Friday 31 January 2014

Rachmaninov and more - LPO new season

The London Philharmonic Orchestra with Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski in the Royal Festival Hall (Photo © Richard Cannon)
The London Philharmonic Orchestra's 2014/15 season is a fascinating mixture. There is a season of 11 concerts examining the music of Rachmaninov in the context of his contemporaries and compatriots. Magnus Lindberg has been announced as the orchestra's new Composer in Residence with performances of two important new works There will also be music by former Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson as well as performances of music by Harrison Birtwistle, James Horner, Colin Matthews and Benjamin Wallfisch.

Rachmaninov: Inside Out is a rare opportunity to examine Rachmanoniv's music in depth. It is a season of 11 concerts including the complete symphonies and piano concertos, the opera The Miserly Knight, the choral symphony The Bells as well as a rare performance of the cantata Spring and orchestral songs, plus orchestral works such as the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Isle of the Dead and Symphonic Dances. Some of the orchestral songs will be heard in orchestrations by Vladimir Jurowski's grandfather Five of the concerts will be conducted by Jurowski, with the other conductors being Vassily Sinaisky, Osmo Vanska, Ilyich Rivas and David Zinman. The concerts will also include music by Rachmaninov's contemporaries such as Dvorak, Enescu and Szyamonowski and his compatriots Scriabin, Shostakovich and Prokofiev.


Rachmaninov was widely regarded as a piano virtuoso, so it is no surprise that piano concertante works feature heavily in the series, including variants. The original versions of the First Piano Concerto and the Fourth Piano Concerto will get a rare outing performed by Alexander Ghindin (3/10/2014, 13/2/2015), whilst the more familiar versions will be performed by Jorge Luis Prats (11/2/2015) and Nikolai Lugansky (7/11/2014). The final version of the First Piano Concerto written when the composer was 17 will be performed by 21 year old Dmitry Mayboroda (25/11/2014). Behzod Abduraimov will be playing the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (28/11/2014). Whilst the last event in the Rachmaninov season will be the composer himself playing on piano rolls (7/2/2015)

Chief Conductor Vladimir Jurowski will be conducting many of the key premieres in the season including the new works by Magnus Lindberg, Julian Anderson, Harrison Birtwistle and Colin Matthews new work.

Colin Matthews and Michael Morpurgo have joined forces for a new work for children, The Pied Piper of Hamelin to be conducted by Vladimir Jurowskiwhilst other brand new works for children include Benjamin Wallfisch's Dirty Beasts based on Roald Dahl's poems

Magnus Lindberg's Chorale opens the season on 24 September 2014 and a new work for soprano Barbara Hannigan is premiered on 28 January 2015. Yefim Bronfman is the soloist in the UK premiere of Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2. As the new Composer in Residence, Lindberg will also be mentoring four young professionals who will work with him on the Leverhulme Young Composers Scheme. Lindberg will conduct the world premieres of their works with the LPO's Foyle Future Firsts student players in the Debut Sounds concert in Queen Elizabeth Hall on 10 June.

Julian Anderson's Violin Concerto will be premiered in 14 March 2015 with Carolin Widman as the soloist. James Horner, the Oscar winning composer of music for the film Titani is writing a new work for four horns (27 Marh 2015) and Harrison Birtwistle's new Piano Concerto will be premiered on 6 December 2014 in what is the composer's 80th birthday year.

Further information from the London Philharmonic Orchestra's website.  

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