Go big or go home
Concerts that pack a punch.
A Beethoven banger
The world’s in flames, heroes become villains on a dime … that’s the kind of drama Beethoven channelled into his explosive new symphony. Join us as Principal Conductor, Edward Gardner, kicks off our 2024/25 season with the mighty ‘Eroica’, a work originally dedicated to Napoleon but furiously re-titled after the emperor’s true colours were revealed.
Joyce DiDonato sings Berlioz | 25 Sep 2024 | London
The hero inside
Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben isn’t your typical classical masterpiece. It’s a larger-than-life, tongue-in-cheek portrait of the composer himself as a musical superhero, scored for a colossal orchestra and bursting with the most epic sounds you’ll ever hear.
A Hero’s Life | 25 Oct 2024 | London
A tear-jerker
Waves crash, tempests rise, and emotions surge and roar so fiercely that the words to express them simply don’t exist. Conductor Karina Canellakis presents an emotion-packed programme, featuring Tchaikovsky’s tragic final symphony, that will have you reaching for the tissues.
Tchaikovsky’s Sixth | 2 Nov 2024 | London
The ultimate romantic symphony
Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony is a sweeping emotional epic, filled with winter storms, sunlit vistas and mile after mile of unforgettable melodies. Is this the ultimate romantic symphony? We just know that it sounds wonderful, and we can’t wait to share it.
Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony | 17 Nov 2024 | Eastbourne
A force of nature
A piece painting a picture of the Bavarian Alps calls for a supersized orchestra, complete with wind machine and organ. Waterfalls, glaciers, an ear-splitting storm – spectacular isn’t the word for Strauss’s Alpine Symphony.
An Alpine Symphony | 21 Feb 2025 | London
Simply fantastique
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.
Symphonie Fantastique | 26 Feb 2025 | London
A blockbuster epic
It takes a huge orchestra to bring Mahler’s Fifth to life, exploding from a trumpet blast into a 70-minute epic. It’s a blockbuster dark-to-light journey, told in waltzes, funeral marches and a particularly breathtaking Adagietto.
Mahler’s Fifth | 19 Mar 2025 | London
A musical mood-booster
Schubert’s unstoppable Ninth Symphony is known as ‘the Great’ – and with LPO Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski bringing all his insight and imagination, you’ll hear why. Fuelled by pure, sunlit energy, this symphony is a guaranteed musical mood-booster!
Tragedy to Triumph | 5 April | London
Symphony of a Thousand
Three choirs, eight starry singers and one of the largest orchestras ever put on stage: there’s a reason why Mahler’s Eighth is often called the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’. Don’t miss the chance to hear one of the most overwhelming experiences that music has to offer.
Mahler’s Eighth | 26 April 2025 | London