The birdsong of Spring, the downpours of Summer, the frosts of Winter: everyone’s got their favourite bit of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

There’s still nothing to match the sensation of hearing these four evergreen concertos performed live, and tonight Baroque specialist Richard Egarr and the LPO’s own Alice Ivy-Pemberton bring their shared energy to music that never gets any less fresh. But first, as part of our ‘Moments Remembered’ season, there’s a sideways look at what makes a classic: the Vivaldi inspired Requiem by African-American composer Julia Perry, and Evan Williams’s playful, provocative piece that discusses his own place in classical music as a young African-American composer.

Please note venue.

Sarod Grand Master Amjad Ali Khan was born to a family steeped in Indian classical music and is regarded as one of the undisputed icons of the music world, bringing a new and yet timeless interpretation to the technique of playing the Sarod. His sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash are virtuoso performers in their own right, and tonight they come together with conductor (and regular collaborator) Lidiya Yankovskaya and the LPO at the centre of a concert that spans continents and cultures – from a flamboyant new overture by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail to the hugely popular Bollywood film scores of AR Rahman, the composer they call the ‘Mozart of Madras’.

Celebrating Pierre Boulez and his influences, in the composer’s centenary year: his beloved Debussy, alongside three intriguing world premieres.

‘A mighty hero, in his veins the blood of ages …’ Lemminkäinen was a warrior like no other: loving, hunting, and challenging death itself. As a proud Finn, Sibelius knew all those ancient tales, and his Lemminkäinen Suite retells them in music that’s as vivid as a film score and as powerful as any fantasy epic. LPO Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis does nothing by halves; she opens
with Sibelius’s gripping evocation of the Viking age before joining Benjamin Grosvenor in the majesty, beauty and unchained melody of Mozart’s 21st Piano Concerto. Expect both sunlight and shadow from this much-loved British pianist.

Please note start time.

Marking 50 years since the composer’s death, the Carduccis inaugurate a five-concert odyssey through the complete string quartets – works that enshrine his inner life, loves and closest friendships.

The horns throw down a challenge, the piano strides forward, and Tchaikovsky launches his First Piano Concerto with a tune you’ll never forget. This is music that demands total commitment, so it’s perfect for Boris Giltburg, the Moscow-born piano virtuoso whom BBC Music Magazine described as ‘characterful, sensitive and technically dazzling’. But even the most brilliant jewel needs the right setting, and conductor Juraj Valčuha pairs it with showpieces by two of Tchaikovsky’s most devoted fans: Glazunov’s elegant whirl around the ballrooms of St Petersburg, and Rachmaninoff’s final masterpiece, the electrifying Symphonic Dances.

No composer tells a story quite like Richard Strauss – or paints a picture in more fabulous sounds. So when he set out to depict the majesty of the Bavarian Alps, the results are … well, hear for yourself as Edward Gardner and a specially-enlarged LPO conquer the summit of Strauss’s mighty Alpine Symphony. Waterfalls, glaciers, an ear-splitting storm – spectacular isn’t the word. But first, enjoy the fresh Nordic melodies of Grieg’s famous Piano Concerto, played by a true rising star, and experience musical history in the making with a brand new work by LPO Composer-in-Residence Tania León.

Sex and drugs and symphony orchestras: Hector Berlioz claimed that his Symphonie fantastique depicted an opium dream, but really he was just high on the sound of a supersized orchestra going for broke. Love, witchcraft, severed heads – it’s all here, in psychedelic colours, and you’d better believe that it’s a hard act to follow. That’s why Edward Gardner and the superb violinist Augustin Hadelich are setting the scene with Britten’s powerful Violin Concerto, and with the world premiere of Sphinx by David Sawer – a British composer whose raw imagination can give even Berlioz a run for his money.

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.

It always feels good to make music with friends – and when that friend is soprano Renée Fleming, you just know that something extra-special is on the cards. No introduction is required for one of the LPO’s best-loved guests, the American soprano whose personality lights up the world’s greatest stages and whose voice has been compared to double cream. ‘Unforgettable’ was how one critic described her 2022 Gala with the LPO, and tonight she returns to sing Richard Strauss’s radiant Four Last Songs. Music that never grows old, sung by one of the supreme voices of our time.

Frank Zappa wove psychedelic new sounds from the underbelly of 1960s pop culture – aiming straight for the sonic G-spot. Bohuslav Martinů – a Czech in exile – looked homeward, and crafted a lush, fantastic dream of a symphony as he travelled from New York to the boulevards of Paris. And the Sri Lankan-born Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne tells his own intensely personal tale of displacement and hope, as Kevin John Edusei conducts his new Clarinet Concerto with the artist for whom it was created – the phenomenal Syrian clarinettist Kinan Azmeh.