Southbank Centre's International Orchestra Series 2014/15

International Orchestra Series 2014/15

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Simon Rattle ŠMonika Rittershaus

International Orchestra Series 2014/15 Southbank Centre brings the world's best orchestras to London in The International Orchestra Series. This season we welcome performers from as far afield as America, Russia and Australia.

A musical pairing that has packed concert halls right across the globe, Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela return to Southbank Centre. We are extremely excited to be welcoming them back to their London home.

Also returning to us is another huge figure in music, Daniel Barenboim. He appears solo, performing a cycle of Schubert piano sonatas in Royal Festival Hall, and with the Staatskapelle Berlin as conductor. Together these concerts form The Barenboim Project.

Sir Simon Rattle celebrates his 60th Birthday with The London Residency 2015, a series of concerts and participation work with local schoolchildren at both Southbank Centre and Barbican.

From orchestral classics to cutting-edge new works, International Orchestra Series is a celebration of exceptional talent and the joy of hearing phenomenal live music in the flesh.

Gillian Moore MBE Head of Classical Music, Southbank Centre

Gustavo Dudamel © Anna Hult

Front cover images (clockwise): Martha Argerich © Adriano Heitman, Gustavo Dudamel © Vern Evans, Magdalena Kožená © Karen Robinson, Simon Rattle © Monika Rittershaus.

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‘If there’s a better chamber orchestra in the world today, I haven’t heard it’

Australian Chamber Orchestra © Jon Frank

(The Guardian)

Australian Chamber Orchestra Saturday 4 October 2014

Richard Tognetti artistic director, lead violin Steven Osborne piano Haydn Symphony No.83 (La Poule) Mozart Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat, K.595 Jonny Greenwood Water (UK premiere) Mozart Symphony No.29 in A A sell-out last time they performed at Southbank Centre, the Australian Chamber Orchestra shows off its impressive artistry in a diverse concert of 18th-century gems and a 21st-century premiere.

Haydn’s Symphony No.83 sees the composer at his best, mixing poise and guts. Meanwhile Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.27 and Symphony No.29 are packed with radiant lyricism and conjure up the elegant salons and concert halls of the European Enlightenment.

The second half opens with a new work

by Radiohead guitarist/musician Jonny Greenwood – a successful composer in his own right for films and concert hall. His textural compositions explore the outer reaches of the orchestral soundworld and unusual performance techniques.

Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm Premium Seats £40 £32, £25, £20, £15 Transaction fees may apply*

tickets 0844 847 9934 southbankcentre.co.uk/classical

Yuri Temirkanov

Saturday 8 November 2014

Yuri Temirkanov, Maxim Vengerov & St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra Yuri Temirkanov conductor Maxim Vengerov violin Lyadov Kikimora Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Shostakovich Symphony No.10 in E minor Repertoire to stir the soul and musicians with the magic touch – the best of Russia comes to Southbank Centre.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is performed by Maxim Vengerov, an artist once again thrilling audiences following his sabbatical.

Equally as passionate, but presenting another view of Russia, is Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10. This work was premiered immediately after the death of Soviet dictator Stalin by the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

From the turbulent first movement, to the show-stopping crescendo of the last, it travels through beauty, satire and violence.

‘There’s nothing better than hearing Russian music played by a top Russian orchestra, and the St Petersburg Philharmonic is probably the best there is’ (Birmingham Post)

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Premium seats £75 £55, £38, £25, £15 Transaction fees may apply*

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Simón Bolívar Orchestra © Jennifer Taylor

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Gustavo Dudamel, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela Thursday 8 & Friday 9 January 2015

Always a sell-out when they come to Southbank Centre, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela make a welcome return to its London home for two nights.

Made up of 200 vibrant, charismatic and brilliant performers between the ages of 17 and 30, the orchestra is the flagship of Venezuela’s El Sistema music programme and is led by Gustavo Dudamel.

Now in his 15th season as their Music Director, Dudamel has rock-star status among audiences of all ages worldwide, as well as caring deeply about the power of music to change lives.

Repertoire to be announced.

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Premium seats £85 £65, £45, £28, £15 Transaction fees may apply*

tickets 0844 847 9934 southbankcentre.co.uk/classical

‘The players... were afire with exuberance’ (The New York Times)

Magdalena Kožená © Karen Robinson

Sir Simon Rattle, Berliner Philharmoniker Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 February 2015

Sir Simon Rattle conductor Kate Royal soprano Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano London Symphony Chorus City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus Lachenmann Tableau Mahler Symphony No.2 (Resurrection) To celebrate his 60th birthday Rattle conducts two rare UK performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, treating audiences to one of his signature pieces, Mahler’s Symphony No.2. This is preceeded by the ghostly beauty of Lachenmann’s virtuosic Tableau.

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Returns only Premium seats £95 £70, £50, £35, £25 Transaction fees may apply*

Gustavo Dudamel © Adam Latham

Part of The London Residency 2015 Sir Simon Rattle and Berliner Philharmoniker appear at Southbank Centre as part of a five-concert residency and education programme also taking place at the Barbican in February 2015.

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Martha Argerich © Adriano Heitman

Daniel Barenboim © David Levene

‘The Berlin Staatskapelle just can’t put a finger wrong’ (The Independent)

Daniel Barenboim, Staatskapelle Berlin Monday 20 April 2015

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Daniel Barenboim conductor Martha Argerich piano

Daniel Barenboim conductor Lisa Batiashvili violin

Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 Strauss Ein Heldenleben

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Elgar Symphony No.2

As part of Southbank Centre’s The Barenboim Project, Barenboim applies his extraordinary musicianship to Richard Strauss’ orchestral tone poem Ein Heldenleben. This soaring, colourful depiction of ‘a hero’s life’ comes complete with blazing trumpets, angular squeaks and snarls to suggest the pettiness of his adversaries and tender melodies to conjure the hero’s companion.

A second concert by Daniel Barenboim at his London home, performing with Lisa Batiashvili and the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Martha Argerich – a pianist who has been described as ‘both a poet and a tiger on stage’ – performs a much-loved staple of her repertoire, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1.

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Premium seats £85 £65, £45, £28, £15 Transaction fees may apply*

Consistently voted an audience favourite, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto – a deeply felt work full of melodic vitality, soul and virtuosic brilliance – is performed by Batiashvili, described by The Times as ‘the complete musician’.

Elgar’s Symphony No.2 – a full-bodied Romantic journey for the orchestra – was described by the composer as ‘the passionate pilgrimage of the soul’. It moves from the poignant first movement through a slow-moving funeral march and a playful dance before concluding with a moving finale of great warmth.

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Premium seats £85 £65, £45, £28, £15 Transaction fees may apply*

tickets 0844 847 9934 southbankcentre.co.uk/classical

Ivan Fischer © Chris Christodoulou

Maria João Pires © Felix Broede

Iván Fischer, Budapest Festival Orchestra Wednesday 20 May 2015

Iván Fischer conductor Maria João Pires piano Mozart Overture, The Magic Flute Mozart Piano Concerto No.9, K.271 Brahms Symphony No.1 The Budapest Festival Orchestra, celebrated for its spontaneity and fiery intensity, are joined by pianist Maria João Pires and led by Iván Fischer, a conductor renowned for his originality and galvanising effect on stage.

The concert opens with Mozart’s joyful, bubbling Overture to his opera The Magic Flute before Pires takes to the piano for the composer’s delicate, delightful Piano Concerto No.9.

Brahms’ brooding Symphony No.1 steers the concert into more troubled waters. The epitome of the Romantic orchestral statement, it takes its inspiration from Beethoven.

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Premium Seats £65 £50, £35, £20, £10 Transaction fees may apply*

‘[Iván Fisher] doesn’t shape the music through gesture so much as impersonate it with his whole body, and the orchestra responds in kind’ (The Daily Telegraph)

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Yannick Nézet-Séguin, The Philadelphia Orchestra Friday 5 June 2015

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Lisa Batiashvili violin Muhly New work (UK premiere) Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1 Rachmaninov Symphony No.3 Rachmaninov’s Symphony No.3 – which The Philadelphia Orchestra premiered in 1936 – is the composer’s most expressively Russian symphony. Wrapped in warm melodies, the work drips with the rich 19th-century orchestral tradition of Rachmaninov’s homeland.

Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 was suppressed by the composer in fear that its emotional power might be too much for the Soviet censors. It begins as if creeping through the twilight, before flowing into a tour de force for the solo violin.

We also hear a UK premiere by rising star, Nico Muhly, a composer whose work spans many different musical worlds. He has been championed by the musical establishment, leading to an opera with the English National Opera (Two Boys), Royal Ballet commissions and Proms premieres.

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Premium seats £75 £55, £38, £25, £15 Transaction fees may apply*

Saturday 6 June 2015

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Emanuel Ax piano Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3 Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 Hear one of the US’s top orchestras perform Tchaikovsky and Beethoven.

Described as having a claim to be ‘the most distinguished American pianist alive’ by Ivan Hewett (Daily Telegraph), Emanuel Ax makes a rare visit to Southbank Centre to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3.

At the concerto’s first performance Beethoven performed nearly the whole solo from memory – the score was reported to contain only ‘Egyptian hieroglyphs’ as he had not had time to write the music down on paper. Thankfully, it has since been completed.

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.5 is an audience favourite. Saturated with emotion, it features moments of volcanic eruption and an outpouring of melodic emotion, particularly in the moving horn solo which opens the second movement.

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Premium seats £75 £55, £38, £25, £15 Transaction fees may apply*

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Yannick Nézet-Séguin © Marco Borggreve

Lisa Batiashvili

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