London Philharmonic Orchestra 2020/21 Season Brochure

Where wonder blooms 2020/21 Concert season at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

Highlights 2020/21

November

Anoushka Shankar joins the Orchestra and Zubin Mehta to perform a work composed by her father, the legendary Ravi Shankar: Raga-Mala (Sitar Concerto No. 2).

Page 12

September

Principal Conductor Designate Edward Gardner opens the season with Berlioz’s dramatic Symphonie fantastique, and we continue our year-long 2020 Vision series with a performance of Julian Anderson’s The Discovery of Heaven under conductor John Storgårds.

Page 3 & 4

October

We continue to mark Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with performances of his Eighth and Ninth Symphonies under the batons of Karina Canellakis and Daniele Rustioni.

Page 5 & 10

December

March

Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski leads the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio, commissioned by the Orchestra to mark the culmination of our 2020 Vision concerts.

Page 17

Alondra de la Parra and worldrenowned percussionist Colin Currie give the world premiere of Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto.

Page 29

January

We launch our biggest undertaking yet with concert performances of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle with Vladimir Jurowski and a stellar cast of soloists – the culmination of Jurowski’s highly acclaimed Ring Cycle project.

Page 18

April

Vladimir Jurowski closes the season in style with a rare concert performance of the complete ballet Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky.

Page 33

February

Edward Gardner is joined by the cellist Alban Gerhardt who gives the UK premiere of a cello concerto by Brett Dean, the Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence.

Page 26

FUNharmonics

In March the Orchestra performs The Walkabout Orchestra inspired by writer and illustrator Chloé Perarnau’s enchanting picture book of postcards from around the world.

Page 36 & 37

01

Introduction

A warm welcome to our 2020/21 season

We are delighted to present another thrilling series of concerts. This season is Vladimir Jurowski’s final as the LPO’s Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor, and after 14 transformative years with us he signs off in true style with an array of meticulously curated concerts. We are also pleased to confirm that Vladimir will continue to work with us in the future as the Orchestra’s first Conductor Emeritus so there will be plenty more opportunities to enjoy the fruits of this truly special relationship.

Our Principal Conductor Designate Edward Gardner opens the season, and we also continue our 2020 Vision series, showcasing landmark new works written since 2000 alongside music composed exactly 100, 200 or 300 years earlier.

Fittingly, the series culminates in December with the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio, commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

We are delighted to present two complete Wagner Ring Cycles under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski in January/February 2021.

© Benjamin Ealovega

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

Timothy Walker and David Burke

Vladimir will be joined by stellar casts including leading Wagnerians Patricia Bardon, Ruxandra Donose, Burkhard Fritz, Torsten Kerl, Lise Lindstrom, Brindley Sherratt and Matthew Rose.

This is one of our boldest undertakings yet, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity not to be missed.

We are also very pleased to announce Australian composer Brett Dean as our new Composer-inResidence. This season we perform three of his pieces, including The Players, intriguingly scored for orchestra and accordion, and the UK premiere of his Cello Concerto. He will also play a major part in our Education & Community activities across the season.

This is just a taste of what’s on offer during 2020/21. We warmly invite you to browse the season’s offerings and to share the wonder of live music with us.

Timothy Walker CBE AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director David Burke Chief Executive Designate

September — December 2020 lpo.org.uk/2020vision

Stop us if we've said this before, but our century is already two decades old, and it’s not getting any younger. Beethoven never looked backwards, and as the musical world celebrates his 250th birthday, we’ve been letting his voice interact with the sounds of the 21st century.

Just as the defining masterpieces of Beethoven and his contemporaries punctuated the first two decades of the 19th century, we’ve chosen pieces that represent the 21st – each one separated by exactly two centuries from Beethoven. We call it 2020 Vision, and the results, so far, have been revelatory.

So a piece from 1811 encounters a piece from 2011. Beethoven meets John Adams, Henri Dutilleux and Ravi Shankar. Meanwhile the Romantic generation finds its voice: Schubert’s symphonies take up where Beethoven leaves off, and find themselves in conversation

with music by Krzysztof Penderecki, Magnus Lindberg and Anna Thorvaldsdottir. Between them comes the generation of 1900–1920: the composers of the fin de siècle who witnessed a century remade in war.

Who realised that just a century after Schubert’s youthful First Symphony, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was waiting to blow classical music sky-high? Or that Lotta Wennäkowski, Elena Kats-Chernin, Szymanowski, Prokofiev and Richard Strauss all form part of the same big picture? 2020 Vision offers a fresh perspective on familiar classics, alongside music we should never have forgotten and the pieces that everyone today needs to hear. Let’s hear what they have to say to one another – and to us.

Our 2020 Vision concerts are marked with a 2020 Vision logo to help you locate them.

03

September

Fantastic Symphony

Wednesday 23 September 2020 | 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

Tchaikovsky Fantasy Overture, Romeo and Juliet Lutosławski Les Espaces du sommeil Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Edward Gardner conductor Gerald Finley bass-baritone

‘Frustrated in love, a young musician of deep sensitivity and ardent imagination takes opium …’

With those words, Hector Berlioz set the scene for 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 gripping way for the LPO’s Principal Conductor Designate Edward Gardner to raise the curtain on our new season; first, though, Tchaikovsky’s hugely popular overture sets the emotional bar high, and the great Gerald Finley enters the luminous world of Lutosławski’s Les Espaces du sommeil – music that inhabits the realm between dream and imagination.

Edward Gardner

‘If this is what Gardner and the LPO can achieve together we have much to look forward to.’

© Benjamin Ealovega

The Guardian, October 2019

04

September

Infinity and beyond

Saturday 26 September 2020 | 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

R Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra Mendelssohn Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage John Adams Harmonium Edward Gardner conductor London Philharmonic Choir

© Benjamin Ealovega

Edward Gardner

‘Wild Nights! Wild Nights! Done with the compass – done with the chart!’ And so, to the words of Emily Dickinson, John Adams’s choral symphony Harmonium lifts off into realms of pure sonic ecstasy. Under Edward Gardner, this rare London performance will make a sumptuous, surging showcase for our superb London Philharmonic Choir – and the perfect modern counterpart to the heaven-storming fanfares of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra.

Everyone knows the spectacular beginning, but Strauss was out to tell ‘the entire story of humanity’ in orchestral music, and the result is never less than astonishing.

Mendelssohn’s seafaring overture offers a glimpse of calmer horizons.

2011: Storming the heavens

Wednesday 30 September 2020 | 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 Storgårds conductor Simone Lamsma violin Simone Lamsma

In 1811, Beethoven conceived a symphony without precedent. ‘He’s ripe for the madhouse’, declared one contemporary, but in Beethoven’s bicentenary year, the Seventh Symphony burns with undimmed popularity and power. As part of 2020 Vision, John Storgårds has followed its influence down those two centuries, and paired it with two works of maverick genius.

Simone Lamsma plays Nielsen’s Violin Concerto of 1911 – a bracing counterblast to romantic clichés, composed under clear northern skies.

And Julian Anderson collides Japanese court music, street sounds and echoes of Janáček in the extraordinary Discovery of Heaven, specially written for the LPO in 2011. © Otto Van Den Toorn

Julian Anderson The Discovery of Heaven Nielsen Violin Concerto Beethoven Symphony No. 7

05

October

2012: Absolute Jest

Saturday 3 October 2020 | 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 Absolute Jest Bartók Four Orchestral Pieces Beethoven Symphony No. 8 Karina Canellakis conductor Heath Quartet

© Mathias Bothor

Karina Canellakis

Comedy is a serious business. Beethoven knew that in 1812 when his firecracker of an Eighth Symphony cheerfully booted the Classical rule-book out of the window; and John Adams certainly knew it in 2012 when he leafed through Beethoven’s string quartets and transformed them into Absolute Jest: a one-off concerto for string quartet that takes Beethoven seriously enough to laugh along with him. As soloists, the Heath Quartet definitely get it: and in this 2020 Vision concert, conductor Karina Canellakis gets it too, pairing Beethoven and Adams with a multicoloured masterpiece by Bartók from 1912, proving that the best jokes never lose their bite.

06

October

2013: Rites of renewal

Wednesday 7 October 2020 | 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

Schubert Symphony No. 1 Magnus Lindberg Cello Concerto No. 2 (UK premiere) Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor Anssi Karttunen cello

© Irmeli Jung

Anssi Karttunen

In Beethoven’s footsteps, a new voice arose: a young genius who embodied the birth of Romanticism like no other. Franz Schubert takes up the thread of 2020 Vision with his irrepressible First Symphony of 1813. And a century later in 1913, Stravinsky blew Western music sky-high with his explosive Rite of Spring.

There’s only one way to match that kind of radicalism; and any new piece by Magnus Lindberg is a headline event. He wrote his Second Cello Concerto in 2013, but this performance by Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Anssi Karttunen – the cellist who gave its premiere – is a UK first.

Ólafsson plays Grieg

Friday 9 October 2020 | 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

Ken-ichiro Kobayashi conductor Víkingur Ólafsson piano

Víkingur Ólafsson

‘He has the gift of making something familiar entirely his own, drawing you into a world where no other interpretation seems possible’, said Gramophone magazine of the young Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, when it made him its 2019 Artist of the Year. So imagine the sort of magic he’ll bring to Grieg’s Piano Concerto – one of those pieces that never stops sounding fresh. Ólafsson’s charisma will simply lift it onto another level. It’s the perfect curtain-raiser for Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony; another uninhibited classic, filled with melody after glorious melody, and supercharged with emotion. Conductor Ken-ichiro Kobayashi shares a composer’s insight and imagination.

© Ari Magg

Grieg Piano Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5

07

October

2014: A Padmore Cycle

Wednesday 21 October 2020 | 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

Schubert Symphony No. 2 Thomas Larcher A Padmore Cycle Nielsen Symphony No. 4 (The Inextinguishable) Thierry Fischer conductor Mark Padmore tenor

‘The sounds were thrilling: smart, athletic, gleaming brass; strings spun like silk; woodwind as dense and fragrant as greenery.’

The Times, October 2019

© Marco Borggreve

Mark Padmore

In the eye of the storm: 1814 brought temporary peace to Europe, and the teenage Schubert’s delightful Second Symphony seems to dance for joy. A century later in 1914, Carl Nielsen saw Europe tear itself apart before turning to his volcanic ‘Inextinguishable’ Symphony: in which the human spirit itself battles for life in music of elemental power. And then 2020 Vision takes us back to the very different Austria of 2014 – and the haunted song-cycle that Thomas Larcher created for tenor Mark Padmore out of the poetry of his Alpine homeland. With Padmore himself as soloist, it doesn’t get more authentic than this.

Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Fuel your imagination Wednesday 23 September 2020

Page 03

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October

Ode to Joy

Saturday 24 October 2020 | 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

Handel Zadok the Priest Beethoven Choral Fantasy Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Choral) Daniele Rustioni conductor Nicolas Namoradze piano Sophie Bevan soprano Jade Moffat mezzo-soprano Toby Spence tenor Bryn Terfel bass-baritone London Philharmonic Choir

‘Oh you millions, I embrace you – here’s a kiss for all the world!’ Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is more than just the natural climax of any Beethoven anniversary celebration. It’s one of those pieces that transcends its era, and with an all-star team of soloists, and a conductor with an unmistakable sense of theatre, it should have something uniquely compelling to say on this occasion. Beethoven’s delightful, rarely-heard Choral Fantasy, meanwhile, is like seeing the Ninth Symphony taking baby-steps, and the concert opens in a blaze of glory from Beethoven’s hero Handel: like the Ninth Symphony, a masterpiece that was created especially for London.

Concert generously supported by Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet.

This concert is in honour of HRH The Duke of Kent celebrating 40 years of royal patronage of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Bryn Terfel

Left: © Sussie Ahlburg Right: © Mitch Jenkins / Deutsche Grammophon

Sophie Bevan

11

November

Emotion and tranquillity

Friday 6 November 2020 | 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

Tchaikovsky Polonaise from Eugene Onegin Brahms Violin Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 Christoph Eschenbach conductor Ray Chen violin

© John Mac

Ray Chen

From the instant 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 shattering symphony: a no-holds-barred emotional autobiography, told in music of uncompromising melody and drama. It’s strong stuff, which is why conductor Christoph Eschenbach has invited Ray Chen – a violinist described by the Huffington Post as ‘to die for’ – to play Brahms’s sunlit Violin Concerto. Conceived by an Alpine lake, and glowing with sweet, serene melody, it’s the perfect foil for Tchaikovsky’s tragic vision.

2015: The midnight sun

Wednesday 11 November 2020 | 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

Schubert Symphony No. 3 Krzysztof Penderecki Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra Lotta Wennäkoski Verdigris (London premiere) Sibelius Symphony No. 5 Hannu Lintu conductor Gábor Boldoczki trumpet Gábor Boldoczki

© Marco Borggreve

Gábor Boldoczki

When Jean Sibelius saw a flight of swans in the sunset, he knew that he had the ending of his Fifth Symphony. Premiered in 1915, and conducted tonight by Sibelius’s fellow Finn Hannu Lintu, it’s the culmination of a journey that begins in 1815, with Schubert’s playful Third Symphony. But as part of our 2020 Vision series the adventure extends right up to 2015, and a chance to hear Hungarian trumpet star Gábor Boldoczki in a punchy ‘little concerto’ by the contemporary Polish master Krzyzstof Penderecki – while back in Finland (but still in 2015), Lotta Wennäkoski conjures textures and colours like you’ve never imagined.

12

November

Mehta conducts Shankar

Wednesday 18 November 2020 | 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 Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) Shankar Sitar Concerto No. 2 (Raga-Mala) Zubin Mehta conductor Anoushka Shankar sitar

Zubin Mehta and the LPO made musical history in the 1980s when they collaborated with the great sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar on the premiere recording of Shankar’s Raga-Mala. The title means ‘a garland of ragas’ – a richly expressive, unashamedly bold attempt to find a path between two musical traditions – and tonight Mehta rejoins Shankar’s daughter (and student) Anoushka to rediscover one of the 20th century’s most unusual and beautiful masterpieces.

And since Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, like Shankar’s Concerto, explores music’s place in nature, what better way to start a concert that celebrates the power of art to unite cultures and nourish the spirit?

© Simonyc

Anoushka Shankar

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November

2016: Song of the night

Wednesday 25 November 2020 | 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 Symphony No. 1 (Classical) Schubert Symphony No. 5 Magnus Lindberg Two Episodes Szymanowski Symphony No. 3 (The Song of the Night) Thomas Søndergård conductor Michael Weinius tenor London Philharmonic Choir

© Andy Buchanan

Thomas Søndergård

Good things come in small packages, and symphonies don’t come more delightful than Schubert’s irresistibly witty Fifth of 1816.

A hundred years later Prokofiev pulled off the same trick – with added satirical bite – in his ‘Classical’ Symphony of 1916. Conductor Thomas Søndergård won’t hold back before unleashing the concentrated energy of the Two Episodes that Magnus Lindberg wrote for the LPO in 2016. And then, to crown it all, one of the most wonderful surprises to emerge from our 2020 Vision series, as tenor Michael Weinius lends his lustrous voice to Szymanowski’s ecstatic, ravishingly beautiful Third Symphony: ‘The Song of the Night’.

2017: Gavrylyuk plays Prokofiev

Saturday 28 November 2020 | 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

Ravel Le tombeau de Couperin Schubert Symphony No. 6 Anna Thorvaldsdottir Metacosmos Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 Thomas Søndergård conductor Alexander Gavrylyuk piano

© Marco Borggreve

Alexander Gavrylyuk

‘Alexander Gavrylyuk is, easily, the most compelling pianist of his generation’, wrote one critic after this exceptional Ukrainian pianist appeared at the 2017 BBC Proms – ‘a monumental master … unassuming and completely dedicated to his art.’ So imagine the thrill when he joins Thomas Søndergård in Prokofiev’s ferocious Third Piano Concerto: by turns brilliant, anarchic and breathtakingly beautiful. It’s a fiery climax to a concert whose 2020 Vision takes in Schubert’s ebullient Sixth Symphony of 1817, Ravel’s poignant homage to fallen friends in 1917, and Metacosmos: created in 2017 by Anna Thorvaldsdottir and inspired, she says, by ‘the natural balance between beauty and chaos’.

Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Surrender yourself Wednesday 7 October 2020

Page 06

16

December

© Bettina Stoess

Brett Dean

When Brett Dean’s opera Hamlet was premiered at Glyndebourne in 2017, it knocked the musical world sideways.

‘A formidable achievement’ declared one critic. ‘Physically vivid, emotionally affecting and psychologically astute’ said another.

Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO were thrilled to be part of that production, and a musical relationship was forged. Three years on, we’re delighted to announce that Brett Dean – described by The Times as ‘a richly imaginative composer at the top of his game’ – is our new Composer in Residence, and Composer Mentor to the LPO Young Composer Programme.

Brett Dean writes for orchestra with a fantasy and a brilliance unrivalled in the world today – and over three years we’ll be offering him the full resources of the LPO to create something new. There’ll be at least one world premiere

2018: Jurowski conducts Enescu

in future seasons, and this season we will hear the UK premieres of two of his most colourful and characterful recent masterpieces. Alban Gerhardt plays the stunning Cello Concerto that Dean wrote specially for him. And accordion-player extraordinaire James Crabb takes us back to where it all began: the world of Hamlet, re-imagined in The Players, a new concerto with a distinctly theatrical flavour.

‘It’s important to keep challenging oneself’, says Dean, ‘striving to emerge from each new work knowing more about music and oneself than one did previously.’ The journey so far has been nothing short of compelling – and the LPO can’t wait to join him on the next stage. Because wherever it might take him, we know that he’ll discover sounds like we’ve never heard before.

Wednesday 2 December 2020 | 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 Tamara-Anna Cislowska piano London Philharmonic Choir Trinity Boys Choir Vladimir Jurowski

High in the Carpathian mountains, as Romania stood on the brink of the First World War, George Enescu conceived his Third Symphony.

Rarely played in Western Europe, and scored for a vast orchestra, it’s a true late-Romantic epic on a scale that Mahler would have recognised: a massive spiritual drama of tragedy, struggle and final, glorious transcendence. Vladimir Jurowski loves it, and his choice of pieces to precede it is inspired: the Bach suite whose blazing majesty inspired Enescu, and the Bach-inspired Third Piano Concerto by Elena Kats-Chernin, the Australian composer whose music is proof that living composers really can write tunes. *Generously supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute.

© Richard Cannon

J S Bach Orchestral Suite No. 1 Elena Kats-Chernin Piano Concerto No. 3 (European premiere) Enescu Symphony No. 3*

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December

2019: All the world’s a stage

Saturday 5 December 2020 | 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

J S Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 Brett Dean The Players, for accordion and orchestra (UK premiere) Stravinsky Pulcinella (complete) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Pieter Schoeman violin Juliette Bausor flute Catherine Edwards harpsichord James Crabb accordion Angharad Lyddon soprano Sam Furness tenor David Soar bass

© Christoffer Askman

James Crabb

The play’s the thing. Nothing that Brett Dean does is ever predictable, and as the LPO launches its new partnership with this most compelling of living composers, we present the UK premiere of The Players. The scene is Elsinore, setting of Dean’s multi-award-winning 2017 opera Hamlet, and a troupe of actors is about to perform. Tonight, though, there’s only one star: the phenomenal accordionist James Crabb. It just gets more entertaining from there, in a concert that begins with the ceremonial sunburst of Bach’s ‘Brandenburg’ Concerto No. 5, and follows up with a complete performance of Stravinsky’s irreverent mockBaroque extravaganza Pulcinella. Pure theatre.

Generously supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation.

2020: Christmas Oratorio

Saturday 12 December 2020 | 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

James MacMillan Christmas Oratorio (world premiere) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Mary Bevan soprano Christopher Maltman baritone London Philharmonic Choir

© Victoria Cadisch

Mary Bevan

When James MacMillan writes a new choral work, the world takes notice. It’s no secret that MacMillan’s music is inspired by a profound and passionate religious faith – but it’s equally true that he writes with an energy, a commitment and an imaginative fire that give his music a universal appeal. ‘Beauty is at the heart of our Christian faith’, he says, and there’s little doubt that his new Christmas Oratorio will find something utterly original in this gentlest and most joyous of sacred stories. With Vladimir Jurowski conducting the London Philharmonic Choir and two outstanding soloists, this world premiere will be a major occasion for listeners of all faiths, or none.

Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NTR Zaterdagmatinee, Radio 4’s concert series in The Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Please note there will be an interval during this performance.

Wa g n e r ’ s R i n g c y c l e

A world broken and plundered and a society ruled not by love but by gold, as once-powerful rulers struggle to hold back the tide of change … Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen tells a tale of gods and humans set in a thrillinglyimagined world of ancient myth. But the story he’s really telling is startlingly modern, and the ravishing, all-embracing power of Wagner’s music makes it impossible to ignore.

Told over four consecutive operas, the Ring Cycle is the supreme challenge for an orchestra, a conductor and a world-class cast, and over

the last few seasons, as Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO have explored it together, the experience has been little short of overwhelming. ‘The London Philharmonic Orchestra played Wagner with all its collective heart and soul’, wrote one critic. ‘It was poetry for the eyes as well as the ears.’ Now they bring all four operas together for two complete performances of the whole massive cycle: the crowning moment of Vladimir Jurowski’s 18 years with the LPO. Generously supported by members of the Orchestra’s Ring Cycle Syndicate and Ring Cycle supporters.

Ring Cycle packages £450, £320, £225, £165, £90 (transaction fees may apply) Please note it is not possible to book for individual operas

Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk 020 3879 9555/southbankcentre.co.uk

Series discounts not available for these performances

R i ng C yc l e 2 O2 1

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January/February

Das Rheingold Please note start time Sung in German with English surtitles

Wagner Das Rheingold Vladimir Jurowski conductor Alina Adamski Woglinde Elizabeth Atherton Wellgunde Angharad Lyddon Flosshilde Robert Hayward Alberich Derek Welton Wotan Kai Rüütel Fricka Iwona Sobotka Freia Andrii Goniukov Fasolt Andrew Harris Fafner Christian Elsner Loge Allan Clayton Froh Boris Pinkhasovich Donner Adrian Thompson Mime Patricia Bardon Erda

Left: © Thomas Kurek Right: © Kroot Tarkmeel

Vladimir Jurowski

Monday 25 January 2021 | 7.00pm (Ring Cycle 1) Friday 5 February 2021 | 7.00pm (Ring Cycle 2) Royal Festival Hall For booking information see page 18 Deep beneath the River Rhine glints the ancient Rhine gold. Far above, the great gods complete their fortress of Valhalla and prepare to rule over the earth. But the treasure in the Rhine contains a power stronger than any living being, and all it demands is a willingness to renounce love.

In the opening chapter of his epic Ring Cycle, Richard Wagner doesn’t just tell a story of mythic power; he creates a whole new imaginative world in music. Vladimir Jurowski’s Wagner interpretations have been described in the press as ‘exquisite’, and with a world-class cast this will be a major occasion.

Please note this performance lasts approximately 2 hours 40 minutes and has no interval.

Kai Rüütel

20

January/February

Please note start time Sung in German with English surtitles

Wagner Die Walküre Vladimir Jurowski conductor Burkhard Fritz Siegmund Ruxandra Donose Sieglinde Brindley Sherratt Hunding Svetlana Sozdateleva Brünnhilde Matthew Rose Wotan Kai Rüütel Fricka Sinéad Campbell-Wallace Helmwige Natalya Romaniw Gerhilde Gabriela Iştoc Ortlinde Claire Barnett-Jones Waltraute Wallis Giunta Rossweisse Angela Simkin Siegrune Rachael Lloyd Grimgerde Claudia Huckle Schwertleite

Matthew Rose

Wednesday 27 January 2021 | 5.00pm (Ring Cycle 1) Saturday 6 February 2021 | 4.00pm (Ring Cycle 2) Royal Festival Hall For booking information see page 18 As a deadly storm rages through the forest, two desperate people find shelter. But higher powers watch and judge, and Siegmund and Sieglinde’s forbidden love will have consequences on a cosmic scale. A brother finds a sister, a father betrays his son and a goddess discovers her own humanity: the second part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle contains some of the most overwhelmingly emotional music in all opera.

It’s an ideal entry-point into Wagner’s epic world. Leading Wagnerians Burkhard Fritz and Ruxandra Donose head a stellar cast.

Please note this performance lasts approximately 5 hours 30 minutes including one 20-minute interval and one 75-minute interval.

Ruxandra Donose

Left: © Lena Kern Right: © Nicolae Alexa

Die Walküre

21

January/February

Siegfried Please note start time Sung in German with English surtitles

Wagner Siegfried Vladimir Jurowski conductor Torsten Kerl Siegfried James Rutherford Wanderer Elena Pankratova Brünnhilde Adrian Thompson Mime Robert Hayward Alberich Andrew Harris Fafner Patricia Bardon Erda Alina Adamski Woodbird

Friday 29 January 2021 | 4.00pm (Ring Cycle 1) Monday 8 February 2021 | 4.00pm (Ring Cycle 2) Royal Festival Hall For booking information see page 18 Deep in the forest, the orphaned Siegfried has grown to manhood without ever knowing fear.

A dragon’s gold, a sleeping goddess, and the shattered fragments of his father’s sword will all help shape his destiny, and set him on a path that leads to love, glory, and – perhaps – a new world. Part fairytale, part cosmic myth, it’s never less than gripping.

Please note this performance lasts approximately 6 hours including one 20-minute interval and one 75-minute interval.

‘Jurowski and the London Philharmonic on fine form had as much to say as many a fully-staged production.’

Financial Times on Jurowski’s Die Walküre, January 2019

Left: © Drew Kelley Right: © Bettina Stöß

Vladimir Jurowski

Torsten Kerl

22

January/February

Götterdämmerung Please note start time Sung in German with English surtitles

Wagner Götterdämmerung Vladimir Jurowski conductor Torsten Kerl Siegfried Lise Lindstrom Brünnhilde Brindley Sherratt Hagen Stephen Gadd Gunther Anna Samuil Gutrune Robert Hayward Alberich Kai Rüütel Waltraute Angharad Lyddon First Norn/Flosshilde Wallis Giunta Second Norn Elizabeth Atherton Third Norn/Wellgunde Alina Adamski Woglinde London Philharmonic Choir

Sunday 31 January 2021 | 3.00pm (Ring Cycle 1) Wednesday 10 February 2021 | 3.00pm (Ring Cycle 2) Royal Festival Hall For booking information see page 18 The epic final opera of the Ring tetralogy, Götterdämmerung (the Twilight of the Gods) sees the end of one world, the dawn of a new one, and the ultimate triumph of love over evil. The hero Siegfried is killed; his beloved Brünnhilde sacrifices herself to free the ring of its curse; and Valhalla bursts into flames, signalling the end of the reign of the gods – Wagner’s music itself telling of destruction as well as redemption through love.

Please note this performance lasts approximately 6 hours 30 minutes including one 75-minute interval and one 20-minute interval.

‘The London Philharmonic is playing at the peak of its form and that will be an important part of Jurowski’s legacy.’

Seen & Heard International, September 2019

Brindley Sherratt

Left: © Rosie Hardy Right: © Gerard Collett

Lise Lindstrom

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February

Pure Romance

Sunday 14 February 2021 | 5.00pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £46–£14 Premium seats £65 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk

Please note start time

Series discounts Page 43

Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez David Bruce New work for guitar and orchestra (world premiere)* Dvořák Symphony No. 9 (From the New World)

The song of the guitar is the sound of poetry, and of passion – and no-one understands those emotions like Miloš. ‘Each soft pluck had an incredible gleam and bloom’, said The Times.

‘But he’s also a musician of great subtlety.’

On Valentine’s Day, he teams up with Italian maestro Enrique Mazzola in a concert that sets Rodrigo’s ever-popular evocation of Spain alongside Debussy’s sensuous fantasy and the deep, nostalgic passion of Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony. Music to ignite sparks and caress the senses – and specially timed so it’s all over in time for dinner. Why not make a night of it?

Enrique Mazzola conductor Miloš Karadaglić guitar Miloš Karadaglić © Lars Borges / Mercury Classics

*Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Romantics and Englishmen

Wednesday 24 February 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

Tippett Ritual Dances from The Midsummer Marriage Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 Elgar Enigma Variations Edward Gardner conductor Seong-Jin Cho piano

© Benjamin Ealovega

Edward Gardner

British music and raw emotion make odd companions – or so we’re told. Ignore all that, because the Ritual Dances from Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage are a lush, soaring outpouring of colour, passion and rising sap from an unconventional visionary. And behind that Edwardian moustache, Elgar positively burned with poetry, imagination and tenderness: all the ingredients of the enchanting musical portraits that make up his ‘Enigma’ Variations.

It’s not just about Nimrod, which is why Edward Gardner has invited the dazzling Seong-Jin Cho to join him in the fantasy and fireworks of Liszt’s outrageous Second Piano Concerto. After all, nothing succeeds like excess.

Brett Dean The Players The stage is set Saturday 5 December 2020

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February

Love, hate and undiscovered worlds

Saturday 27 February 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

Eric Tanguy Affettuoso (London premiere) Brett Dean Cello Concerto (UK premiere) Sofia Gubaidulina On Love and Hatred (UK premiere) Edward Gardner conductor Alban Gerhardt cello Giselle Allen soprano Robert Murray tenor Leigh Melrose baritone Joshua Bloom bass London Philharmonic Choir

A Brett Dean premiere is guaranteed to leave critics grasping for words and images.

‘A whole series of weird, wonderful landscapes culled from the imagination of science fiction … surprisingly moving’, was one reaction to his new Cello Concerto, and for its UK premiere we’ve got the cellist for whom it was created: Alban Gerhardt. That’s merely the centrepiece of a whole evening of musical exploration, opening with a loving tribute to a friend by a great French master, and ending with the first UK performance of the emotionally-charged On Love and Hatred: a major new work by Sofia Gubaidulina, arguably the greatest living Russian composer.

Concert generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE. Part of Southbank Centre’s SoundState.

© Kaupo Kikkas

Alban Gerhardt

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March

Warner Bros. presents

Gene Kelly: A Life in Music

Wednesday 10 March 2021 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Tickets £55–£25 (transaction fees may apply) Book 020 7840 4242/lpo.org.uk Series discounts Page 43

Gene Kelly: A Life in Music Neil Thomson conductor Patricia Ward Kelly presenter

© Graham Whitby Boot

Patricia Ward Kelly

While most people think of dance when they think of Gene Kelly, music – and, particularly, American popular song – is central to his work.

It influenced him; inspired him; and, in many ways, defined him.

Gene Kelly: A Life in Music combines the music of a live symphony orchestra with a screening of clips from some of Kelly’s most iconic films, including Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, Brigadoon, Summer Stock, Les Girls, It’s Always Fair Weather, his joyful dance with Jerry the Mouse in Anchors Aweigh, plus rarely-seen footage from television specials and rare broadcasts.

Written and hosted by Kelly’s wife and biographer, Patricia Ward Kelly, this show offers a fascinating and intimate insight into the Hollywood star, and a truly exceptional live concert experience.

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March

Resurrection Symphony

Saturday 13 March 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

Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) Klaus Mäkelä conductor Camilla Tilling soprano Kai Rüütel mezzo-soprano London Philharmonic Choir

© Heikki Tuuli

Klaus Mäkelä

The end has come, and in the silence after the Last Trumpet, the song of a solitary bird is the only sound heard on Earth. The ambition of Gustav Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony staggers the imagination – an emotional odyssey on a universal scale that begins in tragedy and ends in the rebirth of a universe. In between comes tenderness, rage, pitch-black humour and – yes – the end of the world itself. There isn’t a recording in existence that can do it justice. You simply have to hear it live, and under the brilliant young maestro Klaus Mäkelä, a specially-expanded LPO will give it their all.

Bohemian rhapsodies

Friday 19 March 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 Steven Isserlis cello Steven Isserlis

Feelings burn brightly in Bohemia, and no-one understands that like Mark Elder – a conductor whose theatrical flair makes everything he touches catch fire. Janáček’s overture Jealousy lights the touchpaper, before Steven Isserlis plays the greatest of all cello concertos: written in the New World but blazing with nostalgia for Europe. And it gets more intense after the interval, with Janáček’s sensational orchestral melodrama Taras Bulba. If Taras Bulba was a film, it would be directed by Tarantino; but for Janáček, this bloody medieval tale of war and betrayal is simply an excuse for some serious sonic thrills. Hold tight.

© Jean-Baptiste Millot

Janáček Jealousy Dvořák Cello Concerto Suk Scherzo fantastique Janáček Taras Bulba

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March

Emelyanychev conducts Brahms

Wednesday 24 March 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

Mozart Overture, Don Giovanni Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) Brahms Symphony No. 1 Maxim Emelyanychev conductor Denis Kozhukhin piano

© Jean-Baptiste Millot

Maxim Emelyanychev

Brahms knew that Beethoven wasn’t an easy act to follow. ‘You don’t know what it’s like to hear his footsteps behind me’, he said while writing his First Symphony, but he needn’t have worried: with its tempestuous spirit and unforgettable final melody, critics quickly dubbed it ‘Beethoven’s Tenth’. Outsize emotions come as standard for conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, and for the great Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin too. Together, they’ll make Beethoven’s majestic ‘Emperor’ Concerto the perfect counterpart for Brahms’s symphonic landmark. First, though, the overture to Mozart’s darkest opera sets the stage for an evening of high drama and raw passion.

Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto

Friday 26 March 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

Arturo Márquez Danzón No. 2 Danny Elfman Percussion Concerto (world premiere)* Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Ravel Boléro Alondra de la Parra conductor Colin Currie percussion Alondra de la Parra

Danny Elfman is a legend of contemporary film music – the man whose scores for Edward Scissorhands, Batman and Corpse Bride 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 the astonishing Colin Currie – as one critic put it, ‘surely the world’s finest and most daring percussionist’. Under the baton of Alondra de la Parra, expect no holds barred, with electrifying rhythmic workouts from Leonard Bernstein and Ravel – West Side Story and Boléro – setting the mood for some serious thrills.

© Oscar Turco

*Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

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March/April

Postcards from Paris

Wednesday 31 March 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

Dukas Overture, Polyeucte Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos Franck Symphony in D minor Fabien Gabel conductor Lucas Jussen piano Arthur Jussen piano

© Marco Borggreve

The Jussens

Imagine a gothic cathedral looming out of the twilight. Picture an impressionist landscape beneath pastel skies. And now think of Belle-Époque Paris in all its ritzy, raucous colour.

That’s a very rough idea of what it’s like to hear César Franck’s extraordinary Symphony in D minor – for decades, one of the world’s most popular classics. Our Paris-born conductor Fabien Gabel is bringing it back tonight: the crowning glory of a Gallic-flavoured concert that begins with a sumptuous overture by the composer of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and stars the phenomenal Jussen brothers in Poulenc’s unashamedly entertaining Double Concerto. Naughty – but nice.

Canellakis conducts Shostakovich

Wednesday 14 April 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 Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

Karina Canellakis

Shortly after the American conductor Karina Canellakis made her LPO debut in 2018, the UK’s music critics voted to give her their Emerging Talent award: declaring her ‘one of the most dynamic young conductors on the international circuit’. But don’t just take their word for it.

Hear for yourself tonight as she scales the peaks of Shostakovich’s stirring Fifth Symphony – a coded counterblast to Stalin’s censorship – and partners the masterly German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann in Schumann’s dark horse of a Violin Concerto. A work from our Composer in Residence Brett Dean launches the evening: as ever, the only thing that can be predicted is that it’ll be brilliantly unpredictable.

Concert generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE.

© Mathias Bothor

Brett Dean Komarov’s Fall Schumann Violin Concerto Shostakovich Symphony No. 5

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April

Hough plays Brahms

Friday 16 April 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

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) Karina Canellakis conductor Stephen Hough piano

‘The LPO’s playing was transcendent … a quite brilliant, characterful performance with sharp-edged playing from the LPO.’ Seen & Heard International, April 2019

© Sim Canetty-Clarke

Stephen Hough

There’s almost nothing that Stephen Hough can’t play on the piano – but even he admits to being ‘overwhelmed’ by Brahms’s mighty First Piano Concerto. For him, this volcanic work is ‘a burst of pure, utter, natural genius’, and it’s true: if you think of Brahms as an easy-going old gent you’re in for a shock with this explosive youthful masterpiece. Hough plays it like no-one on earth, and this might be one of the few performances you’ll hear that has the potential to overshadow Beethoven’s revolutionary ‘Eroica’ Symphony.

Though with a powerhouse like Karina Canellakis on the podium, there’s not much risk of that.

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April

Russian epics

Wednesday 21 April 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

Alexey Retinsky De Profundis (UK premiere) Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Gil Shaham violin

© Luke Ratray

Gil Shaham

Moscow, 1945: and as Sergei Prokofiev waits, baton poised, to begin his Fifth Symphony, every cannon in the city thunders out in deafening salute. Forged in the fires of war and dedicated to ‘the greatness of the human spirit’, it still takes the breath away. It’s certainly a very different Russia from the soaring melodies and exuberant dances of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, though with the incomparable Gil Shaham as soloist, we think it’ll knock you backwards. And Vladimir Jurowski begins the concert in his own unmistakable style: with a powerful new work drenched in the Russian tradition.

Exiles and elegies

Saturday 24 April 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

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Miah Persson soprano

Miah Persson

Vladimir Jurowski has always looked at 20th-century music in a very personal way – and in his penultimate concert as Principal Conductor of the LPO he returns, with love, to two composers who followed their own paths in dark times.

For Vladimir, Rachmaninoff’s music is all about ‘human emotions, human life, human suffering, human joys’ – and tonight he champions the exiled composer’s bittersweet, neglected Third Symphony. First, though, comes Richard Strauss. The LPO’s strings play the devastating wordless war requiem Metamorphosen, and Miah Persson sings the Four Last Songs: sorrow transmuted into pure, radiant beauty.

Generously supported by the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.

© Monika Rittershaus

R Strauss Metamorphosen R Strauss Four Last Songs Rachmaninoff Vocalise Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3

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April

Jurowski conducts Swan Lake

Wednesday 28 April 2021 | 7.00pm Royal Festival Hall

Please note start time

Series discounts Page 43

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake

After 18 years of exploration and challenge, in the opera house, the concert hall and around the world with the LPO, Vladimir Jurowski returns to the composer at the heart of his musical life; the composer that Stravinsky called the ‘most Russian’ of them all. Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake is more than just four acts of some of the most gloriously inspired dance music of all time: it’s a profoundly human drama of love, struggle, destiny and redemption. There could be no more fitting last word from our Principal Conductor than this full-length concert performance.

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

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

Concert generously supported by Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet.

Vladimir Jurowski

‘Jurowski is now achieving a depth of string tone which marks out a great orchestra. It used to be di∞cult to tell London orchestras apart, but this one is becoming ever more individual.’

© Drew Kelley

Financial Times, September 2019

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Immerse yourself Wednesday 28 April 2021

Page 33

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Education and Community events

Education and Community events

From France to Germany, with a quick tour around the rest of the world in between: this season, our FUNharmonics family concert series presents a trio of international musical stories.

Presenter Rachel Leach introduces our first two concerts, conjuring up the strange and spooky characters we find in Berlioz’s extraordinary Symphonie fantastique, and drawing on music from across the world to discover just where the players of The Walkabout Orchestra are hiding. Older children, who would like to take the next step on their concert-going journey, are invited to pack their bags for Hamelin, to find out if a magical flute player can force the town’s selfish leaders to see the error of their ways.

Free foyer activities take place before every FUNharmonics concert, including opportunities for children aged six and above to ‘have a go’ at a range of orchestral instruments.

You can also catch an insight into our wider Education & Community programme through our year-round series of free LPO Showcase events, bringing our talented project participants centre stage. This season we present lively and creative performances from our Foyle Future Firsts, LPO Junior Artists and members of the Crisis Skylight Centre, alongside the LPO musicians who have supported and mentored them in rehearsals and workshops.

See page 38 for more details.

To discover more about our other Education & Community projects, including our BrightSparks schools concert series at Royal Festival Hall, our new inclusive group for disabled young people – the Open Sound Ensemble – and LPO Soundworks, a creative platform for teenage composers, explore lpo.org.uk/education

© Benjamin Ealovega

FUNharmonics foyer activities are supported by Stentor Music Co. Ltd, Jupiter and Bell Music.

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Education and Community events

Symphonie fantastique

The Walkabout Orchestra

Sunday 4 October 2020 12.00 noon–1.00pm

Sunday 14 March 2021 12.00 noon–1.00pm

Join the LPO on an incredible journey to nineteenth-century Paris as we explore a truly fantastic symphony. We’ll dance at a glamorous ball, shelter from a storm and cast a witches’ spell. We’ll also uncover the true story behind Hector Berlioz’s amazing Symphonie fantastique – possibly the strangest love story ever told!

The orchestra has an important concert, but all the musicians have disappeared on holiday!

Inspired by writer and illustrator Chloé Perarnau’s enchanting picture book, The Walkabout Orchestra, we will track down the missing players around the world, finding out about their instruments and each country’s music along the way. From frosty Russia to the vibrant United States, Peranau’s witty illustrations and the LPO will whisk you around the globe for a spot of musical detective work.

An interactive concert, suitable for apprentice witches and wizards aged six and above.

A lively first concert experience, suitable for children aged six and above.

And for older children ...

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

© The Walkabout Orchestra by Chloé Perarnau. Published in the UK by Wide Eyed Editions, an imprint of Quarto Publishing plc. Copyright © Chloé Perarnau 2018

Saturday 8 May 2021 12.00 noon–1.00pm

‘Suddenly the great doors of the Council Chamber were thrown open. In strode the oddest looking man anyone had ever seen …

And around his neck, on a fine grey cord, there hung a silver flute.’

How will the Piper rid Hamelin of its filthy rats?

And what will happen when the town’s greedy mayor breaks his promise? Following its premiere in 2015, this season the LPO revives The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a bewitching musical presentation of Michael Morpurgo’s book of the classic story, composed by Colin Matthews.

With Emma Chichester-Clark’s vivid illustrations projected onto screen, this dark and magical story offers a perfect opportunity for older children to expand their orchestral horizons.

Please note that this hour-long concert contains a single piece of music presented without a break, and is suitable for children aged seven and above.

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

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LPO Showcase

LPO Showcase Free one-hour concerts throughout the season

Our LPO Showcase series turns the spotlight on the extraordinary range of musical talent supported by our Education & Community programme, through free concerts at Royal Festival Hall. Spot the orchestral players of tomorrow in performances from two generations of dazzling upcoming young musicians – our post-conservatoire Foyle Future Firsts and our teenage LPO Junior Artists – and be inspired by the outstanding musical creativity of Crisis Skylight members. Find out more and get programme updates at lpo.org.uk/lposhowcase

Save the date Wednesday 11 November 2020 | 6.00pm Royal Festival Hall Join us to hear members of the Crisis Skylight Centre in east London perform alongside LPO musicians – the culmination of our annual week of creative music-making, celebrating its tenth year this season.

Saturday 5 December 2020 | 6.00pm Royal Festival Hall The LPO’s Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme bridges the transition between college and the professional platform for up to 17 outstanding young musicians. This season’s new cohort take to the stage with conductor Chloé van Soeterstède for their first performance of the year.

Saturday 27 February 2021 | 6.00pm Royal Festival Hall In his first season as Composer in Residence, and Composer Mentor to participants on the LPO’s Young Composers Programme, Brett Dean conducts the Foyle Future Firsts in a celebration of contemporary music, ahead of the UK premiere of his Cello Concerto by the LPO at 7.30pm.

Wednesday 14 April 2021 | 6.00pm Royal Festival Hall Now in its fifth year, our LPO Junior Artists Programme supports exceptionally talented teenage instrumentalists from under-represented backgrounds to develop their musicianship and gain an insight into the orchestral profession. Tonight, our 2020/21 Junior Artists perform alongside LPO Junior Artists alumni and their LPO mentors.

© Benjamin Ealovega

Foyle Future Firsts

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Supporting the Orchestra

Join our family of supporters We rely on the generosity of our donors and partners to help us achieve the extraordinary. From making a donation when purchasing your tickets, to supporting a chair in the Orchestra, donations of all sizes make a difference. Your support ensures that we can continue to deliver world-class performances, exceptional education programmes and incredible musical experiences for everybody.

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Supporting the Orchestra

Memberships and donations

We invite you to play a part in the Orchestra. Our members and donors have a central role in the LPO community. Join our family of supporters who share our passion for the timeless art of 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

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Supporting the Orchestra

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

This includes sending entire classes of schoolchildren to an LPO BrightSparks concert or rewarding staff with employee concert tickets.

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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LPO Plus

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.

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Booking information

Booking information

London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Monday to Friday 10.00am – 5.00pm (£4.00 transaction fee) lpo.org.uk (£3.50 transaction fee)

Southbank Centre

Ticket Office 020 3879 9555 (£4.00 transaction fee) southbankcentre.co.uk (£3.50 transaction fee) In person at Royal Festival Hall Ticket Office (no transaction fee) Please note there is a £3.00 exchange fee per ticket for bookings made directly through Southbank Centre.

All discounts are subject to availability and cannot be combined.

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.

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

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

Group bookings

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.

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 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)

NOISE membership for students and 18-26 year olds

If you are a full-time student in higher education or aged between 18 and 26, you can get best available tickets to selected London Philharmonic Orchestra concerts throughout the year for just £7. Selected concerts are also followed by a complimentary drinks reception.

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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. 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 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, call 020 3879 9555 or visit southbankcentre.co.uk/access

London Philharmonic Orchestra Resident at Southbank Centre and Glyndebourne Festival Opera

89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP Timothy Walker CBE AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director David Burke Chief Executive Designate HRH The Duke of Kent KG Patron Vladimir Jurowski Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Edward Gardner Principal Conductor Designate* Pieter Schoeman Leader** Brett Dean Composer in Residence Tickets 020 7840 4242 General enquiries 020 7840 4200 lpo.org.uk *Supported by Mrs Christina Lang Assael **Supported by Neil Westreich

Privacy policy

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

Sound enhancement systems are available.

Contact Royal Festival Hall's Ticket Office to collect one (subject to availability): 020 3879 9555.

Stay tuned

Royal Festival Hall has level access via internal lifts and ramps, and accessible toilets.

For further details please call 020 3879 9555.

– Get up-to-the-minute news and glimpse behind the scenes of a world class orchestra – Chat and interact with us and other audience members – Find out more about the music we play through our interactive online content, articles, interviews and podcasts

Royal Festival Hall has wheelchair spaces in the boxes, choir seats, side and rear stalls of the auditorium.

Assistance dogs are welcome on site.

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Travel information

Getting to Southbank Centre

Getting to Southbank Centre

There are four Blue Badge parking spaces available for visitors located on the Queen Elizabeth Hall slip road off Belvedere Road (between Royal Festival Hall and 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 Southbank Centre. Please note: on Sunday when the National Theatre building is closed there is no step-free access from the car park.

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

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National Theatre

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Royal Festival Hall

Golden Jubilee Bridges

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Hayward Gallery

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Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre Belvedere Road London SE1 8XX

London Eye

Waterloo

Waterloo Station

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Find out more

London Philharmonic Orchestra Label

For 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.

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

CDs are available from the LPO Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 (Monday – Friday 10.00am – 5.00pm), all good retail outlets and Southbank Centre Shop, Level 2, Royal Festival Hall.

Stream or download our music online from Apple Music, Spotify, Primephonic, Idagio, Amazon Prime Music and others.

Ravi Shankar’s Sukanya

‘The mix of microtonal, improvised Indian music on sitar and tabla with the massed standard-notated ranks of the London Philharmonic Orchestra makes for a sound world of arresting beauty and originality.’

What’s On Stage, on the live performance, May 2017

Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5

‘In these dignified and at times grittily intense performances, it’s clear that Kurt Masur sees both these symphonies whole ... Nothing is done for passing effect ... To be in the audience for either of these performances must have been a treat.’

BBC Music Magazine, June 2019

Mahler Symphony No. 4

‘A Mahler Fourth as insightful and as individual as we have come to expect from the source.’

Gramophone, Editor’s Choice, September 2019

World premiere recording with David Murphy LPO-0115

London Philharmonic Orchestra with Kurt Masur LPO-0112

Sofia Fomina with Vladimir Jurowski LPO-0113

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Recordings/downloads

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.

See our selection of playlists at lpo.org.uk/ playlists and stream online from Apple Music, Spotify, Idagio and others.

Search by mood or feeling

Find specific titles

lpo.org.uk/playlists

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Diary

The 2020/21 season

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

September Wednesday 23 September Tchaikovsky Lutosławski Berlioz Edward Gardner Gerald Finley Saturday 26 September R Strauss Mendelssohn John Adams Edward Gardner London Philharmonic Choir Wednesday 30 September Julian Anderson Nielsen Beethoven John Storgårds Simone Lamsma

October Saturday 3 October John Adams Bartók Beethoven Karina Canellakis Heath Quartet

Wednesday 21 October Schubert Thomas Larcher Nielsen Thierry Fischer Mark Padmore Saturday 24 October Handel Beethoven Daniele Rustioni Nicolas Namoradze Sophie Bevan Jade Moffat Toby Spence Bryn Terfel London Philharmonic Choir

November Friday 6 November Tchaikovsky Brahms Christoph Eschenbach Ray Chen Wednesday 11 November Schubert Krzysztof Penderecki Lotta Wennäkoski Sibelius

Saturday 28 November Ravel Schubert Anna Thorvaldsdottir Prokofiev Thomas Søndergård Alexander Gavrylyuk

December Wednesday 2 December J S Bach Elena Kats-Chernin Enescu Vladimir Jurowski Tamara-Anna Cislowska London Philharmonic Choir Trinity Boys Choir Saturday 5 December J S Bach Brett Dean Stravinsky Vladimir Jurowski Pieter Schoeman Juliette Bausor Catherine Edwards James Crabb Angharad Lyddon Sam Furness David Soar

Hannu Lintu Gábor Boldoczki

Saturday 12 December James MacMillan

Wednesday 7 October Schubert Magnus Lindberg Stravinsky

Wednesday 18 November Beethoven Shankar

Vladimir Jurowski Mary Bevan Christopher Maltman London Philharmonic Choir

Jukka-Pekka Saraste Anssi Karttunen

Zubin Mehta Anoushka Shankar

Friday 9 October Grieg Tchaikovsky

Wednesday 25 November Prokofiev Schubert Magnus Lindberg Szymanowski

Ken-ichiro Kobayashi Víkingur Ólafsson

Thomas Søndergård Michael Weinius London Philharmonic Choir

Diary

January Wagner Ring Cycle 1 Full cast list (see pages 19–22) Monday 25 January 7.00pm Wagner Das Rheingold Wednesday 27 January 5.00pm Wagner Die Walküre Friday 29 January 4.00pm Wagner Siegfried Sunday 31 January 3.00pm Wagner Götterdämmerung Vladimir Jurowski

February Wagner Ring Cycle 2 Full cast list (see pages 19–22) Friday 5 February 7.00pm Wagner Das Rheingold Saturday 6 February 4.00pm Wagner Die Walküre Monday 8 February 4.00pm Wagner Siegfried Wednesday 10 February 3.00pm Wagner Götterdämmerung Vladimir Jurowski

Sunday 14 February 5.00pm Debussy Rodrigo David Bruce Dvořák Enrique Mazzola Miloš Karadaglić Wednesday 24 February Tippett Liszt Elgar Edward Gardner Seong-Jin Cho Saturday 27 February Eric Tanguy Brett Dean Sofia Gubaidulina Edward Gardner Alban Gerhardt Giselle Allen Robert Murray Leigh Melrose Joshua Bloom London Philharmonic Choir

March Wednesday 10 March Gene Kelly: A Life in Music Neil Thomson Patricia Ward Kelly Saturday 13 March Mahler Klaus Mäkelä Camilla Tilling Kai Rüütel London Philharmonic Choir Friday 19 March Janáček Dvořák Suk Mark Elder Steven Isserlis Wednesday 24 March Mozart Beethoven Brahms Maxim Emelyanychev Denis Kozhukhin

Friday 26 March Arturo Márquez Danny Elfman Bernstein Ravel Alondra de la Parra Colin Currie Wednesday 31 March Dukas Poulenc Franck Fabien Gabel Lucas Jussen Arthur Jussen

FUNharmonics Sunday 4 October 2020 12.00 noon–1.00pm Symphonie fantastique Sunday 14 March 2021 12.00 noon–1.00pm The Walkabout Orchestra Saturday 8 May 2021 12.00 noon–1.00pm The Pied Piper of Hamelin

April Wednesday 14 April Brett Dean Schumann Shostakovich Karina Canellakis Frank Peter Zimmermann Friday 16 April Brahms Beethoven Karina Canellakis Stephen Hough Wednesday 21 April Alexey Retinsky Tchaikovsky Prokofiev Vladimir Jurowski Gil Shaham Saturday 24 April R Strauss Rachmaninoff Vladimir Jurowski Miah Persson Wednesday 28 April 7.00pm Tchaikovsky Vladimir Jurowski

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

Concert texts Richard Bratby Illustrations Brett Ryder/Heart Agency Design JMG Studio Printer Tradewinds (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.

‘A triumph of blazing music, and performance.’ The Arts Desk, October 2019

lpo.org.uk