Norwegian violin virtuoso Vilde Frang joins Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra to perform the thrillingly cinematic and sweepingly romantic Violin Concerto by Korngold, which premiered to ecstatic audiences in the hands of Jascha Heifetz in 1947. By the time Korngold had begun his 1945 Violin Concerto, the Austrian composer had scored the soundtracks for fifteen Hollywood films. You’ll hear that cinematic sheen in his wonderful concerto, from its sweeping opening to the helter-skelter hoe-down of the finale. In his Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich proved his music could achieve mass appeal, as Stalin demanded. But beneath its brilliant tunes lies a darker, more sardonic work … The concert begins with Imogen Holst’s, the daughter of Gustav (The Planets), Persephone, a beautifully orchestrated depiction of the mythical character, with hints of Debussy and Ravel in the music. PROGRAM Imogen Holst: Persephone; Korngold: Violin Concerto; Shostakovich: Symphony No 5
Krystian Zimerman – Beethoven Piano Concertos
Krystian Zimerman and Sir Simon Rattle have reunited to record Beethoven’s Complete Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra in one marathon concert. From the youthful first to the mighty ‘Emperor’, this is a real one-off: an unprecedented meeting of great musical minds. That’s no exaggeration: the unique rapport between Zimerman and Sir Simon is based upon years of shared ideals and mutual respect. Gramophone described their partnership as “a thing of wonder”, praising their “thrilling sense of purpose”. Crucially, neither of them ever forgets that Beethoven is bigger than both of them, making this unprecedented, unrepeatable concert a worthy tribute to Beethoven at the end of this, his 250th anniversary year.
LSO: Pappano conducts Tchaikovsky and Vaughan Williams
Led by its superb chief conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, the London Symphony Orchestra invites a trio of soloists – violist Antoine Tamestit, soprano Julia Sitkovetsky, and bass-baritone Ashley Riches – to join them in an emotional and original program that pairs Tchaikovsky’s sweeping Romanticism with Vaughan Williams’s pastoral grandeur. Opening the program is the Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Two unjustly lesser-heard works by Vaughan Williams follow: first, Tamestit takes the solo role in Flos Campi, inspired by the Song of Solomon and written for the unusual combination of viola, small orchestra, and wordless chorus. Finally, Sitkovetsky, Riches, and the London Symphony Chorus perform the impassioned Dona nobis pacem, a fervent call for peace by a composer who had witnessed the senselessness of violence firsthand as a stretcher bearer in World War I and despaired to see the clouds of war gather anew in 1936. PROGRAM Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4; Vaughan Williams: Flos Campi, Dona nobis pacem
LSO: Gianandrea Noseda & Seong-Jin Cho
Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho and the music of Frederic Chopin – could there be a more instinctive pairing? Well, Cho has developed a special rapport with the London Symphony Orchestra, and his previous performances with the LSO’s principal guest conductor Gianandrea Noseda have been received with little short of rapture. Tonight, they rekindle the flame in Chopin’s impassioned Second Concerto; the luminous centrepiece of a concert that opens with Stravinsky’s colourful tribute to Tchaikovsky and ends with the high romance and epic adventure of Borodin’s Second Symphony – music close to the heart of the St Petersburg-trained Noseda. PROGRAM Stravinsky: Divertimento from ‘The Fairy’s Kiss’; Chopin: Piano Concerto No 2; Borodin: Symphony No 2
LSO: Alexandre Bloch & Alice Sara Ott
A starburst of musical colour for the new year. Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune opened new worlds of sonic sensuality, while Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra launched dazzling sonic fireworks into the grey skies of postwar Poland. The LSO and conductor Alexandre Bloch present the two masterpieces to bookend a performance by pianist Alice Sara Ott – a regular guest of this orchestra, and a firm favourite of the Barbican audience. She plays the sunlit, jazz-flavoured G major Concerto by Maurice Ravel – and the concert ends with Ravel, too: his unforgettable evocation of a world dancing on the edge, La Valse. Music to thrill the ears and intoxicate the spirit. PROGRAM Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune; Ravel: Piano Concerto in G, La valse; Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra
LSO: Antonio Pappano and Seong-Jin Cho
Beethoven’s defiant Symphony No 5 meets the sneering mockery of Shostakovich and Prokofiev in exhilarating mood. In 1945, Soviet authorities expected Shostakovich to use his Ninth Symphony to celebrate Soviet military might. What they got was a subversive, mischievous work that thumbed its nose at Stalin. Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 2 is one of the most powerful and technically challenging of all. Listen out for moments in the opening movement that test the soloist’s stamina to its limits, and a helter-skelter finale that never lets up. Fate rules over Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, a revolutionary work that grows to dramatic, sublime heights from the simple germ of its opening four notes. The LSO is joined by South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, Sir Antonio Pappano, LSO Chief Conductor, conducts. PROGRAM Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2; Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
LSO: Roth conducts Saint-Saens & Beethoven
Every revolution has its roots. The two explosive chords that open Beethoven’s Eroica symphony shook classical music to its foundations. For François-Xavier Roth, though, no artist operates in a vacuum, and tonight he places Beethoven’s era-defining masterpiece alongside the strikingly original music of one of his contemporaries from revolutionary France: François-Joseph Gossec. It’s a fascinating rediscovery – exactly what we’ve come to expect from a conductor as adventurous as Roth. Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Concerto, on the other hand, needs no introduction: In the hands of the ‘simply formidable’ (The Guardian) Bertrand Chamayou, it’ll fizz like champagne. PROGRAM Gossec: Symphonie à 17 parties; Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No 2; Beethoven Symphony No 3 “Eroica”
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: 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 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.