LSO: Rattle conducts Haydn “The Seasons”

The London Symphony Chorus celebrate its 50th anniversary with Haydn’s ‘nature’ oratorio The Seasons, a stellar cast of international singers and Sir Simon Rattle. The Seasons is divided in to four sections: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter charting a musical year with rousing choruses, a riotous wine tasting with dancing peasants, a loud thunderstorm, even the croaking of frogs. In his old age Haydn achieved fame and fortune in London following visits here in the 1790s. ‘Papa Haydn’ was encouraged to write The Seasons by the great success of his previous oratorio The Creation, which was performed all over Europe.

LSO: Rattle conducts Haydn & Bartok

Music Director Designate Sir Simon Rattle conducts the work of a composer who has always been close to his heart: Haydn. To begin, the “Prelude and Liebestod” from Wagner’s ground-breaking opera, Tristan and Isolde, leads to Bartók’s notorious technically demanding Piano Concerto No. 2, all racing scales, fistfuls of notes and frantically quick tempos. Rattle himself calls the final part of the programme ‘an eccentric journey through Haydn’. ‘I thought how wonderful it would be if all the most outlandish and particularly the most forward-looking pieces of his were all put together like a kind of ‘greatest hits’,’ he says. ‘The idea is to make a musical journey through all that is quirky and extraordinary, humorous and profound in Haydn. Hopefully this pasticcio will give a picture of the composer who most summed up all the ideals of the Enlightenment, of intelligence, respect, humour, wit and profound thought.’ Program WAGNER: “Prelude and Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde; BARTÓK Piano Concerto No 2; HAYDN An imaginary orchestral journey – featuring excerpts from Symphonies Nos 6, 45, 46, 60, 64, 90 and 101; ‘The Creation’, ‘The Seasons’, ‘The Desert Island’ and ‘The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross’

LSO: Haitink conducts Mozart & Bruckner

The London Symphony Orchestra celebrates a milestone birthday of one of the greats of the conducting world, Bernard Haitink. Bernard Haitink is revered alike by the musicians of the orchestras he conducts and the music-lovers in the audience. A week after his 90th birthday, the London Symphony Orchestra – with which he has a particularly special partnership – celebrates this milestone with the conductor himself. Soloist Till Fellner – who describes Haitink as ‘a very noble man and musician’ – plays Mozart, before Haitink turns to Bruckner, a composer whose majestic symphonies have been at the centre of his career over the decades. PROGRAM Mozart: Piano Concerto No 22; Bruckner: Symphony No 4

LSO: Gardiner conducts Schumann & Mendelssohn

Sir John Eliot Gardiner leads a journey through the Romanticism of Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann. The Overture to Weber’s grand opera Euryanthe, which has taken on a life of its own in the concert hall, is a window onto some of the most exciting moments of the whole work. Isabelle Faust and Kristian Bezuidenhout then present Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Piano, which elegantly balances a measure of Classical restraint against rich and Romantic displays of feeling. We close with Schumann’s Third Symphony. One of the composer’s most impressive, it paints a euphoric picture of the German Rhineland in broad Beethovenian style, closing with an exhilarating finale. PROGRAM Weber: Euryanthe Overture; Mendelssohn: Concerto for violin and piano; Schumann: Symphony No 3

LSO: Rattle conducts Folk Roots, Urban Roots

Jubilent Eastern European folk music, swinging Latin American rhythms and toe-tapping jazz are brought together in an ambitious programme featuring the legendary Labeque Sisters under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. PROGRAM Bartok: Hungarian Peasant Songs; Szymanowski: Harnasie; Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto; Golijov: Nazareno; Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue and Riff

LSO: Noseda conducts Shostakovich

Shostakovich’s music is such an important chronicle of life in 20th century Soviet Russia, and the Tenth Symphony written after Stalin’s death portays the tragedy, despair, terror and violence of his tenure. Masterfully conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. PROGRAM Shostakovich: Symphony No 10

LSO: Rattle conducts Mahler and Tippett

From blissful radiances to a last lament, Sir Simon Rattle conducts the final works of Sir Michael Tippett and Gustav Mahler. Tippett never shied away from breaking new musical ground, and his last major work, ‘a song without words for orchestra’, was no exception. Inspired by journeys to Senegal, The Rose Lake is the imaginary chant of the breathtaking, rose-hued Lake Retba. Each section of the orchestra is illuminated, with driving percussive forces and soaring melodies portraying a euphoric awakening of the landscape. The Rose Lake is a hymn of nature; but Mahler’s final work, left unfinished and restored after years of collaboration, is the cry of a desperate man. Condemned to life with a fatal heart condition and a failing marriage, his Tenth Symphony is a heartrending goodbye – as the composer himself inscribed on the manuscript, ‘farewell, farewell’. PROGRAM Tippett: The Rose Lake; Mahler: comp COOKE Symphony No 10

LSO: Bychkov conducts Mahler

Hear the full power of the LSO, soloists and chorus, as they take on Mahler’s epic ‘Ressurection’ Symphony. PROGRAM Mahler: Symphony No 2