Two giants of British music, two blistering orchestral works from the early 20th century, as Sir Antonio Pappano begins his first season as Chief Conductor of the LSO. Elgar’s lyrical Violin Concerto was inscribed with the mysterious phrase, ‘Herein is enshrined the soul of ….’. Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang joins forces with Sir Pappano for “a concerto performance to treasure” (bachtrack). The whole ensemble glows across three emotionally wide-ranging movements – at times tempestuous, at others heartbreakingly tender. Completed in 1917, Holst’s The Planets can still surprise us. From ‘Mars’ – the piece that inspired countless film soundtracks – to the atmospheric fade-out of ‘Neptune’, this is composition on a cosmic scale.
LSO: Rattle conducts Tippett, Turnage and Vaughan Williams
An all-British programme of Tippett, Turnage and Vaughan Williams inspired by opera and jazz – including an unmissable world premiere, to celebrate Sir Simon Rattle’s 70th birthday. Rattle leads the LSO players across a glorious range of orchestral colours and styles, joined by the legendary John Scofield for a brand new Guitar Concerto. In Rattle’s own words, ‘Who better to be playing this extraordinary British music than the London Symphony Orchestra?’ PROGRAM Tippett: Ritual Dances from Midsummer Marriage; Turnage: Sco – Guitar Concerto (world premiere); Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 5
LSO: Pappano conducts Elgar and Vaughan Williams
At the time of his last symphony, Vaughan Williams had seen the damage of two world wars. The Ninth is a magnificent final statement, balancing dark with warmth, and dread with hope. Reminiscent, ruminating and spiralling: Elgar’s Cello Concerto is unlike his early works and yet remains one of his most popular, from its unforgettable opening gesture, voiced by the cello, to its haunting themes. Bax’s symphonic poem paints Tintagel Castle on a ‘sunny but not windless day’, evoking the characters who once inhabited it.
LSO: Pappano conducts Strauss and Mozart
Two portraits from a magician of orchestral colour, Richard Strauss – plus a young Mozart dances on the violin. Lisa Batiashvili is the perfect partner for Mozart’s elegant Concerto, in the final performance of her LSO Artist Portrait series, while Sir Antonio Pappano and the LSO bring out every twist and turn in Strauss’ stories. PROGRAM Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel, Ein Heldenleben; Mozart: Violin Concerto No 5
LSO: Pappano conducts Strauss, Liszt and Kendall
A blast of trumpets, a pounding of timpani: the opening of Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra heralds the rise of the sun. Stanley Kubrick used it to grab viewers’ attention in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey.But for Strauss, this is the dawn of an age full of questions: what does it mean to be alive? Joining the debate, Liszt’s Totentanz is a ferocious vision of mortality, complete with ghoulish jangling bones. And there’s a new work by Hannah Kendall, a composer whose music, in Pappano’s own words, ‘has an amazing ability to really grip the listener’. PROGRAM Kendall: O flower of fire (world premiere); Franz Liszt: Totentanz; Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra
LSO: Kirill Karabits conducts Mahler No. 4
Mahler isn’t necessarily massive, and his Fourth Symphony begins with sleighbells, birdsong, and a melody straight out of Mozart. It all seems deliciously simple. But this is Mahler, after all, and between that playful opening and the final portrayal of a child’s Heaven, there’s a whole universe of drama, emotion and heart-piercing beauty. With soprano Lucy Crowe bringing all her insight and vocal radiance to that extraordinary finale, it’ll sound lovelier and more blissful than ever.
LSO: Kirill Karabits conducts Bartok & Rozsa
Kirill Karabits conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra – plus a rare performance of the Violin Concerto by Bartók’s fellow-Hungarian (and Hollywood legend) Miklós Rózsa. New worlds for old: from exile in America, Béla Bartók and Miklós Rózsa both longed for their native Hungary. Bartók imagined the nocturnal sounds of the Great Hungarian Plain, and transformed them into a defiant shout of hope and joy for a virtuoso orchestra. Rozsa, meanwhile, took time out from Hollywood to write a violin concerto that sings, dances and positively smoulders. It all adds up to a fabulously red-blooded evening of music from Kirill Karabits and LSO leader Roman Simovic: expect dark secrets, untamed melodies, and folk-rhythms in the raw. But it’s also a portrait of two composers grappling with the 20th century on their own, undaunted, terms. Today, Rózsa is still probably best known for classic film scores like Ben-Hur and Lust for Life: this rare performance of his Violin Concerto shows that even without the pictures, he can hold an audience spellbound.
LSO: Barbara Hannigan conducts Mahler & Messiaen
Blissed-out visions of heaven from Mahler and Messiaen: the irrepressible Barbara Hannigan conducts and dreams her way to glory. Olivier Messiaen sends up a prayer, and the skies themselves seem to ring with majestic, multicoloured sounds. Mahler gets inside the mind of a child, in a symphony of blue skies, jangling sleigh bells and sudden, rapturous visions. It’s a wild ride to heaven, and the extraordinary Barbara Hannigan is there to show us the way tonight. As a singer, there’s nothing Hannigan can’t do, and as a conductor she drives straight to the places that other musicians wouldn’t dare. She’s been called ‘an artist who shoots straight for the heart and never misses’, and tonight the LSO’s Artistic Associate conducts a concert charged with wonder. PROGRAM Mahler: Symphony No. 4; Messiaen: L’ascension
LSO: Jonathan Stockhammer conducts Adams, Debussy & Ravel
Sunrises, seascapes and blue Californian skies: it’s all about colour as the LSO presents 20th-century favourites by Ravel, Debussy and John Adams. Dawn breaks in paradise, and in Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé you can hear every flurry of birdsong and glint of dew. Debussy gazes at the English Channel, and hears new worlds of sonic colour. And in 1980s San Francisco, John Adams imagines a supertanker rising from the sea and rocketing into the shining Pacific sky. PROGRAM Adams: Harmonielehre; Debussy: La mer; Ravel: Daphnis and Chloé – Suite No 2
LSO: Sir Simon Rattle conducts Messiaen
Sir Simon Rattle ends his final Barbican concert as LSO Music Director with Messiaen’s mind-blowing Turangalîla-Symphonie – an explosion of passionate emotion and ear-tingling sound.Imagine a starburst of love on a cosmic scale. Now add a colossal orchestra, an unstoppable pianist and a vintage electronic instrument straight out of science fiction, and you’re still not even half-way to imagining Messiaen’s mind-boggling Turangalîla-Symphonie. Betsy Jolas’ music is more understated – but it still packs a tremendous emotional punch. So what happier way for Sir Simon Rattle to bring down the curtain on his years as Music Director of the LSO, before he takes up the role of Conductor Emeritus? He’s joined by two of his oldest musical friends – pianist Peter Donohoe and ondes-martenot player Cynthia Millar – who also happen to be two of Messiaen’s supreme living interpreters. And with a new work from Betsy Jolas, he’s going out as he came in, with one eye fixed confidently on the future.