RPO to RFH

In addition to its 2012/13 season at Cadogan Hall, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is returning to the Royal Festival Hall for a season of 6 concerts which include a number of large scale choral works such as Britten's War Requiem, Durufle's Requiem and Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust.

Britten's War Requiem is being performed on 27 November 2012 with the Bach Choir, conducted by the Bach's Choir's musical director David Hill, with a fine line up of soloists, Sally Matthews, John Mark Ainsley and Alan Opie. I am slightly curious about how Matthews will attack the soprano solo, as her voice is so very different from Vishnevskaya's, but I can't wait to hear John Mark Ainsley in the tenor solos.

The Bach Choir will also be joining the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 5 February 2013, again conducted by David Hill, to perform Durufle's Requiem and Poulenc's Gloria, also on the programme are Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne. The soloists will be Sarah Fox and our perennial favourite mezzo, Kitty Whately.

The orchestra are joined on 30 April 2013 by the London Symphony Chorus for Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust conducted by Charles Dutiou, with Ruxandra Donose, Paul Groves, Benedict Nelson and Willard White; again a very fine line up.

Other concerts include Shostakovich's 1st Symphony (16 October), Korngold's Violin Concerto with Nicola Benedetti, conducted by Diego Mattheuz (another Venezualan graduate of El Sistema) and Pinchas Zukerman conducting Mahler four. Further details from the RPO website.