2025-26 London Season
Welcome to our 2025–26 London Season
at the Royal Albert Hall and Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
When you have the privilege to conduct a great orchestra, you get used to thinking big. Naturally, I do my best to aim high: to share with you, our audience, the finest melodies, the strongest emotions, the most magnificent sounds. But for me, there’s another side to music-making, and in its own way, it’s a sort of miracle. You might be sitting in an iconic venue like the Royal Albert Hall or the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, surrounded by thousands of fellow listeners but as soon as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra starts to play, we have only one aim – to create music that speaks directly to you.
This season, we’re certainly thinking big again – playing music to make your ears tingle and your heart soar. The sonic splendour of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie; the cosmic visions of Wagner’s Parsifal; the raw power of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony; the joy of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and the incredible, ecstatic Third Symphony of Scriabin – a rarely-heard Russian masterpiece that aims straight for heaven itself. And then we have the epic world of Gustav Mahler: three mighty symphonies that seem to embrace the whole of human life.
There are quieter moments, too; music that’s very personal to me, and which I’m eager to share. There’s the grace of Mozart, the passion of Puccini, intimate moments from Mahler, and wonderful, less well-known scores by Galina Ustvolskaya and Sergei Taneyev. We’ll play a piece by our brilliant Composer-in-Association, Joe Hisaishi, who’s fired imagination all over the world as the composer behind the vivid scores of Hayao Miyzaki’s Studio Ghibli. And there are those special moments when we get to share the joys of music-making – large and small – with
friends like Ray Chen, who plays Korngold’s beautiful Violin Concerto, and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, who explores a young Beethoven at his most playful in his First Piano Concerto, to name just two of our guests this season.
Vasily Petrenko Music Director
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
So, we can promise you thrills, as well as beauty, tenderness, poetry and wit, all of it created especially for you. Even the greatest music can only speak if there are ears to listen. This season, we want to move you and surprise you: join us, and make the conversation – and the art – complete.
Tuesday 21 October 2025, 7.30pm
Royal Albert Hall
Mahler x Bernstein
Puccini
Preludio sinfonico
Bernstein
Chichester Psalms
Mahler
Symphony No.1, ‘Titan’
Vasily Petrenko
Conductor
Philharmonia Chorus
Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
If silence had a sound, what would you hear? Maybe something like the massive stillness that opens Mahler’s First Symphony. A magical spring dawn, or the creation of life itself? It’s the starting point for a young artist’s journey through tragedy and triumph – a voyage through life and death, birdsong and fanfares, funeral marches and Viennese waltzes.
Mahler said that ‘the symphony should be like the world –it must embrace everything’, and no recording does the First Symphony justice: it’s one of those pieces that you simply have to experience live.
First, though, a majestic interlude from Puccini sets the scene for Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Raising the roof with a shout of joy, this setting of three Hebrew psalms is both affirming and exhilarating – a timeless plea for peace and unity.
Tuesday 3 February 2026, 7.30pm
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Shostakovich x Beethoven
Ustvolskaya
The Dream of
Stepan Razin
Beethoven
Piano Concerto No.1
Shostakovich
Symphony No.10
Vasily Petrenko
Conductor
Yuriy Yurchuk
Baritone
Benjamin Grosvenor
Piano
Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
In communist Russia, Soviet officials called it an ‘optimistic tragedy’. Shostakovich simply called it his Tenth Symphony. Dark, tense, packed with secret messages and featuring at its centre a terrifying scherzo that might or might not be musical portrait of Stalin himself. Shostakovich’s Tenth is one of the greatest of all 20th-century symphonies, and few living conductors understand it more intimately than Vasily Petrenko. ‘Shattering’ and ‘thrilling’ were just two of the words that critics used to describe his recording of the Tenth Symphony.
Today, he probes its secrets once again, paired with a haunting Russian ballad for baritone and orchestra from Galina Ustvolskaya, a composition pupil of Shostakovich. At the centre, we are joined by one of Britain’s best-loved pianists – Benjamin Grosvenor – in a very different masterpiece: the young Beethoven’s exuberant First Piano Concerto.
ON SALE AUTUMN 2025
Mahler Symphony No.6
Vasily Petrenko Conductor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Wednesday 18 March 2026, 7.30pm
Royal Albert Hall
Mahler 6
Art imitates life, they say. It isn’t meant to happen the other way around, and Mahler learned the hard way that you should be careful what you wish for. At the climax of his tragic Sixth Symphony, he portrayed an artist felled by three mighty ‘hammer blows of fate’. Not long after he completed the Symphony, three devastating blows reduced Mahler’s family and career to ruins.
That’s the legend, anyway. What is beyond dispute is that this is one of the most powerful – and personal – of Mahler’s works; a masterpiece that embraces love as well as sorrow.
‘A shattering performance of volcanic power’ was how one critic described Vasily Petrenko and the RPO’s last encounter with this colossal symphony… this highlight of our season in the Royal Albert Hall is not to be missed.
Thursday 23 April 2026, 7.30pm
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Messiaen Turangalîla
Messiaen Turangalîla-Symphonie
Vasily Petrenko Conductor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Imagine an explosion of love on a cosmic scale. Mix in 1940s film score, a pounding rhythmic workout and the sounds of a Javanese gamelan, all washed in blissful impressionist colours. Now add a huge orchestra, a world-class pianist and a vintage electronic instrument straight out of science fiction and you’re still not even halfway to imagining Messiaen’s mind-boggling Turangalîla-Symphonie. 77 years after its premiere, it still sounds like nothing on earth.
‘A love song, a hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death’ was how Messiaen himself described this vast, vibrant psychedelic masterpiece, and Vasily Petrenko and a super-sized Royal Philharmonic Orchestra turn the volume up to 11. This is music that contains multitudes: every performance is a special occasion. Don’t miss this one.
ON SALE AUTUMN 2025
Tuesday 12 May 2026, 7.30pm
Royal Albert Hall
Mahler x Korngold
Korngold
Violin Concerto
Mahler
Symphony No.5
Vasily Petrenko
Conductor
Ray Chen
Violin
Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
A trumpet sounds an ominous fanfare, the orchestra cries out, and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony thunders into life. But that’s just the beginning – and, after all, this is Mahler! 68 minutes later, the whole orchestra is punching the sky in triumph. It’s an epic struggle from darkness to light, as powerful as any Hollywood blockbuster and every bit as colourful, filled with horn calls, dark visions and, of course, Romantic music’s most passionate love letter – the famous Adagietto that Mahler wrote for his young wife Alma.
It’s powerful stuff, so Vasily Petrenko has paired it with the rapturous Violin Concerto that Mahler’s protégé Korngold dedicated to Alma when they were both exiled to California. Based on themes that Korngold had written for the silver screen, you can feel the poetry as well as the sunlight, and few living violinists play it with more panache than Ray Chen.
Sunday 17 May 2026, 7.30pm
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Wagner x Taneyev
Mozart
The Magic Flute: Overture
Taneyev John of Damascus
Wagner
Parsifal: Orchestral Suite
Vasily Petrenko
Conductor
Philharmonia Chorus
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
‘In this realm, time becomes space…’ From CS Lewis to Terry Gilliam, Wagner’s Parsifal has been an inspiration to the very greatest creative artists. Vasily Petrenko conducts a symphonic suite that weaves all the power and beauty of Wagner’s five-hour masterpiece into one sumptuous orchestral tapestry: music that glows from within, sounding more radiant than ever in the Royal Festival Hall.
Mozart’s noble Overture to The Magic Flute opens a portal to an evening filled with sacred mysteries, and then Vasily Petrenko introduces something rare and very beautiful from his native Russia. Today, Sergei Taneyev is almost forgotten in the west, but as far as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov were concerned he was a genius, and this heartfelt choral masterpiece packs a mighty emotional punch.
ON SALE AUTUMN 2025
Friday 5 June 2026, 7.30pm
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Hisaishi x Scriabin
Rachmaninov Isle of the Dead
Hisaishi
The Border
(Concerto for Three Horns and Orchestra)
London premiere
Scriabin
Symphony No.3, ‘The Divine Poem’
Vasily Petrenko
Conductor
Alexander Edmundson
Ben Hulme
Katy Woolley
Horns
Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
Some composers think bigger, but it takes a special sort of genius to create a whole new musical universe. Everything about Scriabin’s Third Symphony is larger than life, from the enormous orchestra to the galactic ambition of Scriabin’s inspiration – music that he described as ‘ecstatic’, ‘drunken’ and even ‘divine’! If you like Mahler, you’ll love ‘The Divine Poem’, and for Vasily Petrenko, it’s a passion – a musical experience that doesn’t come around every day.
It’ll make a thrilling, colourful counterpart to a delightful new work from Joe Hisaishi (My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away), starring three solo horns and bursting with all the imagination you’d expect from Studio Ghibli’s house composer – currently the RPO’s Composer-in-Association. Rachmaninov’s evocative tone poem, inspired by a black and white reproduction of Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead painting, launches an evening full of wonders.
ON SALE AUTUMN 2025
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How to Book
Royal Albert Hall
Tickets from £17*
Under-18s from £7* (only valid in selected areas)
Online rpo.co.uk
Phone 020 7589 8212
*Ticket prices subject to fees and levy, and may be adjusted based on demand.
Hospitality dining packages available, see royalalberthall.com for details.
Group Discounts
Groups save up to 35% off all ticket prices. Tickets for schools and colleges are available from £7 for all performances, subject to availability.
Visit rpo.co.uk/groups for details.
Tue 21 Oct 2025
Royal Albert Hall Mahler x Bernstein
Tue 3 Feb 2026
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Shostakovich x Beethoven
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Tickets from £16*
Under-18s from £7* (only valid in selected areas)
Online rpo.co.uk
Phone 020 3879 9555
*Booking fees apply online (£3.50) and over the phone (£4). There are no booking fees for Southbank Centre Members, Supporters Circles and Patrons.
Join the RPO Club
RPO Club members save 50% on up to two tickets for each of these concerts.
Join from £180 per year and receive additional benefits.
See rpo.co.uk/club or call 020 7608 8840 for details and to join.
Season at a Glance
Wed 18 Mar 2026
Royal Albert Hall Mahler 6
Thu 23 Apr 2026
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Messiaen Turangalîla
Tue 12 May 2026
Royal Albert Hall Mahler x Korngold
Sun 17 May 2026
Southbank Centre’s
Royal Festival Hall Wagner x Taneyev
Fri 5 Jun 2026
Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall Hisaishi x Scriabin
Buy 2 or more concerts to save on your tickets. See rpo.co.uk for details.
Resident Orchestra