City: LondonPerformer: BBC Symphony Orchestra| Date | Event | Composers, Works, Performers |
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| Saturday 25-May-13 07:30pm |
 Barbican Centre: Hall, LondonBBC Symphony Orchestra / Metzmacher |
Mahler, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (selection of songs)  |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 25-May-13 07:30pm BBC Symphony Orchestra / Metzmacher Tickets £10 - 30. Mahler, Gustav (1860-1911), Des Knaben Wunderhorn (selection of songs) | ||
| Friday 12-Jul-13 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 1 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Friday 12-Jul-13 07:30pm Prom 1 The 2013 BBC Proms begins with a surge of natural energy in sea-inspired works by Britten and Vaughan Williams (the latter combining the 300-strong Proms Youth Choir and the BBC Symphony Chorus). A world première from Julian Anderson and two sets of Paganini variations by Rachmaninov and featured composer Lutosławski add pianistic stardust.Tickets £9.50 - £46. Anderson, Julian (b. 1967), Harmony (World première, BBC commission) | ||
| Wednesday 17-Jul-13 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 8 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Wednesday 17-Jul-13 07:30pm Prom 8 Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem opens a programme of testimony and remembrance. Paul Watkins is the soloist in Lutosławski’s bleak and beautiful Cello Concerto, composed for and dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich in a period of violent protest and political repression in Poland. Thomas Adès conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and soloists Christianne Stotijn and Simon Keenlyside in the world premiere of his Totentanz, a commission in memory of Lutosławski, which sets an anonymous 15th-century text that accompanied a frieze destroyed when Lübeck’s Marienkirche was bombed in the Second World War.Tickets £7.50 - £36. Adès, Thomas (b. 1971), Totentanz (world première) | ||
| Saturday 27-Jul-13 05:00pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 19 BBC Proms |
Wagner, Tristan and Isolde (concert performance, sung in German) Peter Seiffert, Tenor: Tristan Kwangchul Youn, Bass: King Marke Violeta Urmana, Soprano: Isolde Boaz Daniel, Baritone: Kurwenal David Wilson-Johnson, Bass: Melot Sophie Koch, Mezzo-soprano: Brangäne Andrew Staples, Tenor: Shepherd BBC Singers BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Semyon Bychkov, Conductor |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Saturday 27-Jul-13 05:00pm Prom 19 The Wagner bicentenary celebrations continue with the composer’s boldest fusion of legend and harmonic innovation, Tristan and Isolde, which forced him to break off work on his Ring cycle near this very juncture in the Proms Ring – during the composition of Siegfried and before the final instalment, Götterdämmerung. Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a cast led by Violeta Urmana and Peter Seiffert in a drama where love and death become one.Tickets £9.50 - £46.Therre will be two intervals of 30 minutes. Wagner, Richard (1813-1883), Tristan and Isolde (concert performance, sung in German) Peter Seiffert, Tenor: Tristan Kwangchul Youn, Bass: King Marke Violeta Urmana, Soprano: Isolde Boaz Daniel, Baritone: Kurwenal David Wilson-Johnson, Bass: Melot Sophie Koch, Mezzo-soprano: Brangäne Andrew Staples, Tenor: Shepherd BBC Singers BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Semyon Bychkov, Conductor | ||
| Thursday 1-Aug-13 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 26 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Thursday 1-Aug-13 07:30pm Prom 26 Composer-conductor Oliver Knussen directs the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tippett’s Symphony No 2, inspired by the rhythmic energy of a Vivaldi bassline and the first in a series of works by Tippett to be featured in parallel with the Britten centenary. The revered American pianist Peter Serkin makes his Proms debut in Stravinsky’s neo-Classical Concerto for piano and winds and compact serialist conceit Movements. Written in memory of his friend Paul Dessau, the late Hans Werner Henze’s 1979 Barcarola opens this programme of 20th-century masterpieces.Tickets £7.50 - £36. | ||
| Wednesday 7-Aug-13 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 32 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Wednesday 7-Aug-13 07:30pm Prom 32 Leading champion of Lutosławski’s music and Music Director of English National Opera, Edward Gardner conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a programme contrasting one each of the Polish composer’s earliest and latest works with music by the British composer Gustav Holst. Completed shortly before the occupation of Poland, Lutosławski’s Symphonic Variations is juxtaposed with Holst’s rarely heard tribute to Thomas Hardy, Egdon Heath. Louis Lortie is the soloist in Lutosławski’s monumental 1988 Piano Concerto in a concert that closes with Holst’s extraordinarily visionary The Planets.Tickets £7.50 - £36. | ||
| Saturday 10-Aug-13 08:00pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 37 - Urban Classic Prom BBC Proms |
See More info... for programme details. |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Saturday 10-Aug-13 08:00pm Prom 37 - Urban Classic Prom A dynamic meeting of musical cultures as conductor Jules Buckley brings together the BBC Symphony Orchestra with leading performers from the UK’s vibrant urban music scene. In Urban Classic’s experimental fusion of musical styles, high-octane orchestral showpieces by Mosolov and Henze rub shoulders with rap, R&B and soul. ‘It’s a culture clash,’ says Jules Buckley. ‘We’re taking artists from different worlds and messing with their music, putting it in an orchestral context and exploring it in a new way.Tickets £7.50 - £36. | ||
| Friday 16-Aug-13 06:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 45 BBC Proms |
Tippett, The Midsummer Marriage (concert performance) Paul Groves, Tenor: Mark Erin Wall, Soprano: Jenifer Peter Sidhom, Baritone: King Fisher Ailish Tynan, Soprano: Bella Allan Clayton, Tenor: Jack Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Mezzo-soprano: Madame Sosostris David Soar, Bass: He-Ancient Madeleine Shaw, Soprano: She-Ancient BBC Singers BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis, Conductor |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Friday 16-Aug-13 06:30pm Prom 45 Last heard at the Proms in 1977, The Midsummer Marriage is Tippett’s answer to Mozart’s The Magic Flute, an opera rich in symbolism and psychology, trials and transformations. Paul Groves and Erin Wall are Mark and Jenifer, Ailish Tynan and Allan Clayton, Bella and Jack, two couples tested by a series of supernatural interventions on the shortest night of the year. One of today’s leading Tippett exponents, Sir Andrew Davis conducts the centrepiece of this summer’s Proms focus on Tippett’s music alongside Britten’s centenary.Tickets £9.50 - £46. Tippett, Michael (1905-1998), The Midsummer Marriage (concert performance) Paul Groves, Tenor: Mark Erin Wall, Soprano: Jenifer Peter Sidhom, Baritone: King Fisher Ailish Tynan, Soprano: Bella Allan Clayton, Tenor: Jack Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Mezzo-soprano: Madame Sosostris David Soar, Bass: He-Ancient Madeleine Shaw, Soprano: She-Ancient BBC Singers BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis, Conductor | ||
| Wednesday 21-Aug-13 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 52 BBC Proms |
Vir, Cave of the Luminous Mind (BBC commission, world première) |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Wednesday 21-Aug-13 07:30pm Prom 52 Dedicated to the late Jonathan Harvey, Param Vir’s Cave of Luminous Mind is inspired by the mindfulness of Tibetan Buddhism and the story of Buddhist master Milarepa’s penitential progress on the Diamond Path. Chief Conductor and Elgar Medalwinner Sakari Oramo directs the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Vir’s work, Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations and Granville Bantock’s 1940 Celtic Symphony for strings and six harps. Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili plays Sibelius’s exhilarating Violin Concerto, a work she recorded in 2008 to rave reviews.Tickets £7.50 - £36. Vir, Param (b. 1952), Cave of the Luminous Mind (BBC commission, world première) | ||
| Wednesday 28-Aug-13 07:00pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 61 BBC Proms |
Seither, Language of Leaving (BBC commission, world première) |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Wednesday 28-Aug-13 07:00pm Prom 61 German composer Charlotte Seither adapts the words of the 17th-century poet Francesco de Lemene in a new work for the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, using voices and syllables as spots of ‘human colour’. Josep Pons conducts this world premiere alongside the 1947 version of Stravinsky’s Petrushka, the a cappella motets Ave Maria and Pater noster, and the four-minute novelty Scherzo à la russe, written in Hollywood for the bandleader Paul Whiteman. Frank Peter Zimmermann is the soloist in Brahms’s much-loved Violin Concerto.Tickets £7.50 - £36. Seither, Charlotte (b. 1965), Language of Leaving (BBC commission, world première) | ||
| Wednesday 4-Sep-13 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 71 BBC Proms |
Vaughan Williams, Four Last Songs (orch A Payne, BBC commission, world première) |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Wednesday 4-Sep-13 07:30pm Prom 71 A series of farewells as Osmo Vänskä concludes the season’s focus on Polish music and conducts the premiere of Anthony Payne’s orchestration of Vaughan Williams’s Four Last Songs. BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Ruby Hughes and Jennifer Johnston are the soloists, Hughes singing the three Polish texts of Henryk Górecki’s ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’, Johnston singing ‘Procris’, ‘Menelaus’, ‘Tired’ and ‘Hands, Eyes and Heart’ that make up the Vaughan Williams. Tchaikovsky’s heartfelt ‘Pathétique’ is the penultimate instalment of this summer’s cycle of his symphonies.Tickets £7.50 - £36. Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1872-1958), Four Last Songs (orch A Payne, BBC commission, world première) | ||
| Saturday 7-Sep-13 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 75 - The Last Night of the Proms BBC Proms |
Clyne, Masquerade (BBC commission, world première) Lloyd, HMS Trinidad March (UK première of this version) Traditional, The British National Anthem (arr. Britten) |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Saturday 7-Sep-13 07:30pm Prom 75 - The Last Night of the Proms The Last Night begins with a celebratory new work by Anna Clyne and includes a rare performance of Britten’s 1967 overture for chorus and orchestra The Building of the House, a touch of Broadway magic and the sound of a glass ceiling being broken as Marin Alsop takes charge of her first Last Night. Nigel Kennedy and Joyce DiDonato are the star soloists in a programme that picks up sea-faring themes from Bantock and George Lloyd and includes a transatlantic flavour.Tickets £27 - £95. Clyne, Anna (b. 1980), Masquerade (BBC commission, world première) Britten, Benjamin (1913-1976), The Building of the House for chorus or organ or brass and orchestra, Op.79 Lloyd, George (1913-1998), HMS Trinidad March (UK première of this version) Parry, Hubert (1848-1918), Jerusalem (orch. Elgar) Traditional, The British National Anthem (arr. Britten) | ||
| Sunday 22-Sep-13 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring |
Weber, Invitation to the Dance, Op.65 (orch. Berlioz) |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Sunday 22-Sep-13 07:30pm Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring To mark the 100th anniversary of the riotous premiere of The Rite of Spring, a whole day of events, culminating in an evening concert that recreates the explosive musical cocktail of that concert. Immerse yourself in the Parisian artistic world of 1913 with two retrospective films, Riot at the Rite and Ballet Russes, an intimate portrait of the surviving dancers in Diaghilev’s ground-breaking company. In the evening, Russian conductor Alexander Vedernikov leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a programme that places Stravinsky’s ballet in the context of the dance music tradition, including Borodin’s colourful Polovtsian Dances, Weber’s Invitation to the Dance and Stravinsky’s own orchestration of Chopin’s Grande valse brilliante. Tickets £10 - 32. Total Immersion Day Pass £18 - 35. Weber, Carl Maria von (1786-1826), Invitation to the Dance, Op.65 (orch. Berlioz) | ||
| Saturday 26-Oct-13 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Music by Poulenc, Roussell and Ravel |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 26-Oct-13 07:30pm Music by Poulenc, Roussell and Ravel We welcome three very special guests for this all-French programme: the inimitable Marc Minkowski, who has done so much to revitalize the performance of his native repertoire, is joined by two young stars of the piano, David Kaddouch and Guillaume Vincent for Poulenc’s scintillating concerto for two pianos. The BBC Singers premiered the composer’s moving tribute to the human spirit, Figure Humaine, which sets poems by Paul Eluard secretly circulated during the Occupation. Ravel had few rivals as an orchestrator as his Mother Goose ballet suite reveals, with its beguiling pavane for Sleeping Beauty, striking oriental evocations and fantastical fairy garden. Tickets £10 - 32. | ||
| Saturday 2-Nov-13 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Mahler's Symphony no. 1 |
Murail, New work, BBC co-commission, world première |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 2-Nov-13 07:30pm Mahler's Symphony no. 1 For Sakari Oramo’s first Barbican concert as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he presents a characteristic mixture of cutting-edge and much-loved music. Following a world premiere by the leading spectral composer Tristan Murail, part of this season’s focus on new French music, iconic pianist Olli Mustonen and star Russian trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov, described as ‘the Caruso of the trumpet’, join forces for Shostakovich’s sparkling Piano Concerto No 1. From the shining idyll that opens Mahler’s first symphony, we are transported into a world rich in folk song, dance, marches and unsettling juxtapositions in this thrilling orchestral masterpiece.Tickets £10 - 32. Murail, Tristan (b. 1947), New work, BBC co-commission, world première | ||
| Sunday 10-Nov-13 07:00pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London BBC Symphony Orchestra / Bychkov |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, United Kingdom Sunday 10-Nov-13 07:00pm BBC Symphony Orchestra / Bychkov ‘My subject is War, and the pity of War.’ Wilfred Owen In his War Requiem, Benjamin Britten placed the poetry of Wilfred Owen into dark and often ironic confrontation with the words of the Requiem Mass. This deeply moving and powerful work, written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral after its destruction in the Second World War, remains as relevant today as ever. Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, massed choirs and a cast of superb soloists in a performance that marks Britten’s 100th anniversary year, on Remembrance Sunday in an iconic building whose association with remembrance goes back nearly a century. Tickets £8 - 36. | ||
| Wednesday 4-Dec-13 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Music by Ravel, Busoni, Schreker and Schoenberg |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Wednesday 4-Dec-13 07:30pm Music by Ravel, Busoni, Schreker and Schoenberg French soprano Nora Gubisch can trace her ancestry right back to Ravel’s close friend Ricardo Viñes, and her lustrous voice and idiomatic style make her the ideal soloist for his ravishing orchestral songs, Shéhérazade. We are treated to Schreker’s irridescent overture for large orchestra and two poignant elegies by Busoni and Ravel before being plunged into the seething creative whirl of Schoenberg’s masterpiece, the Chamber Symphony No 1. Tickets £10 - 32. | ||
| Sunday 15-Dec-13 02:00pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Berlioz L'enfance du Christ |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Sunday 15-Dec-13 02:00pm Berlioz L'enfance du Christ A seasonal concert featuring Berlioz’s luminous re-telling of the Christmas story. The composer delved back into his tender boyhood memories for this unusual oratorio. While it contains the terror of Herod’s dream and the Holy Family’s flight, it’s also suffused with a gentleness not found in many of his works. On hearing the first completed performance of ‘The Holy Family at rest’, Berlioz wrote to his sister: ‘It is really good, it is innocent and touching (do not laugh), in the style of the illuminations of old missals.’ Tickets £10 - 32. | ||
| Friday 20-Dec-13 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Wagner's Prelude to Tristan and Isolde |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Friday 20-Dec-13 07:30pm Wagner's Prelude to Tristan and Isolde Celebrated American soprano Christine Brewer is a very special guest for this sumptuous evening of Wagner, Strauss and composers of the Second Viennese school, conducted by the Edward Gardner of English National Opera. Tristan and Isolde and the Wesendonck- Lieder belong to the same turbulent period of Wagner’s life, when he was amorously involved with Mathilde Wesendonck. His settings of her poetry share the same heady chromaticism and ecstatic heights as Tristan, and find an echo in Strauss’s lavish tone poem Death and Transfiguration. Webern’s masterly Passacaglia anticipates the exquisitely-heard, Expressionist world of Berg’s Seven Early Songs. Tickets £10 - 32. | ||
| Wednesday 8-Jan-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Beethoven's Third Symphony |
Matthews C., Traces Remain (BBC commission, world première) |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Wednesday 8-Jan-14 07:30pm Beethoven's Third Symphony For his second programme in the season, Sakari Oramo offers an exhilarating menu of Beethoven, Schumann and Colin Matthews. Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony was, and remains, a revolutionary statement of genius. From the blazing ‘hunting’ horns in the symphony’s trio, we move to Schumann’s glorious Konzertstück for four horns, showcasing soloists from the orchestra, and the heroic, romantic and soulful qualities of the instrument. Traces Remain, a new commission from Colin Matthews, takes its name and inspiration from a book of essays by Charles Nicholl: ‘the sudden presence, the glimpse behind the curtain, the episode measured in minutes and preserved across the centuries’. Tickets £10 - 32. Matthews, Colin (b. 1946), Traces Remain (BBC commission, world première) | ||
| Thursday 16-Jan-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Thursday 16-Jan-14 07:30pm Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony Semyon Bychkov, who holds the BBC SO’s Günter Wand Conducting Chair, presents two utterly contrasting works, both written during the Second World War. Martinůs delicious Concerto for Two Pianos dates from his highly productive spell in America. Katia and Marielle Labèque are the ideal pianists to animate its dancing syncopations, soaring lyricism and crystalline textures. From boom-time America to the Soviet Union in the grip of winter and war, Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony pays tribute to the defiance and courage of the Russian people in a vast, compelling musical tour de force. Tickets £10 - 32. | ||
| Wednesday 22-Jan-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Beethoven's Seventh Symphony |
Dufourt, Piano Concerto (UK première) |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Wednesday 22-Jan-14 07:30pm Beethoven's Seventh Symphony Beethoven’s powerful seventh symphony is prefaced by a beguiling trio of modern French works in the first of two concerts pairing Beethoven with recent French music. The BBC Singers have had great success with Boulez’s now-classic work cummings ist der Dichter, which sets the poetry of ee cummings for vocal ensemble and chamber orchestra. Conductor Ilan Volkov, known for his high-voltage performances and radical programmes, presents the UK premiere of Hugues Dufort’s piano concerto with Nicolas Hodges as soloist. Dufort’s own world of sonorities reflects that of one of France’s greatest 20th century composers, Gérard Grisey. In his monumental early work Mégalithes, 15 brass players scattered around the hall will hurl sonic clusters of shimmering dissonance into the auditorium. Tickets £10 - 32. Dufourt, Hugues (b. 1943), Piano Concerto (UK première) | ||
| Wednesday 29-Jan-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Ravel's Bolero and Beethoven's Fourth |
Pesson, Ravel à son âme (UK première) |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Wednesday 29-Jan-14 07:30pm Ravel's Bolero and Beethoven's Fourth Lionel Bringuier, Music Director of the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, is one of the most exciting young conductors to emerge from France in recent years. This is a programme to conjure with for a conductor of his contagious vitality: between Beethoven’s spirited fourth symphony and the hypnotic extended climax that is Ravel’s sultry Boléro, are two 21st century French gems. Marc-Andre Dalbavie’s Flute Concerto, written for chamber orchestra, is characterised by transparency, and a fluent dialogue between soloist and orchestra, in which each finds resonances in the other. In Ravel à son âme (Ravel, to his soul), Gérard Pesson pays brief, entrancing tribute to his illustrious predecessor. Tickets £10 - 32. Pesson, Gérard (b. 1958), Ravel à son âme (UK première) | ||
| Saturday 15-Feb-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London BBC SO Total Immersion: Thea Musgrave |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 15-Feb-14 07:30pm BBC SO Total Immersion: Thea Musgrave Though resident in the USA for decades, Musgrave has strong Scottish roots, as revealed in her luminous settings of the poetry of William Dunbar (Rorate coeli) and Robert Burns, whose sensual Songs for a Winter’s Evening will be sung by soprano Lisa Milne. Poems seen on London Underground trains were the inspiration for the a cappella On the Underground and the return of Odysseus for her moving Ithaca. Tickets £8 - 24. | ||
| Saturday 22-Feb-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Beethoven's Symphony No 8 |
Mantovani, Concerto for two pianos (UK première) |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 22-Feb-14 07:30pm Beethoven's Symphony No 8 For the third in our series of two-piano concertos, François-Frédéric Guy and Armenian pianist Varduhi Yeristyan unite to give the UK premiere of the double concerto dedicated to them by Bruno Mantovani. In this rhapsodic work Mantovani has said that the ‘orchestral’ instrument of the two pianos alongside the orchestra itself ‘offered me infinite sound perspective options’. When he refers to the ‘collision of energies’ that fuel this piece, one cannot help but recall Beethoven’s vivacious eighth symphony, and the explosive surge with which it erupts. Two master-orchestrators paint with the most sophisticated palette in Chausson’s Soir de fête and Debussy’s Nocturnes, conducted by Fabien Gabel. Tickets £10 - 32. Mantovani, Bruno (b. 1974), Concerto for two pianos (UK première) | ||
| Saturday 8-Mar-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London BBC SO Total Immersion: Villa-Lobos |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 8-Mar-14 07:30pm BBC SO Total Immersion: Villa-Lobos The first Parisian performance of Chôros 10 provoked a storm, one critic writing, ‘it is an art … to which we must give a new name.’ This exciting piece uses a chorus instrumentally in furiously contrapuntal rhythmic patter, brass and wind providing bizarre bird calls and monkey chatter. There’s no doubt Villa-Lobos was an iconoclast whose raw, zestful music gave expression to a vibrant new polyglot culture. Twice thrown out of the conservatoire he took as much from his experience as a café musician as he did from his beloved Bach.Tickets £10 - 32. Total Immersion Day Pass £32 -50. | ||
| Wednesday 19-Mar-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Music by Mozart and Messiaen |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Wednesday 19-Mar-14 07:30pm Music by Mozart and Messiaen This promises to be a night of the sublime and the numinous, in which Messaien’s visionary epic is prefaced with Mozart’s inimitable double concerto for violin and viola, featuring two of Europe’s leading young string players. Messaien’s Eclairs sur l’au-delà or ‘Illuminations on the Beyond’ scored for vast orchestral forces, was his final completed work. Months before his death he spoke of its inspiration: ‘I imagined myself in front of a curtain, in darkness, apprehensive about what lay beyond: Resurrection, Eternity, the other life.’ Tickets £10 - 32. | ||
| Wednesday 26-Mar-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5 |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Wednesday 26-Mar-14 07:30pm Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5 Esa-Pekka Salonen’s 2009 award-winning Violin Concerto ‘Out of Nowhere’ is a portrait of the phenomenal soloist Leila Josefowicz, who will give this UK premiere. Praised at its LA Philharmonic premiere for its ‘pure, euphoric poetry’, it’s a work which lends itself to Josefowicz’s visceral intensity. In its pulsing central movements, we may find echoes of Sibelius’s driving repetitions in his dark re-telling of Pojhola’s Daughter, in which the daughter of the north, astride a rainbow, mocks the love-lorn Väinämöinen. This concert ends with one of Shostakovich’s most popular symphonies, No. 5: its heroic classicism may have effected the composer’s political rehabilitation, but its essential defiance comes blazing through. Tickets £10 - 32. | ||
| Sunday 6-Apr-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Sunday 6-Apr-14 07:30pm Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius “ This is the best of me… this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.” Elgar knew the value of his masterpiece, The Dream of Gerontius, and quoted these lines from Ruskin at the end of the manuscript. His setting of Newman’s poem, which follows the journey of man’s soul into death and beyond, is considered by many to be his greatest choral achievement. For this and The Apostles (see below), leading Elgarian Sir Andrew Davis conducts a superlative cast, including Sarah Connolly, Brindley Sherratt and Australian tenor Stuart Skelton with the BBC Symphony Chorus. Tickets £12 - 40. | ||
| Saturday 12-Apr-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London BBC Symphony Orchestra / Davis: Elgar's The Apostles |
BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis, Conductor Sarah Connolly, Mezzo-soprano: Mary Magdalene Paul Groves, Tenor: St John / Narrator Brindley Sherratt, Bass-baritone: Judas Gerald Finley, Bass: St Peter Jacques Imbrailo, Bass: Jesus BBC Symphony Chorus |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 12-Apr-14 07:30pm BBC Symphony Orchestra / Davis: Elgar's The Apostles Elgar’s oratorio The Apostles is all-too-rarely presented: it contains some of Elgar’s most inspired writing, particularly in its dramatic portrayal of Judas, the inclusion of a shofar at dawn and a memorably exalted ending. This is a fine opportunity to hear it with an exceptional cast: Jacques Imbrailo, Paul Groves and Brindley Sherratt, who have recently recorded it to great acclaim, are joined by Sarah Connolly and Gerald Finley under the baton of our Conductor Laureate, Sir Andrew Davis. The performance finishes at approximately 9.30pm
Tickets:
£12-40 BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis, Conductor Sarah Connolly, Mezzo-soprano: Mary Magdalene Paul Groves, Tenor: St John / Narrator Brindley Sherratt, Bass-baritone: Judas Gerald Finley, Bass: St Peter Jacques Imbrailo, Bass: Jesus BBC Symphony Chorus | ||
| Saturday 3-May-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Enigma Variations |
Dusapin, Violin Concerto (UK première) |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 3-May-14 07:30pm Enigma Variations A programme exploring every facet of the orchestra from Debussy’s exquisitely languorous and erotic ballet Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune, Honegger’s invigorating paen to the game of rugby to Elgar’s famous Enigma Variations, in which he so deftly and movingly enshrined the characters of his friends. In between, gifted French violinist Renaud Capuçon will give the UK premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Violin Concerto, that promises sonic experiment married to emotional directness. Tickets £10 - 32. Dusapin, Pascal (b. 1955), Violin Concerto (UK première) | ||
| Friday 9-May-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice |
Sheng, Violin Concerto (BBC commission, UK première) |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Friday 9-May-14 07:30pm Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice This kaleidoscopic programme will delight old and young alike, from Dukas’s vividly imagined Sorcerer’s Apprentice to Bartók’s dizzingly virtuoso celebration of the symphony orchestra. Far Eastern colours and sonorities give Chinese-born composer Bright Sheng’s music a distinctive appeal. Sakari Oramo is joined by distinguished Israeli-American violinist Gil Shaham for a performance of the composer’s recent violin concerto. Tickets £10 - 32. Sheng, Bright (b. 1955), Violin Concerto (BBC commission, UK première) | ||
| Friday 16-May-14 07:00pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London Birtwistle at 80: Gawain |
Birtwistle, Gawain (semi-staged concert performance) |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Friday 16-May-14 07:00pm Birtwistle at 80: Gawain Birtwistle’s iconic opera of the 1990s dramatizes the mysterious Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with sombre, often shattering, power. He and librettist David Harsent cast the story in two cyclical acts, emphasising the ritual aspects of the epic saga, and lending it hieratic force. The part of the Green Knight was modelled on the range of Wotan, and is pitted against the baritone Gawain. A rare opportunity to hear this striking modern classic, from an orchestra and conductor steeped in Birtwistle’s music. Tickets £10 - 25. Birtwistle, Harrison (b. 1934), Gawain (semi-staged concert performance) | ||
| Saturday 24-May-14 07:30pm |
Barbican Centre: Hall, London BBC Symphony Orchestra / Morlot: Fauré's Requiem |
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| Barbican Centre: Hall, London, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom Saturday 24-May-14 07:30pm BBC Symphony Orchestra / Morlot: Fauré's Requiem An evening of Gallic delights featuring Poulenc’s most light-hearted and rarely-performed opera and Faure’s intimate, celestial Requiem. Les Mamelles de Tirésias is a setting of Apolinaire’s surreal burlesque, in which ardent feminist Thérèse decides to become a man and fight wars, leaving her husband to repopulate the country by giving birth to 40,049 children in a single day! Poulenc conjures up all the undercurrents in the poet’s fierce, absurd and often hilarious lines. French soprano Helene Guilmette takes on the truculent and unpredictable heroine. In complete contrast, the BBC Singers join the soloists for Fauré’s much-loved Requiem, a tender work of consolation, played at his own funeral. The concert finishes at approximately 9.45pm
Tickets:
£10-32 | ||
