Duet for many

The Duet Philharmonic Orchestra, Ronald Corp & soloists at Royal Festival Hall performing Mahler's Symphony No. 8

In April 2017, 115 of talented young musicians will gather together for a long weekend to rehearse and play a programme which consists of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2. The orchestra is the Duet Philharmonic Orchestra, and every two years they gather musicians aged between 13 and 18 who are studying in the UK to perform large scale symphonic repertoire.

The project arose out of the perhaps rather crazy idea to perform Mahler's Symphony No. 8. Conducted by Ronald Corp, a huge choir and orchestra of young people performed Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Royal Festival Hall in 2013 (you can see a programme about it on YouTube). Two years later in 2015 it was Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony (see on YouTube).

This year the concert is on April 10, at the Royal Festival Hall. Ronald Corp again conducts and the pianist in the Prokofiev will be Oxana Shevchenko, winner of the 2010 Scottish International Piano Competition.

The Duet Philharmonic Orchestra is the brainchild of the Duet Foundation, which supports young musicians in a variety ways, with financial support to assist with their fees, travel costs, competition costs, DVD productions, access to masterclasses, as well as both new instruments and loaned instruments. The foundation is supported by the Duet Group.



If you book tickets for the concert of Mahler's Symphony  No. 5 and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 on April 10, 2017 at southbankcentre.com then you can get 50% discount by quoting the discount code DUETFIFTY

Reader Offer - Free copies of Opera Now

We have a terrific offer for Planet Hugill readers, thanks to those nice people at Rhinegold Publishing which publishes Opera Now, Classical Music, International Piano, Choir and Organ, and Early Music magazines. 

We have arranged for Planet Hugill readers to get free access to three issues of Opera Now magazine. Simply click on the image or follow the link http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/ondigital/ and use the code HUGILL15 

This will give you access to three fantastic free digital editions of Opera Now.

Still time to get discount on tomorrow's Jephtha

There is still time to take advantage of our Reader Offer to get 50% off tickets for the performance of Handel's Jephtha at the Barbican, with The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers and James Gilchrist in the title role. 

See our special offer page for details.

The Sixteen special ticket offer - Handel’s Jephtha, 14 January 2014, Barbican Hall

We are delighted to be able to offer readers 50% off all £45 and £35 tickets for The Sixteen’s performance of Handel’s Jephtha at the Barbican, conducted by Harry Christophers.

Handel’s electrifying final oratorio is a dramatic story of passion, redemption, sacrifice and honour. In Christophers’ opinion it is in many ways his most profound, specifically for its incredible use of the chorus and also for its insight into the characters involved. Those characters are performed by some of today’s finest Handelian soloists including Sophie Bevan, Susan Bickley and James Gilchrist in the title role.

Reader Offer: discount tickets for English Chamber Orchestra

Alissa Firsova

Readers of this blog are able to to get 50% on the top three prices for the English Chamber Orchestra's concert at the Cadogan Hall on Wednesday 9 October. The concert represents a triple debut for Alissa Firsova, she will be conducting the orchestra, will also be the soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No 23 and her Serenade for Strings will receive its premiere. Also in the programme will be Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with soloist Michael Petrov and David Matthews Symphony no. 4. The symphony is a past ECO commission and they are playing this year in celebration of Matthews' 70th birthday. (Details of how to get the discount after the break.)