a registered charity No. 298909.


DIARY

January

February

March

April

Friday 13 January Copland David Bruce Rodrigo Gabriela Ortiz de Falla

Saturday 4 February Berlioz

Saturday 4 March George Benjamin Grieg Rachmaninoff

Wednesday 19 April Ustvolskaya Hindemith Prokofiev

Edward Gardner Leif Ove Andsnes

Vladimir Jurowski Gil Shaham

Karen Kamensek Miloš Karadaglić Wednesday 18 January Brett Dean Kinan Azmeh Rachmaninoff Enrique Mazzola Kinan Azmeh Sunday 22 January Tan Dun Tan Dun Sen Guo Huiling Zhu Kang Wang Shenyang London Philharmonic Choir London Chinese Philharmonic Choir Wednesday 25 January Coleridge-Taylor Tippett Elgar Edward Gardner Steven Osborne Saturday 28 January Mark Simpson Elgar Edward Gardner Víkingur Ólafsson

Edward Gardner Karen Cargill David Junghoon Kim Christopher Purves Jonathan Lemalu London Philharmonic Choir Members of the London Symphony Chorus London Youth Choir Friday 10 February Glinka Rachmaninoff Smetana Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider Kirill Gerstein Friday 17 February Missy Mazzoli Brahms Dvořák Kevin John Edusei James Ehnes Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase LPO Junior Artists 6.00pm Sunday 19 February 12.00 noon–1.00pm FUNharmonics The Colour Monster Wednesday 22 February Sibelius Thomas Adès Tchaikovsky Thomas Adès Saturday 25 February Ravel Chausson Franck Bertrand de Billy Danielle de Niese

Wednesday 15 March Beethoven Prokofiev Tchaikovsky Karina Canellakis Daniil Trifonov Saturday 18 March Victoria Vita Polevá Elena Langer Shostakovich Andrey Boreyko Kristina Blaumane London Philharmonic Choir Saturday 25 March Heiner Goebbels Vimbayi Kaziboni Friday 31 March Tania León Mendelssohn Sibelius Dima Slobodeniouk Beatrice Rana

Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase Crisis Creates 6.00pm Saturday 22 April Telemann Ravel Ibert R Strauss Vladimir Jurowski Ludovic Tézier Kristina Blaumane Wednesday 26 April Brett Dean Mahler Edward Gardner Emma Bell Elsa Dreisig Saturday 29 April Shostakovich Thomas Larcher Mahler Klaus Mäkelä Julian Rachlin

May Saturday 6 May Dvořák Bartók Janáček Edward Gardner Alina Ibragimova Saturday 13 May 12.00 noon–1.00pm FUNharmonics Before the Firebird



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