A glittering constellation of performers join Evgeny Kissin for an immersive dive into three works that together span Shostakovich’s creative evolution – the last a soul-searing farewell.
Time becomes space, sounds become colours and shapes, and the classical elegance of St John’s Waterloo floods with emotion that’s real enough to touch.
It doesn’t take much: just the voices of the New London Chamber Choir and a handful of musicians who believe in every note. Composer Andrew Norman hurls himself into the eternal city of Rome, and lets his memories and impressions cascade into the ears. And in Rothko Chapel, Morton Feldman gazes at the paintings of Mark Rothko and responds with music as still and as deep as those haunted colours. A true modern classic: hear it, and be transformed.
The UK premiere of Juste Janulyte’s Iridescence by the BBC Singers opens a portal into the expanding musical universe of symphonic electronics – 'symphonic' in the ancient Greek meaning 'harmonious'.
Vintage Stockhausen plus a new adventure from British-Iranian composer and sonic explorer Shiva Feshareki – the world premiere of her Barbican commission for the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Across a single evening the Chopin pianist par excellence revisits the complete Chopin Études – a set of ground-breaking, multi-faceted works.
When Omer Meir Wellber is conducting, there’s no such thing as a routine concert – every performance is a chance to make unexpected connections; to hear familiar pieces in new and fascinating ways. Haydn blows the roof off with one of his most explosive symphonies, and the teenage Mahler gets seriously emotional in a rarely-heard early gem. Add another artist who strikes sparks – violinist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider – and Tchaikovsky’s hugely popular Violin Concerto will never have sounded more alive. Three very different composers, but in Wellber’s hands, they’re all part of the same unforgettable story.
Beguiling baroque expressions of loss and longing tempered with Bohemian lamentation accompany an intriguing world premiere that originates from a chance find in an Irish peat bog.
A string quartet, an oboe and a clarinet – it’s not a large group. There are no microphones; no special effects.
But today they’ll speak a hundred languages, vault across oceans, travel in time and weave sounds like you’ve never imagined. Six LPO players immerse themselves in the contemporary culture of Britain and America; hear them break away, jump for joy and hit the dancefloor in a concert of music by five composers who defy convention and genre to create some of the most original music of the 21st century. This is chamber music, for sure – but there’s nothing small about the emotions.
The second concert in the Czech Philharmonic’s residency boasts Mozart's vivacious concerto written for (and tonight performed by) two siblings alongside Mahler's Symphony No 5.