London Philharmonic Orchestra 2021/22 season brochure - Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall

2021/22 concert season at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

Every breath every melody every whisper every emotion every tingling spine every silence every strike of the baton every dimmed light every note held every goosebump every empty chair filled every moment of wonder The new season awaits.

Highlights 2021/22

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

Edward Gardner makes his debut as Principal Conductor with Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage featuring Sophie Bevan, Robert Murray and Susan Bickley.

Page 03

Marin Alsop is joined by extraordinary cellist Kian Soltani in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, alongside Brahms’s Symphony No. 4.

Page 12

Principal Conductor Edward Gardner continues the season with Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Lutosławski’s dramatic Cello Concerto with Nicolas Altstaedt.

Page 04

Julia Fischer joins the Orchestra as Artist-inResidence for four concerts featuring all five of Mozart’s Violin Concertos, and a programme of chamber music.

Page 15

In her first concert as Principal Guest Conductor, Karina Canellakis conducts a programme of Sibelius, Gershwin and John Adams.

Page 07

The world premiere of Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto will be performed alongside his Batman Suite and excerpts from Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings Symphony.

Page 26

Mark Elder conducts the UK premiere of James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio with soloists Lucy Crowe and Roderick Williams.

Page 08

Renée Fleming joins the Orchestra for an evening of opera including works

by Verdi and Richard Strauss conducted

by Enrique Mazzola.

Page 29

A selection of this season’s concerts will be filmed and streamed (delayed broadcast) on Marquee TV.

May

A fitting end to the season, Principal Conductor Edward Gardner conducts Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Magdalena Kožená and Andrew Staples as soloists.

Page 34

FUNharmonics

In November the Orchestra performs excerpts from Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in an interactive family concert for children aged six and above.

Page 37

A selection of this season’s concerts will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and available for 30 days after broadcast on BBC Sounds.

INTRODUCTION

01

A warm welcome to our 2021/22 season

Following one of the most turbulent periods in LPO history, it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you all to our 2021/22 season of concerts as at last we return to live performance in our Royal Festival Hall home. It is a season that we are greatly excited by, and it offers something for all audiences, old and new.

September 2021 heralds the start of a new era as we welcome our new Principal Conductor, Edward Gardner, who opens the season with a concert performance of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage: a wonderfully fitting celebration of hope and renewal. Other treats in store with Gardner this season include Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and an homage to Oliver Knussen; and collaborations with some fantastic soloists including Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Bryn Terfel and Magdalena Kožená.

© Irina Zakharova

This season also sees our much-anticipated first London concerts with Karina Canellakis as Principal Guest Conductor. As well as taking a look through a fresh lens at Beethoven and plunging into the intense world of Shostakovich, this season Karina will also champion music

by Scriabin, Wagner, John Adams and Lili Boulanger. Vladimir Jurowski will return in his new role of Conductor Emeritus with programmes of Rachmaninoff, Bruckner, Shostakovich and Enescu, and our lineup of guest conductors includes Mark Elder, Marin Alsop and Tan Dun, as well as Klaus Mäkelä with his long-awaited London debut.

Our fabulous lineup of soloists this season include Renée Fleming, Stephen Hough, Mitsuko Uchida, Roderick Williams, Colin Currie, and in particular we are delighted to welcome stellar violinist Julia Fischer as Artist-in-Residence throughout 2021/22. During the season Julia will explore all five of Mozart’s violin concertos, as well as the Elgar Concerto with Vladimir Jurowski, and directs a chamber concert alongside our talented LPO Principal players.

She will also take part in masterclasses and education activities across the season.

We continue to celebrate new music this season with premieres of a Cello Concerto

by Composer-in-Residence Brett Dean, Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto, Jimmy López’s Piano Concerto, the belated UK premiere of James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio, and Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion, which brings together Western and traditional Chinese instrumentation. We also look forward to presenting composer focuses on Lili Boulanger and Oliver Knussen, and the launch of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Vaughan Williams, and we are delighted to welcome back our family audiences for a FUNharmonics concert in November exploring the music of Berlioz.

We also look forward to continuing to work with Marquee TV and making our concerts available to stream on demand.

I am sure that we have all experienced the transformative power of music in the last year.

It lifts you when you are low, calms you when you are anxious, it can evoke memories, and it can take your imagination on new journeys.

What excites us now is the chance again to experience every note and emotion together.

David Burke Chief Executive, London Philharmonic Orchestra

02

A NEW DIRECTION

Edward Gardner Our new Principal Conductor The arrival of a new Principal Conductor is a big moment in the life of any orchestra. And coming out of the year we’ve just had, Edward Gardner’s first season directing the LPO is a landmark in every sense. ‘I’m thrilled to have been appointed Principal Conductor’, he says. ‘I worked with the Orchestra early in my career and I was quite overwhelmed by the brilliance and virtuosity of the musicians.’

Gardner’s first season takes that energy and runs with it. He’s opening with a real statement of intent: Tippett’s opera The Midsummer Marriage is a celebration of hope and renewal – a real starburst of optimism. To make it even more of a celebration, Gardner has invited his old colleagues from across the river at the Coliseum, the Chorus of English National Opera.

Edward Gardner

That’s just the start of a season filled with old friends and new. Gardner conducts contemporary music from the USA, a tribute to Oliver Knussen, freshly-minted masterpieces from Composerin-Residence Brett Dean, and collaborations with Bryn Terfel and Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

Plus, of course, the landmarks of the symphonic repertoire, from Berlioz to Mahler. ‘I’ve relished the passion and hunger the LPO brings to performance’, says Gardner: things are about to get exciting.

SEPTEMBER

Please note start time Sung in English with surtitles

Tippett The Midsummer Marriage Edward Gardner conductor Robert Murray Mark Sophie Bevan Jenifer Ashley Riches King Fisher Jennifer France Bella Toby Spence Jack TBA Sosostris Susan Bickley She-Ancient Clive Bayley He-Ancient London Philharmonic Choir ENO Chorus

Saturday 25 September 2021 | 6.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

‘The sun! The sun! Ah, midsummer morning!’

Powered by hope and glowing with an irrepressible life-force, Michael Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage burst like a huge, colourful blossom into the grey world of postwar British music. There’s still nothing quite like it: a dazzling modern myth of hope and renewal, ritual and romance, all told in some of the most deliriously beautiful music ever written in these isles. There’s no more potent – or thrilling – way for Edward Gardner to make his debut as the LPO’s Principal Conductor, as the LPO joins forces with the ENO Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir and a world-class, all-British cast for this landmark concert performance.

© Helge Skodvin

The Midsummer Marriage

03

04

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

Fantastic Symphony

Friday 1 October 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

L Boulanger D’un matin de printemps Lutosławski Cello Concerto Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Edward Gardner conductor Nicolas Altstaedt cello

© Marco Borggreve

Nicolas Altstaedt

Frustrated in love, a young musician of deep sensitivity and ardent imagination takes opium. That’s how Hector Berlioz sets up his Symphonie fantastique – a story of gothic horror and glittering excess, rolled into one roof-raising musical phantasmagoria and scored for the biggest orchestra the world had then seen.

It’s a fabulous way for the LPO’s new Principal Conductor Edward Gardner to raise the curtain on our new season, and a fitting counterpart to the teeming imagination and dramatic power of Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto – played by the superb Nicolas Altstaedt. Lili Boulanger brings up the curtain: a breath of spring air, on an autumn day.

In Bluebeard’s Castle

Saturday 6 November 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

Sung in Hungarian with English surtitles

Series discounts Page 43

Haydn Symphony No. 90 Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle

‘In wars outside the blood runs red/Here is something far more deadly, ladies and gentlemen’. Duke Bluebeard’s castle has seven doors, and his new wife Judith is determined to open them all. But some questions are best left unanswered, and in Bartók’s gripping psychological thriller, even the darkest secrets have a terrible beauty. Together with two charismatic soloists, Edward Gardner will bring all his sense of theatre to this dark fairytale; first, though – since day precedes night – he opens with the blazing sunlight of Haydn’s exuberant 90th Symphony. Two very different musical visions in one unforgettable evening.

Ildikó Komlósi

© Agentur Punto Opera

Edward Gardner conductor Ildikó Komlósi mezzo-soprano John Relyea bass

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NOVEMBER

Landscapes and Love Songs

05

Wednesday 10 November 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Grieg Lyric Suite Schumann Piano Concerto Sibelius Symphony No. 2 Edward Gardner conductor Jan Lisiecki piano

© Christoph Köstlin/Deutsche Grammophon

Jan Lisiecki

For some listeners, it’s an elemental force: a mighty river of sound. For others, it’s the song of a nation awakening to freedom. But however you hear it, few sonic experiences are more invigorating than Sibelius’s Second Symphony, a musical journey that begins amidst the sounds of nature and ends in a surge of triumph.

Edward Gardner has a very special way with Scandinavian music; just as the outstanding young Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki understands exactly how to make Schumann’s lovely Piano Concerto dance and sing. Grieg’s warm-hearted miniatures make the perfect opener, setting the mood for mystery, adventure – and romance.

Generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE.

Seascapes and Visions

Wednesday 24 November 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Messiaen Les offrandes oubliées Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune Debussy La mer Klaus Mäkelä conductor Truls Mørk cello

Klaus Mäkelä

Debussy’s one regret about La mer was that it wasn’t quite gorgeous enough. ‘I have slandered the sea’, he wrote. ‘Today it is beautiful enough to defy all comparisons’, and like the orchestral dreamscape of his Prélude, it’s one of those pieces that seems to be conjured out of the colours and perfumes of nature itself. For our dynamic young guest conductor Klaus Mäkelä – making his long-awaited London debut – Debussy unlocks a whole evening of French music at its most sensuous, its most passionate and its most ravishingly subtle – whether the spiritual intensity of Messiaen’s early masterpiece, or the elegantly-worn ardour of Saint-Saëns’s first cello concerto, with Truls Mørk as soloist.

© Heikki Tuuli

Generously supported by Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet.

6pm Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase See page 38 for details

06

SHARING THE LPO’S PASSION

Karina Canellakis Principal Guest Conductor ‘Meteoric’ is the easiest cliché to use about Karina Canellakis’s career – after all, she made her conducting debut as recently as 2014.

‘Phenomenal’ is another: she won a Critics’ Circle Award shortly after her electrifying first appearance with the LPO, and in 2019 she became the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms. But there’s nothing fleeting or flashy about her conducting, and her star seems to burn more brightly – and powerfully – with every concert. She’s our kind of musician: one who shares the LPO’s passion to push further, and explore more deeply.

Karina Canellakis

In her first full season as our new Principal Guest Conductor, she’ll get to do exactly that – with an orchestra which, she says, has ‘captured my heart’. ‘Together we are going to explore all kinds of different repertoire, looking through a fresh lens at Beethoven, and plunging into the intense world of Shostakovich’, she says. Fresh is certainly the word – she’ll also champion music

by Scriabin, Wagner, John Adams and Lili Boulanger. After a difficult twelve months for music, here’s proof that some things are worth waiting for. ‘I cannot wait to see the members of the Orchestra again’, says Canellakis, and the feeling is mutual.

NOVEMBER

Canellakis conducts Sibelius

07

Saturday 27 November 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Karina Canellakis conductor Inon Barnatan piano

When Jean Sibelius saw a flight of swans in the sunset, he knew that he had the ending of his Fifth Symphony: ‘I’ve never seen such beauty!’.

Today, with the LPO’s new Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis, it’s the climax of a concert that spans continents and crosses decades. John Adams’s vibrant 80s rhythms bounce off the Jazz-Age melodies of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto – played today by the ‘exhilarating’ (Gramophone) Inon Barnatan. And then Canellakis sets sail on Sibelius’s radiant panorama of a sun-kissed ocean, en route for beauty, grandeur and possibly the greatest (but simplest) tune you’ve ever heard. Join us, and let your imagination soar.

© Chris Christodoulou

John Adams The Chairman Dances Gershwin Piano Concerto in F Sibelius The Oceanides Sibelius Symphony No. 5

08

DECEMBER

Poetry and Defiance

Wednesday 1 December 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 Karina Canellakis conductor Stephen Hough piano

Stephen Hough

Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony sets its own agenda. The Soviets called it an ‘optimistic tragedy’, but the music tells an altogether more subversive story: a defiant act of self-assertion in the face of official tyranny. It’s perfect for a conductor as energising and committed as Karina Canellakis, and it will make a truly monumental conclusion to a concert that begins with Beethoven at his most poetic, as well as his most passionate. ‘Beethoven, more than any other composer, represents for me the ultimate triumph of joy over sorrow’, says our soloist Stephen Hough; expect visionary playing from one of the most inspirational and brilliant pianists of our time. © Sim Canetty-Clarke

With the support of

James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio

Saturday 4 December 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Mark Elder conductor Lucy Crowe soprano Roderick Williams baritone London Philharmonic Choir Roderick Williams

When James MacMillan writes a new choral work, the world takes notice – because few living composers write with more honesty, passion and imaginative fire. ‘We need this music right now’, wrote The Spectator after the world premiere of his Christmas Oratorio in January 2021, and this epic work finds both mystery and splendour in this most familiar of sacred stories.

‘Beauty is at the heart of our Christian faith’, says MacMillan: though with Mark Elder conducting the London Philharmonic Choir and two terrific soloists, this delayed UK premiere will be a major occasion for listeners of all faiths, or none.

Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the generous support of The Boltini Trust, NTR Zaterdagmatinee, Radio 4’s concert series in The Concertgebouw Amsterdam, The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic Orchestra. © Benjamin Ealovega

James MacMillan Christmas Oratorio (UK premiere)

DECEMBER

Jurowski conducts Rachmaninoff

09

Wednesday 8 December 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 Brett Dean Notturno inquieto (Rivisitato) (world premiere of new version) Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin

Vladimir Jurowski has always charted a very personal musical path – and in his first concert as Conductor Emeritus he explores the present as well as the past. For Jurowski, Rachmaninoff’s music is all about ‘human life, human suffering, human joys’, and tonight he celebrates the soaring melodies and restless energy of the beautiful, neglected Third Symphony. The great Leonidas Kavakos is the soloist in Shostakovich’s searing First Violin Concerto – music that asks as many questions as it answers. And in between – because this is Jurowski – comes something entirely original and new: a nocturne with a haunting difference from the imagination of LPO Composer-in-Residence Brett Dean.

Generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE. Pre-concert events: LPO Showcase There will be events throughout the day as part of OrchLab Festival Day. See page 38 for more details.

© Mark Allan

Vladimir Jurowski

Every breath

12

Soltani plays Shostakovich

JANUARY

Friday 14 January 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Marin Alsop conductor Kian Soltani cello

Marin Alsop

‘Kian Soltani was the sublime cello soloist, effortlessly lyrical and profoundly touching’, wrote The Guardian when this extraordinary AustrianPersian cellist played here on the South Bank a couple of years ago, adding that ‘the whole thing was outstanding’. So we’re delighted to welcome him back in Shostakovich’s powerful First Cello Concerto – and with Marin Alsop conducting, this should be no ordinary performance. Alsop is a conductor who illuminates everything she touches, so whether it’s the restless energy of Samuel Barber’s all-American classic or the autumnal beauty of Brahms’s magnificent farewell to the symphony, expect uncompromising sincerity and emotion without limits.

6pm Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase See page 38 for details

Raw Emotion, Endless Peace

© Adriane White

Barber Symphony No. 1 Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 Brahms Symphony No. 4

Wednesday 19 January 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Karina Canellakis conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin Christian Tetzlaff

From the second that its opening fanfares shatter the silence, you can tell that Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony means business. Convinced that Fate itself was out to destroy him, Tchaikovsky poured everything into this overwhelming symphony: a no-holds-barred emotional autobiography, told in music of uncompromising melody and drama. It’s high-voltage stuff, and with the great Christian Tetzlaff as soloist, Shostakovich’s punchy Second Violin Concerto will set the tone in resolute terms. Karina Canellakis begins with a hauntingly beautiful vision of eternity from another very individual Russian voice: Victoria Borisova-Ollas. ‘The dream itself’, she asks – ‘does it ever really end?’

With the support of

© Giorgia Bertazzi

Victoria Borisova-Ollas The Kingdom of Silence Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 2 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4

JANUARY

Poems of Ecstasy

13

Saturday 22 January 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Wagner Tristan und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand L Boulanger D’un soir triste Scriabin Symphony No. 4 (The Poem of Ecstasy) Karina Canellakis conductor Cédric Tiberghien piano

Highest bliss … Richard Wagner was never one for understatement, and Tristan und Isolde isn’t just boy-meets-girl – it’s an ecstatic voyage through a passion more powerful than death itself. Alexander Scriabin went further still: he wanted his Poem of Ecstasy to include colours and perfumes as well as music, though with Karina Canellakis and a supersized LPO giving its all, the sounds alone will be enough to make your head whirl. Meanwhile, Lili Boulanger dreams in the twilight, and pianist Cédric Tiberghien shares his special brand of magic in Ravel’s black diamond of a piano concerto. And all with only one hand …

Generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE.

© Mathias Bothor

Karina Canellakis

14

JANUARY

Stormclouds and Spring Flowers

Wednesday 26 January 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Kazushi Ono conductor Andreas Ottensamer clarinet

Kazushi Ono

You never know where inspiration will strike.

For Dvořák, the sight of a train arriving in Prague suggested the opening of his Seventh Symphony.

Personal tragedy did the rest, and the result is one of the most stirring of Romantic symphonies: tense, stormy and pulsing with heartfelt emotion.

It’s a perfect match for guest conductor Kazushi Ono – described as ‘a phenomenon’ by Le Figaro – just as the soaring tunes and primary colours of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto could have been written for the glorious sound and effortless flair of Andreas Ottensamer, clarinettist extraordinaire.

And to begin, spring flowers from Claude Debussy: fresh, fragrant, and delivered with love.

Andreas Ottensamer

Left: © Eisuke Miyoshi Right: © Katja Ruge/Decca

Debussy Printemps (Symphonic Suite) Copland Clarinet Concerto Debussy Première rhapsodie Dvořák Symphony No. 7

MOZART’S FIVE VIOLIN CONCERTOS

15

Julia Fischer Artist-in-Residence There’s something slightly off-putting about the term ‘musician’s musician’ – as if listeners need some special qualification to understand what all the fuss is about. In reality, though, it’s very simple. Once in a while, an orchestra and a soloist just click. And when musicians really, truly enjoy playing together – well, believe us: you can hear the difference.

In short, the LPO never needs any excuse to welcome violinist Julia Fischer. ‘Here was a total consonance rare in concerto partnerships between Julia Fischer and her orchestral colleagues’, wrote The Arts Desk when she played with us in 2019. Critics talk about her ‘alert, unshowy’ playing, and the ‘amazing unity’ when Fischer and the LPO play together.

We just know that it feels right.

© Uwe Arens

Julia Fischer

So when she suggested that we might like to explore all five of Mozart’s violin concertos together, we didn’t need asking twice. These five elegant mini-masterpieces are the work of a teenager – graceful, brilliant, touched by genius. But above all, they’re fun. Fischer and the LPO will play them all, paired with music

by Tchaikovsky and Strauss that’s specially chosen to make Mozart shine.

She’ll join another good friend – viola virtuoso Nils Mönkemeyer – in Mozart’s sublime Sinfonia Concertante, and partner Vladimir Jurowski in Elgar’s Violin Concerto. And she’ll team up with players from the LPO to relax in the way that musicians always enjoy best, when among friends – with a programme of chamber music.

Some pleasures are too good not to share.

16

FEBRUARY

Julia Fischer plays Mozart: Straight out of Salzburg

Wednesday 2 February 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

R Strauss Don Juan Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 R Strauss Tod und Verklärung

Imaginative, insightful and with a sound to die for, Julia Fischer is a byword for everything that’s most inspiring – and captivating – in 21st-century violin playing. Mozart is at the centre of her musical universe although, as she puts it, each of Mozart’s violin concertos is like ‘a new world’ in its own right. Now she explores those worlds afresh: joining Thomas Søndergård and the LPO over three concerts to celebrate the fantasy, exuberance and sheer joy of Mozart’s teenage masterpieces. And because there’s only one composer who can match Mozart’s youthful high spirits, we’re pairing him with Richard Strauss at his most unbuttoned. Naughty, but nice.

Thomas Søndergård conductor Julia Fischer violin

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© Martin Bubandt

Thomas Søndergård

FEBRUARY

Julia Fischer plays Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante

Friday 4 February 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

Mozart Overture: Die Entführung aus dem Serail Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 Mozart Sinfonia Concertante R Strauss Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche

At the peak of his fame, a government official had the nerve to ask Richard Strauss to supply a professional referee. ‘Mozart’ was his reply – and it’s true: Strauss’s effortless verve and heart-on-sleeve candour makes the perfect complement to the wit, energy and elegance of the young Amadeus. In the second instalment of her Mozart journey, violinist Julia Fischer brings all her insight to bear on Mozart’s most colourful violin concerto – his Fifth – before joining viola star Nils Mönkemeyer for what might be his greatest: the sublime Sinfonia Concertante. Trust us; music simply doesn’t get much better than this.

Thomas Søndergård conductor Julia Fischer violin Nils Mönkemeyer viola

Nils Mönkemeyer

© Irène Zandel-Kopie

17

Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

18

FEBRUARY

Julia Fischer plays chamber music

Sunday 6 February 2022 | 7.30pm Queen Elizabeth Hall

Please note venue

Series discounts Page 43

Shostakovich Two Pieces for String Octet Bruch Octet for Strings Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2

They said that other composers could write whole symphonies with Dvořák’s leftovers – and if there’s one thing that Dvořák’s Piano Quintet has to spare, it’s tunes. Singing tunes, dancing tunes, heartfelt sadness and pure sunshine – the melodies never stop, in a piece that’s as glorious to play as it is to hear. No wonder Julia Fischer has chosen it today: playing as first amongst equals in a team of LPO string players, in a concert that also includes Bruch’s expansive String Octet and the young Shostakovich at his most sardonic. The music of friends: naturally, you’re invited!

Julia Fischer violin & piano Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Tickets £45–£15 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk

© Uwe Arens

Julia Fischer

FEBRUARY

Mahler’s First

19

Wednesday 9 February 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Nielsen Helios Overture Brett Dean Viola Concerto Mahler Symphony No. 1 Hannu Lintu conductor Lawrence Power viola

© Jack Liebeck

Lawrence Power

Imagine you could hear silence. How would it sound? Possibly something like the massive stillness that opens Mahler’s First Symphony: the starting point for a journey to the depths of tragedy and the heights of triumph. It’s a piece that you simply have to hear live – just like Nielsen’s sunburst of an overture, and the concerto that Brett Dean wrote in 2005 for his own instrument. ‘We violists have a particular voice that is uniquely ours’, says Dean, and he imagines what might have happened ‘if Paul Hindemith had played in a band with the American singer Tom Waits’. Lawrence Power takes the composer’s place in a true 21st-century classic.

Julia Fischer plays Mozart: Adventures and Homages

Saturday 12 February 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

Mozart Violin Concerto No. 1 Mozart Violin Concerto No. 2 Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings

For Tchaikovsky, Mozart was more than just a great composer. He was ‘the Christ of music’: the perfect artist and a source of lifelong inspiration and delight. That might have come as a surprise to Mozart himself – certainly, the headstrong teenage genius who wrote the two concertos in this concert was out to amuse, to surprise and to entertain. In the hands of Julia Fischer, they’ll do exactly that. And then she directs the LPO in one of Tchaikovsky’s many homages to his idol: music that brims over with tenderness, passion and utterly unforgettable tunes. An irresistible ending to Fischer’s Mozart adventure.

Julia Fischer violin/director

Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

With the support of

Every note held

22

FEBRUARY

Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion

Saturday 19 February 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

With English surtitles

Series discounts Page 43

Tan Dun Buddha Passion (UK premiere)

‘Please enlighten us: what are you?’ ‘I am ... awake’.

Beneath the Himalayas, a little Prince awakens to compassion – and attains enlightenment. In Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion, the legends of Buddhism meet the tradition of Bach’s great choral Passions, drawing on ancient Chinese and Sanskrit texts to retell a story of universal significance: a tale of wonder, of truth and of gentle but irresistible transformation. Tan Dun himself conducts this UK premiere of a masterpiece without precedent in the Western concert hall, alive with all the colour and uncompromising emotional power we’ve come to expect from the award-winning composer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Tan Dun conductor Sen Guo soprano Huiling Zhu mezzo-soprano TBA tenor Shenyang bass-baritone London Philharmonic Choir Tiffin Boys’ Choir

Tan Dun

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FEBRUARY

Escape Velocity

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Wednesday 23 February 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine Jimmy López Piano Concerto (world premiere) Kaija Saariaho Asteroid 4179: Toutatis R Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra Klaus Mäkelä conductor Javier Perianes piano

© Igor Studio

Javier Perianes

A solitary beam of light pierces the darkness.

A trumpet sounds, two chords blast out – and with a flash, the whole universe is ablaze with possibility. Richard Strauss wanted Also sprach Zarathustra to tell the ‘entire story of humanity’ in music, and if all you know of it is that incredible beginning, Klaus Mäkelä and the LPO are about to show you sounds like you’ve never imagined.

And that’s even after you’ve experienced John Adams’s high-octane joyride, Kaija Saariaho’s interstellar artefacts, and the creation of a new musical world: a piano concerto by Jimmy López, a composer whose wholly original sound embraces Mahler, Stravinsky and hardcore techno.

From Russia with Love

Saturday 26 February 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 Klaus Mäkelä conductor Daniel Lozakovich violin

© Lev Efimov/Deutsche Grammophon

Daniel Lozakovich

Is Rachmaninoff’s Second the most romantic symphony ever written? With its vast, storm-swept vistas, endless melodies and blissful love-song of a slow movement, it’s definitely a contender, and our charismatic young guest conductor Klaus Mäkelä won’t stint on either energy or feeling. As for the phenomenal 21-year-old Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich; well, you might have picked up on some of the buzz. ‘He already plays like one of the greats’, said one critic, and for his LPO debut, he’s chosen to play another Russian favourite. Prokofiev’s blend of heartfelt melody and sparkling wit make it the ideal showpiece for this award-winning young star.

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MARCH

Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Wednesday 9 March 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Judith Weir Forest Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2 Daniel Kidane Sirens Bartók Concerto for Orchestra Edward Gardner conductor Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello

Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a household name – but he’s also a cellist on a journey, with new and distinctive things to say about everything he plays. So it’ll be fascinating to share one of his first encounters with Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto: a rarely-heard masterpiece from the height of the Cold War. Expect a very personal musical journey at the heart of a concert filled with sonic adventures: whether Daniel Kidane’s Mancunian nightscape, Judith Weir’s limitless Forest, or the shimmering Hungarian plains of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra – a song of exile that ends with a mighty shout of joy. Edward Gardner conducts.

© Lars Borges

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

MARCH

Out of Italy

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Wednesday 16 March 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Vaughan Williams Overture: The Wasps Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25, K503 R Strauss Aus Italien David Zinman conductor Richard Goode piano

© Steve Riskind

Richard Goode

Richard Strauss once joked that he could depict even a knife and fork in music. So now imagine the Roman Campagna, a moonlit Mediterranean and a carnival in Naples, all painted in glowing orchestral colours by a youthful genius: off the leash and loving it. When David Zinman conducts Strauss’s sumptuous Aus Italien, you’ll wonder why we don’t hear it more often.

Vaughan Williams’s fizzing overture and Mozart’s 25th Piano Concerto are more familiar.

But you haven’t really heard Mozart until you’ve heard him played by Richard Goode – in the words of one critic, ‘you’d swear the composer himself was at the keyboard’.

Bryn Terfel sings Brahms

Saturday 19 March 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Mendelssohn Overture: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Brahms Four Serious Songs, Op. 121 Schoenberg Pelleas und Melisande Edward Gardner conductor Bryn Terfel bass-baritone

© Mitch Jenkins/Deutsche Grammophon

Bryn Terfel

Bryn Terfel needs no introduction. Universally recognised as one of the finest bass-baritones of our time, today he brings a lifetime of intuition, humanity and incomparable communicative power to Brahms’s magnificent late songs. That’s the big, tender heart of a concert wrapped in mystery and magic; whether it’s Mendelssohn’s fairies and lovers, or the intoxicating, deliriously Romantic world of Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande. Driven by passion, dripping with atmosphere, and scored for a vast orchestra, this epic musical fairytale of doomed love and dark imaginings drove audiences wild in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Edward Gardner reveals its secrets tonight.

Generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE.

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MARCH

Movie Legends

Friday 25 March 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Ludwig Wicki conductor Colin Currie percussion London Philharmonic Choir

Danny Elfman is a legend of contemporary film music, the man whose scores for Alice in Wonderland, Batman and Edward Scissorhands fused pop culture with the Romantic tradition, to dazzling effect. But tonight he steps into the concert hall with a brand new percussion concerto, performed by Colin Currie – as one critic put it, ‘surely the world’s finest and most daring percussionist’. Under the baton of maestro Ludwig Wicki expect no holds barred – and then enter the spectacular world of The Lord of the Rings. Howard Shore’s best-selling score sounds stunning in the cinema; played live by the full LPO, it’ll knock you backwards.

© Michael Marais/Unsplash

Danny Elfman Alice in Wonderland Suite Danny Elfman Batman Suite Danny Elfman Percussion Concerto (world premiere) Howard Shore Lord of the Rings Symphony (excerpts)

MARCH / APRIL

Visions and Utterances

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Wednesday 30 March 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Missy Mazzoli River Rouge Transfiguration (UK premiere) Rebecca Saunders to an utterance, for piano and orchestra (UK premiere) Mason Bates Liquid Interface (UK premiere) George Walker Sinfonia No. 5 (Visions) (UK premiere) Edward Gardner conductor Nicolas Hodges piano

George Walker believed that true abstraction is impossible in music. ‘Sound is produced from vibration. Vibrations are felt.’ What music has to say is real – and it can be said in no other way.

That could mean Mason Bates fusing dying glaciers into neon orchestral textures; it could mean Missy Mazzoli raising a shining citadel of sound amid the smokestacks of the Rust Belt.

Or it could mean Rebecca Saunders’s new piano concerto, played by the soloist who premiered it in Switzerland last summer. These are the sounds of today in all their diversity: urgent, sometimes startling, but always with a true story to tell. You just need to listen.

With the support of

A German Requiem

Saturday 2 April 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

L Boulanger Psalm 129 Messiaen Le tombeau resplendissant Brahms A German Requiem Edward Gardner conductor Christiane Karg soprano Roderick Williams baritone London Philharmonic Choir

© Gisela Schenker

Christiane Karg

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted’. Brahms was an atheist, and as he composed his German Requiem, he set out to console and comfort the living. The result is one of the most beautiful, most moving and (in its own way) most profoundly spiritual choral works of the 19th century. For this performance with the London Philharmonic Choir, Edward Gardner prepares the way with two very different, but equally compelling visions of eternity. Messiaen cries from the deep, in wild explosions of colour. And Lili Boulanger sings of struggle and liberation – music that will storm the heavens.

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Mitsuko Uchida plays Beethoven

APRIL

Saturday 9 April 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Helmut Lachenmann Marche fatale (UK premiere) Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 Bruckner Symphony No. 6 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Mitsuko Uchida piano

© Justin Pumfrey/Decca

Mitsuko Uchida

With some artists, the name is enough, and when Mitsuko Uchida plays Beethoven ... well, it’s not really necessary to say more. Few musicians on the planet come closer to capturing the combination of eloquence, drama and deep poetry that makes the Fourth Piano Concerto one of Beethoven’s most limitless – and most personal – works. It’s hard to match that, but Vladimir Jurowski always sees things differently, and after beginning with Helmut Lachenmann’s pitch-black musical joke, he scales the huge vistas and Alpine peaks of Bruckner’s colossal Sixth Symphony: a sweeping spiritual voyage filled with some of the 19th century’s most ravishing sounds. Soul music, Austrian-style.

Julia Fischer plays Elgar

Wednesday 13 April 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Julia Fischer violin

Vladimir Jurowski

Forget the tweeds, forget the moustache and forget the Pomp and Circumstance. Elgar was a dreamer, a daredevil and a desperate Romantic, and it’s all right there in his Violin Concerto: music of raw emotions and tender secrets, inspired by an impossible love. It demands a soloist and a conductor who aren’t afraid to bare their souls: so what better way for Julia Fischer to end her LPO residency than in partnership with Vladimir Jurowski?

And then, travel to the Carpathian Mountains with the stirring Second Symphony by Elgar’s Romanian contemporary George Enescu.

Vladimir Jurowski is passionate about this music, and you’ll hear why.

6pm Pre-concert event: LPO Showcase See page 38 for details

© Simon Pauly

Elgar Violin Concerto Enescu Symphony No. 2

APRIL

A Gala Evening with Renée Fleming

Friday 22 April 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Programme to include: Verdi Willow Song & Ave Maria from Otello R Strauss Capriccio: final scene Enrique Mazzola 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 charisma and dramatic flair, with a voice spun from silk and gold; unquestionably one of the greatest sopranos of our time. She’s Renée Fleming, and when she sings, written words seem redundant – exactly the dilemma faced by the lovelorn Countess Madeleine in the radiant final scene of Richard Strauss’s Capriccio. If any living artist can give us a definitive answer, it’s Renée Fleming.

Generously supported by Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet.

© Andrew Eccles/Decca

Renée Fleming

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Every moment of wonder

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War and Peace

APRIL

Wednesday 27 April 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Britten Sinfonia da Requiem Brett Dean Cello Concerto (UK premiere) Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 Edward Gardner conductor Alban Gerhardt cello

British music has always responded to the times.

As war loomed in 1940, the young Benjamin Britten poured all his outrage and pain into his explosive Sinfonia da Requiem. Three years later, as Britain weathered the Blitz, the 71-year-old Vaughan Williams knew that something else was needed – and his serene Fifth Symphony is like a vision of peace. The most beautiful symphony ever written in this country? Decide for yourself.

Aussie Brett Dean, meanwhile, actually wrote his new Cello Concerto for Alban Gerhardt.

Be among the first in the UK to hear this fantastic, emotionally-charged new masterpiece from the LPO’s Composer-in-Residence.

Generously supported by The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.

© Kaupo Kikkas

Alban Gerhardt

APRIL

OK! A Celebration of Oliver Knussen

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Saturday 30 April 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Knussen Flourish with Fireworks Knussen Horn Concerto Knussen Whitman Settings Britten The Prince of the Pagodas: Suite Ravel Daphnis et Chloé: Suite No. 2 Edward Gardner conductor Ben Goldscheider horn Sophie Bevan soprano

Oliver Knussen

As we approach the end of an unprecedented season, it’s time, once again, to light up the sky. Ravel imagines daylight breaking across a landscape in paradise; you can hear every glint of dew. Britten conjures a fairytale Orient.

And Oliver Knussen took a scrap of Stravinsky, packed it with magic and detonated it high in the night sky. But they all knew how to flood the ears with living colour, and today Edward Gardner is joined by two outstanding British stars to celebrate the memory of one of our most lovable (and brilliant) modern composers the way he would have wanted: with simply glorious sounds.

Pre-concert event | 5.30pm Knussen Two Organa Gareth Moorcraft Reflections (After Orlando Gibbons) Louise Drewett The Transparent Building Knussen Songs and a Sea Interlude In a collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music, Principal Conductor Edward Gardner presents a programme celebrating the work of composer Oliver Knussen and his former pupils and RAM alumni Louise Drewett and Gareth Moorcraft, in advance of the Knussen-focused concert later in the evening. A combined LPO, Foyle Future First and Royal Academy of Music ensemble will perform.

© Mark Allan/BBC

Royal Academy of Music events As part of this collaboration, additional events to celebrate the music of Oliver Knussen will take place at the Royal Academy of Music.

Full details will be announced at a later date.

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The Song of the Earth

MAY

Friday 6 May 2022 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Harrison Birtwistle Deep Time Mahler Das Lied von der Erde Edward Gardner conductor Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano Andrew Staples tenor

Mahler knew that his end was near when he wrote Das Lied von der Erde, and he was determined to savour every minute that remained to him. Half symphony, half song-cycle, Das Lied is a song of the sweetness and wonder of life, distilled into some of the most exquisite music Mahler ever wrote. Harrison Birtwistle, meanwhile, shows no signs of slowing down, and when his Deep Time was premiered in 2017, critics hailed this ‘immensely powerful’ work as an instant classic. Time heals, as well as transforms: Edward Gardner brings the season to a close with a vision of eternal truth and limitless beauty.

© Julia Wesely

Magdalena Kožená

LPO ON DEMAND

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LPO Concerts on Marquee TV A selection of our 2021/22 concerts will be filmed in high cinematic quality and released on Marquee TV.

‘Wonderful music in the Royal Festival Hall, with superb atmospheric lighting.’

LPO Supporter

‘It’s like getting front row seats.’

Marquee TV subscriber

Special offer for London Philharmonic Orchestra audiences!

The full London Philharmonic Orchestra 2020/21 season is still available to watch on demand for Marquee TV subscribers, and we have teamed up with Marquee to offer you 50% off your first year of subscription. Head to marquee.tv/lpo2021 and use code LPO2021 to get 50% off.

Art lovers can stream the LPO collection as well as the world’s best dance, opera, theatre, music and ideas on demand on Marquee TV. Keep an eye on our website for more details of our 2021/22 online concert season on Marquee.

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 apps. Full details of how to watch on different devices, and how to cast to your big screen can be found here: lpo.uk/MarqueeFAQs marquee.tv

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EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY EVENTS

Education and Community events

FUNharmonics family concerts resume this season with bespoke performances in the autumn and early spring. These presented concerts provide a vivid introduction to the Orchestra for young children and their families, and also include lots of fun musical activities to join in with across the foyer spaces of the Royal Festival Hall beforehand.

Additionally, free LPO Showcase events offer a chance to hear performances by gifted young participants from our talent development programmes, and the creative output of some

of our community projects. Foyle Future Firsts and LPO Junior Artists will present spirited performances alongside LPO members who have mentored them in rehearsals and coaching sessions throughout the year. And participants on our Crisis Creates and OrchLab projects will showcase creative responses to explorations of LPO repertoire.

More information about our Education and Community programme can be found online, including details of the BrightSparks concert series for schools at the Royal Festival Hall.

As well as our live performances, schools and families can continue to experience the LPO online with our tailored films for children and young people: Elephants in the Custard (for 5–7 year olds), Express Yourself (for 7–11 year olds) and Repertoire Unlocked (secondary-focused, related to GCSE Music learning). All can be found at lpo.org.uk/education

FUNharmonics

OrchLab

Foyle Future Firsts

LPO Junior Artists

Clockwise from top left: © Benjamin Ealovega © James Tye © Benjamin Ealovega © Emily Moss

The LPO’s year-round programme of education and community projects takes place in a range of settings, enabling thousands of people to experience and enjoy the Orchestra. We’re delighted to share some of this work with you across a series of events throughout our concert season at the Royal Festival Hall – please join us.

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY EVENTS

FUNharmonics

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Symphonie Fantastique Sunday 7 November 2021 12.00 noon–1.00pm

Sunday 7 November 2021 and Sunday 13 February 2022, 12.00 noon–1.00pm FUNharmonics family days present concerts and related activities especially designed for our younger audience. Introduce your children to the many varied sounds of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a fun, participatory and relaxed environment, with free foyer activities before the concert.

Performed by the LPO earlier in the season, Hector Berlioz’s magical Symphonie fantastique is presented in an interactive family concert designed especially to invite our youngest audience members to explore its intriguing music. Join us on an incredible journey to nineteenth century Paris as we dance at a glamorous ball, shelter from a storm and cast a witches’ spell!

Save the date! The programme for the FUNharmonics concert on 13 February 2022 will be announced in due course.

Rachel Leach presenter Michael Seal conductor

© Benjamin Ealovega

FUNharmonics family concerts

Suitable for children aged six and above.

Children £8–£12 Adults £16–£24 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk

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EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY EVENTS

LPO Showcase

A series of inspiring free performances and events at the Royal Festival Hall shining a spotlight on some of the talent nurtured via our Education and Community programme.

Find out more and get programme updates at lpo.org.uk/lposhowcase Crisis Creates Wednesday 24 November 2021 | 6.00pm Members of Crisis – all adults who have experienced homelessness – perform music they have created with LPO musicians and a workshop leader during a week-long creative project. Using the music of the Orchestra as inspiration, participants bring their own experiences and creativity to collaborate and create something new and powerful.

OrchLab Festival Day Wednesday 8 December 2021 | times tbc OrchLab Festival Day is the culmination of this year’s OrchLab programme, in collaboration with Drake Music – leaders in music, technology and disability. A celebration of accessible musicmaking with disabled adults, the day includes music workshops, relaxed performances and accessible instrument demonstrations, and showcases the creativity of OrchLab participants.

Foyle Future Firsts Friday 14 January 2022 | 6.00pm The LPO’s flagship Foyle Future First Development Programme bridges the transition between higher education and the professional platform for 17 exceptional talented young instrumentalists annually. In this performance, the Future Firsts take to the stage alongside LPO members under the baton of LPO Composer-in-Residence Brett Dean in a programme of contemporary music.

LPO Junior Artists Wednesday 13 April 2022 | 6.00pm The LPO Junior Artists Programme supports exceptionally talented teenage instrumentalists from backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in the UK professional orchestral sector. Participants undertake a year-long programme to develop their musicianship under the guidance of LPO mentors, and to gain a first-hand insight into the orchestral profession.

This concert showcases the talent and achievement of current and past LPO Junior Artists, performing alongside LPO musicians.

This free but ticketed event is open to disabled adults, their families and disability staff (over 18s only). For more information visit orchlab.org/open-events

© James Tye

OrchLab

SUPPORTING THE ORCHESTRA

Every performance every education programme every musical experience every vital donation Be a part of it.

During 2020/21 it was thanks to the generosity of our supporters that the London Philharmonic Orchestra was able to keep playing. Quite simply, your support has never been more vital.

Join our incredible community of supporters and help ensure that we can continue to deliver world-class performances, exceptional education programmes and inspiring musical experiences for everybody. From making a donation when purchasing your tickets, to supporting a chair in the Orchestra, donations of all sizes make a difference.

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40

SUPPORTING THE 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

SUPPORTING THE ORCHESTRA

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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

The LPO has continued to deliver creativity and reinvention throughout the pandemic thanks to our generous supporters. Join our return to live performances as Corporate Members and share the wonder of music with clients and employees.

The LPO Corporate Circle offers a bespoke experience for your business. Starting from £1,800, your company will enjoy VIP tickets at Royal Festival Hall concerts with access to the Orchestra’s private bar. Memberships can be customised to add other unique benefits to suit your needs.

Contact us for more information on what we can do for your business.

lpo.org.uk/corporate 020 7840 4210 corporatecircle@lpo.org.uk

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ONLINE REWARD SCHEME

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 or buy CDs 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.

BOOKING

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Booking information

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Please note that series discounts across the entire 2021/22 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

Southbank Centre

Our 2021/22 season concerts are part of the Southbank Centre’s classical music multi-buy offer. Book multiple concerts in the same transaction to receive a discount. For full details and to find out which events are included, visit southbankcentre.co.uk/classicalmusic southbankcentre.co.uk (£3.50 transaction fee) Please note there is a £3.00 exchange fee per ticket for bookings made directly through 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.

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.

Age guidance: Evening concerts suitable for children aged seven and over unless otherwise stated.

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

Please note: we will be filming a selection of our 2021/22 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

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).

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GENERAL INFORMATION

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).

Tickets must be returned to the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the address in the right hand column on this page, and arrive at least two working days before the concert.

For ‘Print at Home’ tickets, forward them to boxoffice@lpo.org.uk with a covering email. 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 Ticketing Duty Manager 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 boxes, choir seats, side and rear stalls of the auditorium.

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* Brett Dean Composer-in-Residence Julia Fischer Artist-in-Residence Tickets 020 7840 4242 General enquiries 020 7840 4200 lpo.org.uk *Supported by Neil Westreich

Privacy policy

For details of our privacy policy, please visit lpo.org.uk or call to request details.

TRAVEL INFORMATION

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Getting to the Southbank Centre Getting to the Southbank Centre

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.

The Southbank Centre is situated on the Thames riverside between 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

For the latest parking updates you can also visit: southbankcentre.co.uk/ visit/getting-here

Find us

Charing Cross Station

Queen Elizabeth Hall & Purcell Room

National Theatre

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Embankment

loo ge Brid

Royal Festival Hall

Golden Jubilee Bridges

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Rd

Hayward Gallery

IMAX

Be

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Rd

London Waterloo East

Yo

Cross

Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre Belvedere Road London SE1 8XX

London Eye

Waterloo

Waterloo Station

FIND OUT MORE

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LPO Offstage Podcast

If you have ever wondered what musicians get up to before concerts or on tour, how you go from being a 4-year-old violin novice to a member of one of the world's great orchestras, or why some musicians pour litres of water over their instruments, LPO Offstage has the answer.

World-renowned saxophonist and presenter YolanDa Brown hosts our behind-the-scenes podcast, delving deep into the world of the Orchestra, and chatting with musicians about their lives in and around the LPO.

YolanDa Brown

Subscribe to LPO Offstage wherever you listen to podcasts, and find out more at lpo.org.uk/podcast

Playlists from the LPO

With more than 1,000 tracks to discover, make our music part of your everyday. We have hand-selected some of our favourite pieces to suit your every mood and bring you closer to the Orchestra.

Find specific titles

Search by mood or feeling

See our selection of playlists at lpo.org.uk/playlists and stream on Spotify and IDAGIO.

RECORDINGS / DOWNLOADS

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London Philharmonic Orchestra Label

For more than 15 years the LPO label has brought you recorded highlights of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with live, studio, and archive recordings from Principal Conductors past and present and distinguished guest conductors, including Jurowski, Tennstedt, Haitink and Nézet-Séguin.

Stream or download our music online from Apple Music, Spotify, IDAGIO, Primephonic, Amazon Prime Music and others. CDs are available from the LPO and all good retail outlets.

Explore the full catalogue of over 100 releases at lpo.org.uk/recordings

Shostakovich Symphony No. 11

Sir Adrian Boult: A Musical Legacy

‘The LPO’s playing is spine-tingling just when it needs to be … It must have been overwhelming in the hall if it’s this good in the recording.’

BBC Radio 3 Record Review, Record of the Week, October 2020

A five-disc box set celebrating the relationship between Sir Adrian Boult and the Orchestra, with popular classics from Beethoven and Elgar, as well as music from the ballet, works by Sir Adrian’s contemporaries, and much more.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts LPO-0118

LPOnline

LPOnline is our online content hub where you can find a number of recordings, playlists, educational and entertaining videos, and chances to interact with our musicians live. Check out our website at lpo.org.uk/lponline, and follow us on social media to keep up to date.

Archive recordings from the 1940s–60s LPO-0119

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The 2021/22 season

All concerts are at the Royal Festival Hall and start at 7.30pm unless otherwise stated.

September

November

December

Saturday 25 September 6.30pm Tippett

Saturday 6 November Haydn Bartók

Wednesday 1 December Beethoven Shostakovich

Edward Gardner Robert Murray Sophie Bevan Ashley Riches Jennifer France Toby Spence Susan Bickley Clive Bayley London Philharmonic Choir ENO Chorus

Edward Gardner Ildikó Komlósi John Relyea

Karina Canellakis Stephen Hough

October

Wednesday 10 November Grieg Schumann Sibelius

Friday 1 October L Boulanger Lutosławski Berlioz Edward Gardner Nicolas Altstaedt

Sunday 7 November 12.00 noon–1.00pm FUNharmonics Symphonie fantastique Rachel Leach Michael Seal

Edward Gardner Jan Lisiecki

Saturday 4 December James MacMillan Mark Elder Lucy Crowe Roderick Williams London Philharmonic Choir Wednesday 8 December Shostakovich Brett Dean Rachmaninoff Vladimir Jurowski Leonidas Kavakos

Wednesday 24 November Messiaen Saint-Saëns Debussy Klaus Mäkelä Truls Mørk Saturday 27 November John Adams Gershwin Sibelius Karina Canellakis Inon Barnatan

The London Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Arts Council England and Southbank Centre.

Concert texts Richard Bratby Photography James Wicks Design JMG Studio Printer Impress (This brochure is produced on paper from a sustainable source).

Information 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.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is a registered charity No. 238045.

Southbank Centre is a registered charity No. 298909.

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January Friday 14 January Barber Shostakovich Brahms Marin Alsop Kian Soltani Wednesday 19 January Victoria Borisova-Ollas Shostakovich Tchaikovsky Karina Canellakis Christian Tetzlaff Saturday 22 January Wagner Ravel L Boulanger Scriabin Karina Canellakis Cédric Tiberghien Wednesday 26 January Debussy Copland Dvořák Kazushi Ono Andreas Ottensamer

February Wednesday 2 February R Strauss Mozart Thomas Søndergård Julia Fischer

Sunday 6 February Queen Elizabeth Hall Shostakovich Bruch Dvořák Julia Fischer Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Wednesday 9 February Nielsen Brett Dean Mahler Hannu Lintu Lawrence Power Saturday 12 February Mozart Tchaikovsky Julia Fischer Sunday 13 February 12.00noon–1.00pm FUNharmonics Programme and artists to be announced Saturday 19 February Tan Dun Tan Dun Sen Guo Huiling Zhu Shenyang London Philharmonic Choir Tiffin Boys’ Choir Wednesday 23 February John Adams Jimmy López Kaija Saariaho R Strauss

Friday 4 February Mozart R Strauss

Klaus Mäkelä Javier Perianes

Thomas Søndergård Julia Fischer Nils Mönkemeyer

Saturday 26 February Prokofiev Rachmaninoff Klaus Mäkelä Daniel Lozakovich

March

April

Wednesday 9 March Judith Weir Shostakovich Daniel Kidane Bartók

Saturday 2 April L Boulanger Messiaen Brahms

Edward Gardner Sheku Kanneh-Mason Wednesday 16 March Vaughan Williams Mozart R Strauss David Zinman Richard Goode

Edward Gardner Christiane Karg Roderick Williams London Philharmonic Choir Saturday 9 April Helmut Lachenmann Beethoven Bruckner Vladimir Jurowski Mitsuko Uchida

Saturday 19 March Mendelssohn Brahms Schoenberg

Wednesday 13 April Elgar Enescu

Edward Gardner Bryn Terfel

Vladimir Jurowski Julia Fischer

Friday 25 March Danny Elfman Howard Shore

Friday 22 April Verdi R Strauss

Ludwig Wicki Colin Currie London Philharmonic Choir

Enrique Mazzola Renée Fleming

Wednesday 30 March Missy Mazzoli Rebecca Saunders Mason Bates George Walker Edward Gardner Nicolas Hodges

Wednesday 27 April Britten Brett Dean Vaughan Williams Edward Gardner Alban Gerhardt Saturday 30 April Knussen Britten Ravel Edward Gardner Ben Goldscheider Sophie Bevan

May Friday 6 May Harrison Birtwistle Mahler Edward Gardner Magdalena Kožená Andrew Staples

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