Music with a story
Don Juan
Richard Strauss’s music is packed with story-telling. Tonight, his music paints two pictures: we start with the promiscuous Don Juan, attempting to find the perfect woman with little luck, and we end with a man on his deathbed, reflecting on his life.
Death and Transfiguration | 25 October 2023 | London
An opium-fuelled nightmare
When composer Hector Berlioz saw Harriet Smithson performing in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it was love at first sight. On his part, anyway. His response to unrequited love? A roof-raising, musical phantasmagoria that was scored for the biggest orchestra the world had seen, complete with a ball, witches, and plenty of earworms!
Symphonie fantastique | 24 January 2024 | London
A sprinkle of magic
A prince, a princess, an evil sorcerer and a magical bird. When Stravinsky’s The Firebird bursts into dazzling, glittering life, you’ll be whisked away to a sonic universe of fantasy and colour. Hear the full suite or bring the whole family along to our interactive family concert.
FUNharmonics: The Firebird | 29 October 2023 | London
Colour & Fantasy | 16 February 2024 | London
Romeo & Juliet
Shakespeare’s star-cross’d lovers have inspired composers for centuries. Prokofiev’s great ballet music is as sharp as a rapier and as tender as a kiss (complete with the theme tune to TV’s The Apprentice!), while Tchaikovsky’s version contains the ultimate musical shorthand for passion – you’re sure to recognise it.
Romeo and Juliet | 22 March 2024 | London
Randall Goosby plays Mozart | 24 March 2024 | Eastbourne
Sounds of the ocean
Debussy dreamed of being a sailor, and when he composed La mer he worried that he hadn’t done justice to the beauty of the sea. We disagree! His symphonic seascape is a gorgeous complement to Sibelius’s musical vision of a sunlit Mediterranean. It’s a concert of high spirits and high seas.
La Mer | 20 March 2024 | London
Picture perfect
Explore an art gallery without moving from your seat or seeing a single painting. Mussorgsky wrote Pictures at an Exhibition as a tribute to his friend, painter Vladimir Hartmann. Talking skulls, dancing chickens, ancient castles and a hut with hen’s legs: this piece is a riot of colour.
Pictures at an Exhibition | 10 February 2024 | Brighton
Pictures at an Exhibition | 11 February 2024 | Eastbourne