2023/24 concert season at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
OCTOBER
Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis conducts two concerts including works by Richard Strauss, Shostakovich and Composer-in-Residence Tania León.
SEPTEMBER
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner opens the season with Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony, featuring Sally Matthews and Beth Taylor.
NOVEMBER
Jazz pianist Julian Joseph and organist Anna Lapwood join the Orchestra for a concert including Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Saint-Saëns’s majestic ‘Organ’ Symphony.
DECEMBER
Renowned soprano Renée Fleming joins us for a festive gala concert featuring a selection of seasonal songs and arias alongside Tchaikovsky’s ‘Winter Daydreams’ Symphony.
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FEBRUARY
Conductor Oksana Lyniv makes her eagerly awaited debut with the Orchestra, conducting the UK premiere of Victoria Vita Polevá’s Cello Concerto and Dvořák’s sunny Symphony No. 8.
MARCH
The LPO celebrates the creativity in everyone during its two-week festival The Music in You, combining a range of events spotlighting elements of dance, music theatre and audience participation.
JANUARY
Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter celebrates the music of famed film composer John Williams, including the UK premiere of his Violin Concerto No. 2 as well as a selection of music from his popular film scores.
APRIL Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski completes his acclaimed Wagner Ring Cycle with a performance of Götterdämmerung featuring an all-star cast including Burkhard Fritz, Svetlana Sozdateleva and Kai Rüütel.
MAY
The final FUNharmonics Family Concert of the season presents music from America – Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. An event for all the family to enjoy.
A selection of this season’s concerts will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and available for 30 days after broadcast on BBC Sounds.
A selection of this season’s concerts will be filmed and streamed (delayed broadcast) on Marquee TV.
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A warm welcome to our 2023/24 season
It’s wonderful to share with you our 2023/24 season of concerts.
This season’s opener promises to be unmissable as Edward Gardner tackles Mahler’s monumental ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. Later in the season he returns with more highlights including Holst’s The Planets and Stravinsky’s Petrushka. Meanwhile, Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis invites us on more breathtaking musical journeys including Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4.
We believe that creativity lives in everyone, and the centrepiece of the new season is our spring festival The Music in You Reflecting our adventurous spirit, the festival embraces all kinds of expression – dance, music theatre, audience participation. Throughout the season we’ll be taking our music out of the Royal Festival Hall and into a range of other settings, from the inspiring surroundings of St John’s Church in Waterloo to the intimacy of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Battersea Arts Centre. We’ll also collaborate with artists from across the creative spectrum, including jazz pianist and composer Julian Joseph, and choreographer Wayne McGregor in a boundary-defying ballet project.
Leading the way in our quest for creativity this season is new Composer-in-Residence Tania León. With a unique voice that brings
together modernist sonorities with the rhythms and colours of her native Havana, Tania will present a brand-new work in March as part of The Music in You, and we’re thrilled that she’ll also be inspiring the next generation of creators as mentor to our LPO Young Composers. Other premieres this season include exciting new works by Daniel Kidane, Victoria Vita Polevá, Luís Tinoco and John Williams.
Artists making their debuts with the Orchestra include conductors Tianyi Lu, Oksana Lyniv, Jonathon Heyward and Natalia Ponomarchuk, accordionist João Barradas and organist Anna Lapwood. We also welcome back some of the biggest classical names including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Renée Fleming, Robin Ticciati, Paavo Järvi, Christian Tetzlaff and Danielle de Niese.
The season will end with the long-awaited conclusion of Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski’s Wagner Ring Cycle, Götterdämmerung The cycle has been consistently hailed as exceptional by audiences and press alike, and now in the role of Conductor Emeritus, Vladimir is sure to bring a new depth of understanding and storytelling to Wagner’s final Ring opera.
With music for everyone, everywhere and for every taste this season, we hope you find something to inspire the music in you!
David & Elena
Elena Dubinets Artistic Director
David Burke Chief Executive
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INTRODUCTION
Developing the next generation of music creators
The LPO welcomes Cuban-American composer Tania León, recent recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor and a Pulitzer Prize, to the position of Composer-in-Residence for two seasons, beginning in September 2023. We will perform two of Tania’s works this season and she will support the development of the next generation of music creators by mentoring the LPO Young Composers.
Tania has been an unstoppable force in expanding the horizons of classical music –through the performances she has participated in as a pianist and conductor, as a music educator and advocate, and in her own compositions. Her music merges entrancing modernist sonorities with the rhythms and colours of her native Havana.
Tania León arrived in the US from Cuba in 1967, speaking barely any English, as an accomplished pianist who had won competitions and earned degrees in piano and theory in her native
country. Her big break came a year later when she agreed to fill in for an indisposed pianist at a ballet class in Harlem. There she impressed ballet dancer and choreographer Arthur Mitchell – the first soloist of colour with the New York City Ballet – and soon became resident composer and music director of Mitchell’s newly formed Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Among the positions she has since held in the course of her distinguished career to date are the post of New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic (1993–97) and Latin-American Music Advisor for the American Composers Orchestra (1994–2001). In 2010 she became the founder and artistic director of Composers Now, an organisation with the mission of empowering living composers and celebrating their diverse voices.
We welcome Tania to the LPO and look forward to sharing her music with our audiences this and next season.
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Tania León © GAIL HADANI
Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’
Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection)
Edward Gardner conductor*
Sally Matthews soprano
Beth Taylor mezzo-soprano
London Philharmonic Choir
Edward Gardner launches the LPO’s new season with a journey to the end of the world. Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony starts with a funeral march, and finishes in a world reborn: a voyage from darkest grief to a breathtaking musical panorama of the Day of Judgment itself. If you only know it from recordings, you haven’t really experienced it fully – so join us, as soloists Sally Matthews and Beth Taylor plus the full London Philharmonic Choir commit, heart and soul, to some of the most overwhelming music that even Mahler ever composed. ‘The evening ultimately belonged to Gardner, his orchestra, and those superb choirs’, said The Guardian describing Gardner’s recent performance of Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust with the LPO. Expect more of the same!
* Edward Gardner’s position in the LPO in the 2023/24 season is generously supported by Aud Jebsen. Please note start time.
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SEPTEMBER
ARI JÓHANNSSON
BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
SATURDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2023 | 7.00PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Sally Matthews
Edward Gardner
Johan Dalene plays Sibelius
Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture
Sibelius Violin Concerto
Brahms Symphony No. 1
Edward Gardner conductor
Johan Dalene violin
Tchaikovsky’s Fourth
Beethoven Overture, Egmont
Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
Edward Gardner conductor
Christian Tetzlaff violin
Johannes Brahms spent the best years of his youth writing his First Symphony: an epic emotional autobiography that begins with the pounding of a heart in torment and ends with a hymn of triumph – and a tune you’ll never forget. But then, tonight’s concert is all about the Romantic imagination, whether the stormtossed melodies of Mendelssohn’s Scottish seascape, or the icy vistas and fiery heart of Sibelius’s only violin concerto. Edward Gardner brings all his sense of drama, and violinist Johan Dalene – well, critics have said that he ‘makes his Stradivarius sing’, and you’re about to hear why.
Hear the ringing fanfares that open Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony? For him, they symbolised Fate, and the whole Symphony is a no-holdsbarred struggle between a composer who lived by his feelings and a universe that he was convinced was out to destroy him. This is music that pulses with melody and emotion; it’s perfect for a conductor with Edward Gardner’s theatrical flair. Beethoven’s Egmont Overture tells a tale of oppression and liberation, and in the hands of the superb Christian Tetzlaff, Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto will positively blaze with colour. A concert to set the ears tingling.
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SEPTEMBER
GIORGIA BERTAZZI
MATS BÄCKER
Christian Tetzlaff
SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2023 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL WEDNESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2023 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Johan Dalene
Death and Transfiguration
R Strauss Don Juan
Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Tania León Horizons (UK premiere)
R Strauss Death and Transfiguration
Karina Canellakis conductor
Cédric Tiberghien piano
‘Truly magnificent’: critics have been grasping for words to describe the chemistry between the LPO and our Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis, and from the breathless opening flourish of Strauss’s Don Juan to the majestic climax of Death and Transfiguration you can be certain that she won’t hold back tonight. At the heart of the concert is the artistry of Cédric Tiberghien, playing Ravel’s extraordinary concerto written for a pianist who’d lost an arm in the First World War. Plus a modern classic by the LPO’s new Composer-in-Residence Tania León – a composer who ‘changed the sound of being American’.
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© MARK ALLAN OCTOBER WEDNESDAY 25 OCTOBER 2023 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Karina Canellakis
Canellakis conducts Shostakovich
Beethoven Overture, The Creatures of Prometheus
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich Symphony No. 8
Karina Canellakis conductor
Jonathan Biss piano
As his nation faced a brutal military invasion, Shostakovich poured his feelings into a symphony on a monumental scale. His Eighth Symphony is music wrought from blood, fire and steel – massive, uncompromising and so honest that after the war, the Soviet authorities banned it. Under the LPO’s inspirational Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis, it has the potential to shake you to the core: a shattering contrast to the sunlit optimism and irrepressible wit of Beethoven at his youthful best, with a soloist – Jonathan Biss – who has described Beethoven’s music as ‘the greatest joy of my life’.
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OCTOBER SATURDAY 28 OCTOBER 2023 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
© MATHIAS BOTHOR
Hélène Grimaud plays Ravel
Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Ravel Piano Concerto in G
Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 revised version)
Edward Gardner conductor
Hélène Grimaud piano
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At a Shrovetide fair in old Russia, crowds bustle and laugh as they watch the puppets dance, love, fight and die. None of it really matters; they’re just toys – aren’t they? Stravinsky’s Petrushka astonished audiences in 1911, and 112 years on its colours are as bright (and its emotions as strong) as ever. Edward Gardner pairs it with another Technicolor tale of magic with a mind of its own (think Disney’s Fantasia) and welcomes back a long-standing and celebrated friend of the LPO, Hélène Grimaud, in Ravel’s swinging, scintillating Piano Concerto in G.
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NOVEMBER FRIDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2023 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
© MAT
Hélène Grimaud
HENNEK
Julian Joseph plays Gershwin
Julian Joseph Spiritual Fiction or Fact (No. 5 of Symphonic Stories: The Great Exception)
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (Organ)
Jader Bignamini conductor
Julian Joseph piano
Anna Lapwood organ
There’s no mistaking how Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony got its nickname – and that roofraising blast of sound is something that you simply have to hear live! Now add the playing of organist Anna Lapwood, the unbounded creativity of Julian Joseph (described by The Stage as ‘the most significant jazz musician this country has produced’) and Joseph’s own improvisatory version of Rhapsody in Blue (played the way Gershwin himself would have played it). Under the charismatic direction of Jader Bignamini, making his LPO debut, the result is a concert that makes favourite classics sound new all over again.
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NOVEMBER WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2023 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Julian Joseph
Anna Lapwood
© ANDY PARADISE © MARK ALLAN/BBC
Ticciati conducts Mahler
Mahler Symphony No. 3
Robin Ticciati conductor
Alice Coote mezzo-soprano
London Philharmonic Choir
Trinity Boys Choir
Beethoven’s Fifth
Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3
Florence Price Violin Concerto No. 2*
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Kristiina Poska conductor
Pieter Schoeman violin**
‘The symphony must be like the world’: Gustav Mahler always thought big, but even by his standards, his Third Symphony is remarkable. One of the largest symphonies ever written, it’s a concert in its own right, teeming with distant trumpets, children’s songs, glittering marches and awe-struck mountaintop meditations. Mahler throws them all into the mix before ending with a ravishing hymn to love itself. It’s less a symphony, more an emotional odyssey – and with Glyndebourne Music Director Robin Ticciati, the power of two choirs and the radiant mezzo-soprano voice of Alice Coote, it should be little short of sublime.
Some composers make their own rules, and with just four notes, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony reset the agenda for Western music. It’s a timeless tale – defiant, impetuous, and as gripping now as it was in the age of revolution: worthy musical company, in other words, for two women who defied impossible odds. Leonore, the courageous heroine of Beethoven’s only opera, is a fictional character. But the pioneering African American composer Florence Price was absolutely real, and LPO Leader Pieter Schoeman steps into the spotlight to bring her neglected Second Violin Concerto to vibrant, songful life tonight.
* A grant from the ABO Trust’s Sirens programme (supporting the promotion of music by historical women composers) has made this performance possible.
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** Chair supported by Neil Westreich.
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NOVEMBER
KAUPO KIKKAS
BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
CAMILLE BLAKE
JIYANG CHE
Kristiina Poska
Robin Ticciati
Pieter Schoeman
29 NOVEMBER 2023 | 7.30PM
Alice Coote
WEDNESDAY
SATURDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2023 | 7.30PM
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Renée Fleming Festive Gala
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 (Winter Daydreams)
Seasonal songs and arias
Gergely Madaras conductor
Renée Fleming soprano
She’s been called ‘America’s reigning diva’: the soprano who conquered the Superbowl, and the most stylish Merry Widow ever to command the stage of the New York Met. She’s an artist of limitless presence and dramatic power, with a sound that seems to glow from within; unquestionably one of the greatest sopranos of our, or any, time. She’s Renée Fleming, and as Christmas approaches, she sings songs to celebrate the season, each lovingly chosen to showcase a voice that has to be heard to be believed. Tchaikovsky’s snowy first symphony sets the festive mood: go on, treat yourself!
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DECEMBER SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER 2023 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
© ANDREW ECCLES / DECCA
Renée Fleming
Scheherazade
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor)
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade
Tianyi Lu conductor
Tom Borrow piano
Music is all about stories. Ludwig van Beethoven plays a majestic piano chord, and a voice in the audience cries out ‘It’s the Emperor!’. RimskyKorsakov leafs through the pages of the Arabian Nights to find tales of robbers, genies, fabulous beasts and courageous women. It’s all there in the sounds and sensations of this gloriously tuneful LPO debut for Tianyi Lu, winner of the 2020 Sir Georg Solti Conductors’ Competition –whether the gorgeous melodies of Scheherazade, or the grandeur and glory of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, with Tom Borrow (‘A marvel!’: The Herald) as soloist.
Pre-concert events: LPO Showcase There will be events throughout the day as part of OrchLab Festival Day. See page 40 for details.
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DECEMBER WEDNESDAY 6 DECEMBER 2023 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Tianyi Lu
© MARCO BORGGREVE
© MICHAEL PAVIA
Tom Borrow
Mutter plays John Williams
John Williams Suite, Superman
John Williams Violin Concerto No. 2 (UK premiere)
John Williams The Duel from The Adventures of Tintin
John Williams Nice to Be Around from Cinderella Liberty
John Williams Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter Bernstein Suite, On the Waterfront
Jonathon Heyward conductor
Anne-Sophie Mutter violin
The music of John Williams: the Academy Award-winning composer of film scores ranging from Superman to Harry Potter. The artistry of Anne-Sophie Mutter: undisputed queen of violin virtuosos, an artist with fingers of steel and a tone of pure gold. Tonight they come together, as Mutter gives the UK premiere of Williams’s Violin Concerto No. 2. ‘I took my inspiration and energy directly from this great artist’, says Williams, and along with classic scores by Leonard Bernstein and Williams himself, it’s the centrepiece of a concert that no lover of movie music will want to miss.
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lpo.org.uk
JANUARY SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Anne-Sophie Mutter
© JAPAN ARTS © LAURA THIESBRUMMEL
Jonathon Heyward
Family Ties – The Schumanns and The Mendelssohns
Fanny Mendelssohn Overture in C major
Clara Schumann Piano Concerto
Robert Schumann Introduction and Concert Allegro
Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 (Scottish)
Sister and brother, husband and wife: for the Mendelssohns and the Schumanns, musical genius was a family affair, and when you hear their music played together it evokes a whole, wonderfully vivid world of love, friendship and imagination without limits. The distinguished Ukrainian conductor Natalia Ponomarchuk follows Felix and Fanny from their childhood home in Berlin to the moors and mists of 19th-century Scotland, while pianist Alexander Melnikov explores the relationship between Clara and Robert Schumann – a husband and wife united in their devotion to the piano, to art and to each other.
Please note venue.
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JANUARY FRIDAY 19 JANUARY 2024 | 7.30PM
HALL
VENUE: QUEEN ELIZABETH
Natalia Ponomarchuk conductor Alexander Melnikov piano
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Natalia Ponomarchuk
ALINA HARMASH
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique
Ryan Bancroft conductor
Inon Barnatan piano
A composer’s mind is an exotic place at the best of times. Still, nothing in music quite matches the fabulous, opium-fuelled phantasmagoria that is Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Born of unrequited love, and sweeping from pastoral love-scenes to the foot of the guillotine itself, it never fails to startle and amaze. Guest conductor Ryan Bancroft brings all his verve, and teams up with one of the piano’s great poets – Inon Barnatan – to find new depths in Tchaikovsky’s grandest and best-loved piano concerto. You’ve heard it before, but not like this.
Beethoven’s Seventh
Wagner Overture, The Flying Dutchman
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20, K466
Beethoven Symphony No. 7
Anja Bihlmaier conductor
Martin James Bartlett piano
Richard Wagner bowed to no artist but Ludwig van Beethoven – in fact, friends once witnessed him dancing along to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Beethoven, meanwhile, listened to a Mozart piano concerto and remarked that ‘we shall never be able to do anything like that’. Today, three geniuses are linked by passion, imagination and by sheer, elemental creative power, as Anja Bihlmaier conducts and Martin James Bartlett – renowned for his astonishing technique and maturity beyond his years –takes the soloist’s spotlight in Wagner’s stormiest overture, Mozart’s darkest piano concerto and Beethoven’s most explosive, exuberant and utterly uninhibited symphony. Genius in the raw.
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Symphonie fantastique
© MARCO BORGGREVE
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BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
Anja Bihlmaier
JANUARY WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
27 JANUARY 2024 | 7.30PM
Ryan Bancroft
SATURDAY
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Frank Peter Zimmermann plays Elgar
Elgar Violin Concerto
Schumann Symphony No. 2
Edward Elgar left more than one enigma and even today, no-one really knows the identity of the ‘soul’ whom the composer claimed to have portrayed in the music of his Violin Concerto. What we do know is that this is music of incomparable beauty and passion; British music at its most unashamedly poetic. It’s perfect, in other words, for the glorious sound and questing spirit of our soloist tonight, the extraordinary Frank Peter Zimmermann. Edward Gardner will be with him every step of the way, and follows up with Schumann’s noble, deeply romantic Second Symphony. Nourishment for heart and spirit.
Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase Foyle Future Firsts and Royal Academy of Music – 6.00pm. See page 40 for details.
FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2024 | 7.30PM
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Oksana Lyniv conducts Dvořák
Janáček Suite, The Cunning Little Vixen
Victoria Vita Polevá Cello Concerto (UK premiere)*
Dvořák Symphony No. 8
Oksana Lyniv conductor
Inbal Segev cello
‘Writing music was what I knew as life’ says the Ukrainian composer Victoria Vita Polevá, describing her childhood, and few living composers write with more beauty, more power or more unsparing emotional honesty. A Polevá premiere is a major event, and tonight we’re proud to join cellist Inbal Segev for the first UK performance of her Cello Concerto. Polevá’s compatriot Oksana Lyniv conducts, and she’s paired it with Janáček’s irrepressible fox-tale, and Dvořák’s happiest symphony. Expect sunshine, dance rhythms and birdsong: music, in other words, that makes you feel glad to be alive.
* Co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
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© SERHIY HOROBETS
FEBRUARY SATURDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Oksana Lyniv
Edward Gardner conductor
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IRÈNE-ZANDEL HÄNSSLER
Frank Peter Zimmermann
Colour and Fantasy
Stravinsky Scherzo fantastique
Francisco Coll Ciudad sin Sueño (Fantasia for piano and orchestra) (world premiere)* de Falla Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919 version)
Gustavo Gimeno conductor
Javier Perianes piano
A flash of light, a cascade of sparks: when Stravinsky’s The Firebird bursts into dazzling, glittering life, it’s the portal to a new sonic universe of fantasy and colour. Guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno guides us through that world tonight, from the simmering energy of Stravinsky’s youthful Scherzo fantastique to the perfumed harmonies and moonlit rapture of de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain Expect pure ravishment from pianist Javier Perianes, and some wonderful surprises too, as Perianes premieres a brand new concerto from one of Spain’s most imaginative young composers.
WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2024 | 7.30PM
Canellakis conducts Brahms
Mussorgsky (orch. Shostakovich)
Dawn on the Moscow River
(Prelude to Khovanshchina)
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1
Brahms Symphony No. 4
Karina Canellakis conductor
Pablo Ferrández cello
Do not go gentle into that good night: Brahms’s last symphony begins softly, but as he approaches the end of a lifetime’s struggle, he strides fearlessly into the raging storm. Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, meanwhile, is a questioning voice from an age of tyranny: tense, urgent and utterly uncompromising, it’s one of 20th-century music’s ultimate thrillers. With a soloist as committed as Pablo Ferrández, this is edge-of-the-seat stuff: just as you’d expect when LPO Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis tackles music that asks big questions, and offers honest answers.
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MATHIAS BOTHOR
Karina Canellakis
FRIDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2024 | 7.30PM
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
FEBRUARY
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
* Co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.
© MARCO BORGGREVE
Gustavo Gimeno
Ignite your inner creative
Genius. Creator. Mastermind. When an artist makes something incredible, it’s tempting to describe them with words like these – as though creativity is some sort of superpower, and famous artists are somehow more than human. But everyone can be creative, and we all have the potential to demonstrate and develop our creativity. Music comes from gifted composers and talented performers, but it’s nothing without receptive listeners –responding to its power in their own uniquely imaginative and individual way.
‘If you think about it, each of us is a creative personality’, says LPO Artistic Director Elena Dubinets. ‘Every human being has the need to express themselves creatively, and everyone has a gift and the power to do so. It's just that we sometimes apply our creativity differently.’ So this season, the LPO aims to liberate and celebrate the music in you. The goal is to demonstrate that each one of us – a professional composer, an orchestral musician, an audience member – can have a chance to express ourselves through music.
So at the Royal Festival Hall we’ll be taking the lead, performing music from across four centuries and many different countries that demonstrates, in its own way, the infinite possibilities of creativity unchained. Haydn’s oratorio The Creation seems like an obvious choice, but in fact this gloriously optimistic work was composed to cross linguistic and cultural barriers, conveying a message that even the humblest living creature shares in a universal creative spirit. Mozart’s C minor Mass – composed by one of music’s most
famous former child prodigies – reminds us that creativity knows no boundaries of age, or social convention.
Naturally, there’ll be premieres – newly created music by Composer-in-Residence Tania León and Daniel Kidane – while music by Kurt Weill and the UK premiere of Luís Tinoco’s new accordion concerto demonstrate that artistry is no respecter of rigid musical genres. And we’ll throw ourselves open to other artforms, in a daring multimedia collaboration with the choreographer Wayne McGregor that utilises cutting-edge image-making technology and the human figure to reimagine and transform Szymanowski’s ballet Harnasie into an experience that can only exist when every artistic medium – every participant – is operating at the outer limits of their creative imagination.
But The Music in You doesn’t stop there; look out for a FUNharmonics family concert, in which young concertgoers will become performers and co-creators in Clarice Assad’s É Gol! There’ll be concerts with audience participation, pre-concert talks and demonstrations, performances by members of the LPO’s Rising Talent programmes, and appearances in unexpected venues such as St John’s, Waterloo and Battersea Arts Centre. Anything, as Elena puts it, that helps us ‘unlock the unrealised potential of the human spirit’. ‘We must inspire, challenge, provoke and transform by celebrating communal creativity and removing barriers to participation’, she says. ‘That's why we are talking about music in us, in all of us’. Listen to that inner music this season –you might be excited at what you hear.
Haydn’s Creation
Haydn The Creation
Edward Gardner conductor
Louise Alder soprano
Allan Clayton tenor
Michael Mofidian bass-baritone
London Philharmonic Choir
The music in the universe meets the music in you. When Joseph Haydn wrote The Creation, he imagined an entire cosmos inspired and animated by creativity; a universe in which earthworms and angels all spring from the same irrepressible creative urge. With its roof-raising choruses, bubbling melodies and sparkling colours, The Creation is the perfect starting point for The Music in You, our celebration of creativity without barriers. Edward Gardner brings all his energy and verve to this happiest of choral masterpieces: add an all-star team of soloists, and this should be an evening to inspire.
Concert generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE. Sung in English.
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SATURDAY 2 MARCH 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL MARCH
© GERARD COLLETT © MARK ALLAN
Louise Alder
Edward Gardner
Dance Re-imagined
Tania León New work (world premiere)*
Ravel La valse
Szymanowski Harnasie**
Edward Gardner conductor
Robert Murray tenor
Creativity inspires creativity: a sound, a melody, or a whole composition can spark endless different imaginative responses. Tania León opens the concert with her first new commission as the LPO’s Composer-in-Residence. Ravel waltzes on the edge. And then Edward Gardner joins forces with multi-award-winning choreographer Wayne McGregor in a dazzling, cross-artform reinvention of Szymanowski’s ballet Harnasie. The music is sensuous and explosive; McGregor responds using digitally enhanced choreographic storytelling and a spectacular mobile sculpture to open a portal to new expressive worlds. The music is in you – where will it take you?
Free pre-concert event
6.15pm–6.45pm at the Royal Festival Hall. LPO Artistic Director Elena Dubinets discusses this evening’s programme with Tania León.
* Co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Concertgebouw Brugge.
**Harnasie is an original co-production of NOSPR
The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (initiator), London Philharmonic Orchestra (with support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute), conceived and produced by Studio Wayne McGregor. Project partner: Concertgebouw Brugge.
Concert generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE.
Tickets £51–£14 Premium seats £70 Series discounts Page 47 26 © RICK GUEST WITH OLIVIA POMP
MARCH WEDNESDAY 6 MARCH 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
An Imagination Shared
Alex Ho Breathe and Draw (for sinfonietta, two conductors and audience participation) Ryan Carter Concerto Molto Grosso (for audience and orchestra) (UK premiere)
Ligeti Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes
Charlotte Politi conductor* Luis Castillo-Briceño conductor*
Everyone is a musician, and there’s music in the sound of every breath. In St John’s Church Waterloo there’s an orchestra and an audience –but who’s to say which is which? Today The Music in You breaks out of the concert hall and surges thrillingly across the traditional boundaries of creativity. Alex Ho invites you to breathe and draw; then witness your imagination shaping wholly new sounds. And American composer Ryan Carter creates a concerto in which the audience becomes the soloist. Prepare to get creative – mobile phones should very definitely be left on!
* Inaugural participants in the LPO Conducting Fellowship programme.
The LPO Conducting Fellowship programme is generously supported by Patricia Haitink with additional support from Gini and Richard Gabbertas.
Please note venue and start time.
In partnership with St John’s Waterloo, 73 Waterloo Road, SE1 8TY.
Tickets £20 (£15 restricted view)
Series discounts not available for this performance
lpo.org.uk
27
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TUESDAY 12 MARCH 2024 | 6.30PM VENUE: ST JOHN’S CHURCH, WATERLOO MARCH
Charlotte Politi Luis Castillo-Briceño
© AKVILĖ
ŠILEIKAITĖ
Seven Deadly Sins
Luís Tinoco Accordion Concerto (UK premiere)
Weill The Seven Deadly Sins
Edward Gardner conductor
João Barradas accordion
Danielle de Niese Anna
Ross Ramgobin Brother
Callum Thorpe Mother
Zwakele Tshabalala Father
Amar Muchhala Brother
Pride is for the wealthy, and in an economic crunch there’s only one way for a girl to get ahead. Bertolt Brecht knew that back in 1933, and Kurt Weill set it to music that stings even while it slips tune after fabulously sleazy tune into your unresisting ears. Social comment has never been so shameless. Soprano extraordinaire Danielle de Niese stars in The Seven Deadly Sins, and accordion sensation João Barradas shows that no instrument is so humble that it can’t burn the house down, as Edward Gardner and the LPO head to Battersea Arts Centre to liberate The Music in You
For more venue and booking information visit: www.bac.org.uk
Please note venue and start times.
28 Tickets £25 Premium seats £30 Pay What You Can £18 (recommended) Transaction fee £1. Series discounts not available for this performance
MARCH WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH 2024 | 6.30PM & 8.15PM VENUE: BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE
© CHRIS DUNLOP / DECCA
Danielle de Niese
The Gift of Youth
Mozart Overture, The Magic Flute
Daniel Kidane Violin Concerto (world premiere)*
Mozart Mass in C minor
Edward Gardner conductor
Julia Fischer violin
Hera Hyesang Park soprano
Elizabeth Watts soprano
Pavel Kolgatin tenor
Ashley Riches bass-baritone
London Philharmonic Choir
There are no limits on creativity – Mozart gave his first performance at the age of six, composed masterpieces in his teens, and wrote The Magic Flute for a family audience in a humble local theatre. He never even completed his mighty Mass in C minor, but it’s still capable of shaking you to the soul –and after all, the music is in you. Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Choir make it speak again tonight, and our good friend, violinist Julia Fischer gives life to a brand new concerto written specially for her by the young British composer Daniel Kidane.
* Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Concert generously supported by Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet.
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now 020 7840 4242 lpo.org.uk (transaction
£51–£14 Premium seats £70 Series discounts not available for this performance
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SATURDAY 16 MARCH 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL MARCH
© MARCO BORGGREVE
©
JUNSEOB YOON PHOTOGRAPHY
©
EMILE HOLBA
© UWE ARENS
Elizabeth Watts
Hera Hyesang Park
Daniel Kidane
Julia Fischer
La Mer
Prokofiev Symphony No. 1 (Classical)
R Strauss Burleske
Sibelius The Oceanides
Debussy La mer
Dima Slobodeniouk conductor
Martin Helmchen piano
High spirits and the high seas: Debussy dreamed of being a sailor, and when he composed La mer he worried that he hadn’t done justice to the beauty of the sea. Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk disagrees, and Debussy’s symphonic seascape is a gorgeous complement to Sibelius’s musical vision of a sunlit Mediterranean. First, though, things get frisky with two young composers in a hurry: Prokofiev’s delightfully irreverent ‘Classical’ Symphony and Richard Strauss’s uproarious Burleske. Soloist Martin Helmchen is a pianist who’s not afraid to take risks, and this is definitely music to make you sit up.
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Series
Tickets £51–£14 Premium seats £70
discounts Page 47
MARCH WEDNESDAY 20 MARCH 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
©
Dima Slobodeniouk
MARCO BORGGREVE
Romeo and Juliet
Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture)
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet (excerpts)
Gemma New conductor
Randall Goosby violin
‘How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night, Like softest music to attending ears!’ Shakespeare’s star-cross’d lovers have inspired composers for centuries, but nothing quite matches Prokofiev’s great Soviet ballet: Romeo and Juliet retold in music as sharp as a rapier and as tender as a kiss. The love theme from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture, meanwhile, is still the ultimate musical shorthand for passion. It’s hot stuff, but conductor Gemma New and soloist Randall Goosby cool things down in the most elegant (and enjoyable) way imaginable – with a delicious concerto by the teenage Mozart.
Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase Crisis Creates – 6.00pm. See page 41 for details.
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lpo.org.uk
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(transaction fees may apply)
MARCH FRIDAY 22 MARCH 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Randall Goosby © KAUPO KIKKAS © ROY COX
Gemma New
Järvi conducts Bruckner
Stravinsky Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No. 7
Paavo Järvi conductor
Leila Josefowicz violin
Genius enjoys a challenge. Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto begins with a chord that was supposed to be impossible, though with a violinist as great as Leila Josefowicz (‘Wonderful virtuosity’: The Daily Telegraph) there’s no such thing as unplayable music. Anton Bruckner, meanwhile, was aiming for heaven itself, and the opening melody of his Seventh Symphony came to him in a dream. That was what he said, anyway, but in the hands of guest conductor Paavo Järvi, Bruckner’s mighty climaxes, rapturous visions and soaring Alpine vistas become the deeply moving drama of a human soul in pursuit of a vision beyond words.
WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL 2024 | 7.30PM
Seong-Jin Cho plays Beethoven
Wagner Prelude from Parsifal Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
Tippett Symphony No. 2
Edward Gardner conductor Seong-Jin Cho piano
Seong-Jin Cho
You can’t keep inspiration down. Michael Tippett heard the chugging of a steamboat on a Swiss lake, and his Second Symphony burst into vibrant, bustling life. Richard Wagner wrestled with faith and philosophy, and created music that seems to hover, glowing, in mid-air. And Ludwig van Beethoven sat down at the piano and drew music out of silence: a piano concerto more poetic, and more personal, than he’d ever created before. And with Seong-Jin Cho –a pianist making waves globally since winning the Chopin Competition – joining forces with Edward Gardner, they are sure to strike sparks off each other.
Free pre-concert event
6.15pm–6.45pm at the Royal Festival Hall. LPO Artistic Director Elena Dubinets discusses this evening’s programme with Edward Gardner.
34 Tickets £51–£14 Premium seats £70 Series discounts Page 47
© CHRISTOPH KÖSTLIN
APRIL SATURDAY 6 APRIL
7.30PM
2024 |
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
© CHRIS
LEE
Leila Josefowicz
The Planets
Dvořák Cello Concerto Holst The Planets
Edward Gardner conductor
Nicolas Altstaedt cello
London Youth Choir
Everyone has their favourite moment of Holst’s The Planets, whether it’s the warlike rhythms of ‘Mars’, the radiant calm of ‘Venus’, or the melody and majesty of ‘Jupiter’. But Holst’s masterpiece is a lot more than just magical colours and unforgettable tunes – just as Dvořák’s Cello Concerto is more than merely a magnificent showcase for one of the world’s greatest cellists. Today, cellist Nicolas Altstaedt sings songs of longing and loss, and Edward Gardner takes the LPO on a voyage beyond time and space to the outer limits of the human spirit. Familiar masterpieces made startlingly new and fresh.
Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase Junior Artists – 6.00pm. See page 41 for details.
Book now 020 7840 4242 lpo.org.uk (transaction fees may apply)
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FRIDAY 12 APRIL 2024 | 7.30PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL APRIL
Nicolas Altstaedt
© MARCO BORGGREVE
Götterdämmerung
Wagner Götterdämmerung
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Burkhard Fritz Siegfried
Svetlana Sozdateleva Brünnhilde
Brindley Sherratt Hagen
Günter Papendell Gunther
Sinéad Campbell-Wallace Gutrune
Robert Hayward Alberich
Kai Rüütel Waltraute
Claudia Huckle First Norn
Claire Barnett-Jones Second Norn
Evelina Dobračeva Third Norn
London Philharmonic Choir
London Voices
Tickets £95–£35 Premium seats £125
Series discounts not available for this performance
The world’s bravest hero and the world’s wisest woman have fallen in love. They don’t realise that the thread of Fate has already snapped –and when sinister forces ensnare the lovers, even the gods of Valhalla can only watch in horror as events accelerate towards a truly apocalyptic conclusion. As Vladimir Jurowski brings his critically acclaimed LPO Ring Cycle to its conclusion, Svetlana Sozdateleva (‘compelling’: Bachtrack) heads an outstanding international cast in a drama of star-crossed passion and ultimate evil; of treachery, courage and a love more powerful than the end of the world.
Please note this performance lasts approximately 6 hours 15 minutes including one 75-minute interval and one 20-minute interval.
Sung in German with English surtitles.
Please note start time.
Concert generously supported by members of the Orchestra’s Ring Cycle Syndicate.
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APRIL SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2024 | 3.00PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
©
©
Vladimir Jurowski
ROMAN GONTCHAROV
EMIL MATVEEV
Svetlana Sozdateleva
VENUE: ST JOHN’S CHURCH, WATERLOO
Evening chamber concerts
In partnership with St John’s Church, Waterloo
Following our hugely successful sold-out performances of Gavin Bryars’s Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet earlier in 2023, we are delighted to announce the continuation of our exciting partnership with St John’s Church, Waterloo – offering the perfect space for intimate and adventurous musical explorations.
In 2023/24, St John’s Waterloo will play host to a series of varied evening concerts, featuring musicians from the Orchestra and guest artists from our main season.
In addition to our advertised performance on 12 March 2024 (see page 27), which offers the chance for audiences to participate in creating the music, we will explore other themes through these events including a focus on wellbeing. Our partnership also includes joint Education and Community projects, including accessible, participatory musical experiences with the local communities we both serve.
Full details will be announced in due course.
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© DIRK LINDNER
Education and Community events
Sharing the wonder of classical music is at the heart of everything we do at the LPO.
Each year we engage with and are inspired by thousands of people from all walks of life through our Education and Community programme. Whether that’s a Year 1 class attending their first concert, a group of disabled adults using accessible music technology, or a talented teenage clarinettist looking to make their way into the music profession, we are committed to offering high quality music opportunities for all, across London and the South East of England. We invite you to experience some of this work through a series of concerts, free performances and events this season.
Our FUNharmonics Family concerts are the perfect way to introduce the vivid sounds of the orchestra to the youngest music-lovers in your life. These hour-long performances are specially designed for children, with a presenter weaving in audience interaction throughout, and images projected on the big screen to create a multi-sensory experience for all to enjoy. FUNharmonics concerts include free activities in the foyer spaces before the performance so the whole family can make a day of your visit to the Royal Festival Hall.
You can catch an insight into our wider programme through our LPO Showcase series, bringing talented project participants centre-stage in an array of free performances and events. Members of our Rising Talent programmes (including Foyle Future Firsts and LPO Junior Artists) give spirited performances alongside LPO players who have mentored them, and participants of two of our community projects (Crisis Creates and OrchLab) share their creativity in events that inspire, connect and empower.
Overall, our Education and Community programme reaches around 18,000 people each year. Our popular BrightSparks concerts for schools offer children and young people the opportunity to hear the Orchestra up close –and our work extends far beyond the concert hall. We support a love of music through work in schools, Overture orchestral days with young musicians, our Open Sound Ensemble with young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and through our community partnerships in London, Essex and on the south coast. Find out more by exploring the LPO website.
The LPO is grateful to all those who generously support our Education and Community programme.
38 EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY EVENTS
© HANNAH FOAKES
FUNharmonics Family Concerts
© ORLANDO PEDROSO
FUNharmonics Family Concerts
SUNDAY 29 OCTOBER 2023 | 12.00PM – 1.00PM
Prince Ivan tiptoes through evil King Kastchei’s dark and gloomy garden of stone figures. A flash of fiery gold glimmers in the corner of his eye – could it be the magical Firebird? Soon, the Prince faces the most terrifying villain in all of classical music – King Kastchei himself! Can the Firebird save the day? Featuring some of the most breathtaking orchestral music ever written, the LPO, under the baton of Principal Conductor Edward Gardner, performs extracts from Igor Stravinsky’s masterpiece, while presenter Rachel Leach weaves a tale of good versus evil that will captivate audiences and provide an unforgettable first concert experience for all the family.
HALL SUNDAY
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL
Goal! Appalachian Spring
Join the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the European premiere of É Gol! by BrazilianAmerican composer Clarice Assad, imagining a day in the life of legendary Brazilian footballer Marta Vieira da Silva as she gets ready for the big game. Created for orchestra and audience, this piece offers the whole family a chance to perform with the LPO throughout, using your voices, breath and body percussion. So grab your favourite football shirt and join us for this fun, participatory concert, culminating in a football match soundtrack finale!
Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring tells the story of a bride and a groom anticipating their future in America over 100 years ago. First composed for ballet, the luminous music makes you want to dance and sing, and includes the famous ‘Simple Gifts’ folk melody, as well as a very loud musical alarm clock! Bring the whole family and join the London Philharmonic Orchestra for a lively concert of celebration, optimism and fabulous American music.
Series discounts Page 47
Book now 020 7840 4242 lpo.org.uk
may apply) 39
(transaction fees
3 MARCH 2024
12.00PM
FUNharmonics concerts are suitable for children aged 6 and above, and include free pre-concert activities from 10.00am (FUNharmonics ticket-holders only). Children must be accompanied by an adult. 1.00PM SUNDAY 5 MAY 2024 | 12.00PM – 1.00PM
|
–
Children £8–£12 Adults £16-£24
© TALIA LASH
The Firebird
LPO Showcase – Free performances and events
Our LPO Showcase series shines a spotlight on the extraordinary range of musical talent and creativity supported by our Education and Community programme, through a series of free performances and events.
WEDNESDAY 6 DECEMBER 2023 |
OrchLab Festival Day
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. For more information visit orchlab.org/open-events
This free but ticketed event is open to disabled adults, their families and those who support them (over 18s only).
3 FEBRUARY 2024 | 6.00PM
Foyle Future Firsts and the Royal Academy of Music
The LPO’s Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme bridges the transition between education and the professional platform for 16 early-career orchestral musicians each year. Our current cohort of Future Firsts join forces with students from the Royal Academy of Music and members of the LPO for a vibrant performance conducted by our Principal Conductor, Edward Gardner. The programme features music inspired by trees, including Ácana by our Composer-in-Residence, Tania León. The piece is named after the ácana tree, which grows prolifically in León’s native Cuba, and is prized for its beauty and durability as a building material. Mabel Daniels’s Deep Forest (1931) was inspired by the New Hampshire woods, where American composer Daniels
spent several summers. The programme also includes works highlighting the talents of different sections of the ensemble, including Stravinsky’s dazzling Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Tippett’s Little Music for String Orchestra.
40 EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY EVENTS
11.00AM–3.00PM VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL SATURDAY
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
© JAMES TYE
Crisis Creates
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 hand-in-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.
LPO Junior Artists
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, Foyle Future Firsts and Junior Artist alumni in a celebration of vibrant young talent.
now 020 7840 4242 lpo.org.uk
Book
(transaction fees may apply)
22 MARCH 2024 | 6.00PM
FESTIVAL HALL
FRIDAY
VENUE: ROYAL
FRIDAY 12 APRIL 2024 | 6.00PM
41
VENUE: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
© BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
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 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.
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ONLINE REWARD SCHEME
LPO concerts on Marquee TV
Special offer for London Philharmonic Orchestra audiences
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 welcome.marquee.tv/ lpo-2023 and use the code LPO2023 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.
First-time viewing?
Register or sign in using your Facebook, Google, or Apple account to start streaming! There’s no need to start a free trial or enter your credit card details. Contact Marquee.tv or visit their FAQ page for further support.
welcome.marquee.tv
Book now 020 7840 4242 lpo.org.uk (transaction fees may apply)
LPO ON DEMAND
‘It’s like getting front row seats.’
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Marquee TV subscriber
Share in the joy of music. Be a part of the LPO.
We are delighted to present such an exciting season on and off the concert platform. We can only do so because of your support. Find your place within the Orchestra’s incredible community of supporters and help ensure that we can continue to provide inspirational 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.
SUPPORTING THE
44
ORCHESTRA
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
45
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
SUPPORTING THE ORCHESTRA
the LPO Corporate Circle to enjoy
in our
the Southbank Centre’s
With a range of flexible options starting from
£1,800 + VAT, the LPO Corporate
Contact us for more information on what we can do for your business. lpo.org.uk/corporate 020 7840 4210 corporatecircle@lpo.org.uk
concerts
London season at
Royal Festival Hall.
just
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.
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Booking information
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Please note that series discounts across the entire 2023/24 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 2023/24 season concerts in the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall are part of the Southbank Centre’s classical music multi-buy offer. Book multiple concerts from the same season (Autumn/Winter or Spring/ Summer) in one 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 southbankcentre.co.uk
hello@southbankcentre.co.uk
Booking fees apply online (£3.50) and over the phone (£4.00). There are no booking fees for in-person bookings, 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: Concerts are suitable for children aged seven and over unless otherwise stated.
Please note: we will be filming a selection of our 2023/24 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
Book now 020 7840 4242 lpo.org.uk (transaction fees may apply)
BOOKING
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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 side and rear stalls, and space for wheelchairs under 65cm wide in its boxes.
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**
Tania León 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.
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BOOKING
Getting to the Southbank Centre
The Southbank Centre is situated on the Thames riverside between the Golden Jubilee Bridges and Waterloo Bridge.
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
Find us
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.
For the latest parking updates you can also visit: southbankcentre.co.uk/ visit/getting-here
National Theatre IMAX Waterloo Station Waterloo
Hayward
Embankment Royal
BelvedereRd YorkRd Waterloo Bridge London Eye London Waterloo East
Queen Elizabeth Hall & Purcell Room Golden Jubilee Bridges
Gallery
Festival Hall
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Charing Cross Station
Southbank Centre Belvedere Road
8XX
London SE1
TRAVEL INFORMATION 49
OFF STAGE
Delve into the world of classical music with our podcast, LPO Offstage
MOBO Award-winning saxophonist and presenter YolanDa Brown sits down with LPO players, world-leading artists and special guests to talk all things classical music. Hear fascinating stories, take a peek behind-the-scenes, deep dive into iconic music and get to know the wonderful people behind the instruments.
If you love classical music or want to learn more about it, you’re in the right place. Find us on your favourite podcast app.
lpo.org.uk/podcast
London Philharmonic Orchestra Label
The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s most recorded orchestras. In 2005, we established our own record label. Since then, we’ve been sharing live recordings of orchestral and choral masterpieces, new and old, capturing the excitement of live concerts for you to enjoy over and over again.
Keep in touch
Behind the scenes peeks, interviews with artists, quizzes, polls and TikTok trends –our social media channels are full of ways to stay up-to-date with all things LPO and get your daily classical music fix! Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to join the fun.
Get LPO news and updates sent straight to your inbox by signing up to our email mailing list. Just scan the QR code below. to sign up.
You can stream or download our music online from Apple Music, Spotify, IDAGIO, Amazon Prime Music and others. CDs are available from all good retail outlets.
Visit lpo.org.uk/recordings to explore our full catalogue of over 100 releases.
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RECORDINGS / KEEP IN TOUCH 51
IGNITE THE MUSIC IN YOU
The 2023/24 season
All concerts are at the Royal Festival Hall and start at 7.30pm unless otherwise stated.
September
Saturday 23 September 7.00pm
Mahler
Edward Gardner
Sally Matthews
Beth Taylor
London Philharmonic Choir
Wednesday 27 September
Mendelssohn
Sibelius
Brahms
Edward Gardner
Johan Dalene
Saturday 30 September
Beethoven
Bartók
Tchaikovsky
Edward Gardner
Christian Tetzlaff
October
Wednesday 25 October
R Strauss
Ravel
November
Friday 3 November
Dukas
Ravel
Stravinsky
Edward Gardner
Hélène Grimaud
Wednesday 22 November
Julian Joseph
Gershwin
Saint-Saëns
Jader Bignamini
Julian Joseph
Anna Lapwood
Saturday 25 November
Mahler
Robin Ticciati
Alice Coote
London Philharmonic Choir
Trinity Boys Choir
Wednesday 29 November
Beethoven
Florence Price
Kristiina Poska
Pieter Schoeman
The London Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Arts Council England and the Southbank Centre.
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Information
The London Philharmonic Orchestra is a registered charity No. 238045. The Southbank Centre is a registered charity No. 298909.
World Land Trust logo here
Tania León
Karina Canellakis
Cédric Tiberghien
Saturday 28 October
Beethoven
Shostakovich
Karina Canellakis
Jonathan Biss
Sunday 29 October 12 noon – 1.00pm
FUNharmonics
Family Concert
The Firebird
December
Saturday 2 December
Tchaikovsky
Seasonal songs and arias
Gergely Madaras
Renée Fleming
Wednesday 6 December
Beethoven
Rimsky-Korsakov
Tianyi Lu
Tom Borrow
LPO Showcase
OrchLab Festival Day 11.00am–3.00pm
52 DIARY
Concert texts Richard Bratby
Illustration Selman Hoşgör Design JMG Studio
Impress (This brochure is produced on paper from a sustainable source).
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.
January
Saturday 13 January
John Williams
Bernstein
Jonathon Heyward
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Friday 19 January
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Fanny Mendelssohn
Clara Schumann
Robert Schumann
Felix Mendelssohn
Natalia Ponomarchuk
Alexander Melnikov
Wednesday 24 January
Tchaikovsky
Berlioz
Ryan Bancroft
Inon Barnatan
Saturday 27 January
Wagner
Mozart
Beethoven
Anja Bihlmaier
Martin James Bartlett
February
Saturday 3 February
Elgar
Schumann
Edward Gardner
Frank Peter Zimmermann
Pre-concert event:
LPO Showcase
Foyle Future Firsts and Royal Academy of Music
6.00pm
Friday 9 February
Janáček
Victoria Vita Polevá
Dvořák
Oksana Lyniv
Inbal Segev
Friday 16 February
Stravinsky
Francisco Coll de Falla
Gustavo Gimeno
Javier Perianes
Wednesday 21 February
Mussorgsky (orch. Shostakovich)
Shostakovich
Brahms
Karina Canellakis
Pablo Ferrández
March
Saturday 2 March
The Music in You
Haydn
Edward Gardner
Louise Alder
Allan Clayton
Michael Mofidian
London Philharmonic Choir
Sunday 3 March
12 noon – 1.00pm
The Music in You FUNharmonics
Family Concert Goal!
Wednesday 6 March
The Music in You
Tania León
Ravel
Szymanowski
Edward Gardner
Robert Murray
Tuesday 12 March
St John’s Waterloo
6.30pm
The Music in You
Alex Ho
Ryan Carter
Ligeti
Charlotte Politi Luis Castillo-Briceño
Wednesday 13 March
Battersea Arts Centre
6.30pm and 8.15pm
The Music in You
Luís Tinoco
Weill
Edward Gardner
João Barradas
Danielle de Niese
Ross Ramgobin
Callum Thorpe
Zwakele Tshabalala
Amar Muchhala
Saturday 16 March
The Music in You
Mozart
Daniel Kidane
Edward Gardner
Julia Fischer
Hera Hyesang Park
Elizabeth Watts
Pavel Kolgatin
Ashley Riches
London Philharmonic Choir
Wednesday 20 March
Prokofiev
R Strauss
Sibelius
Debussy
Dima Slobodeniouk
Martin Helmchen
Friday 22 March
Tchaikovsky
Mozart
Prokofiev
Gemma New
Randall Goosby
Pre-concert event:
LPO Showcase
Crisis Creates
6.00pm
April
Saturday 6 April
Stravinsky
Bruckner
Paavo Järvi
Leila Josefowicz
Wednesday 10 April
Wagner
Beethoven
Tippett
Edward Gardner
Seong-Jin Cho
Friday 12 April
Dvořák
Holst
Edward Gardner
Nicolas Altstaedt
London Youth Choir
Pre-concert event:
LPO Showcase
LPO Junior Artists 6.00pm
Saturday 27 April 3.00pm
Wagner
Vladimir Jurowski
Burkhard Fritz
Svetlana Sozdateleva
Brindley Sherratt
Günter Papendell
Sinéad Campbell-Wallace
Robert Hayward
Kai Rüütel
Claudia Huckle
Claire Barnett-Jones
Evelina Dobračeva
London Philharmonic Choir
London Voices
May
Sunday 5 May
12 noon – 1.00pm
FUNharmonics
Family Concert
Appalachian Spring
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