Name: OAE TOTS at the Royal Festival Hall
Start: 2026-01-18T12:00:00
Location: Southbank Centre

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

During his visits to London between 1791 and 1795, Haydn found himself greatly inspired by the numerous performances of Handel’s works he attended. He was particularly moved by the grandeur of Messiah and Israel in Egypt which sparked his desire to create an oratorio of his own. Before Haydn returned to Vienna, violinist Johann Peter Salomon presented him with an anonymous English libretto which had supposedly been intended for Handel half a century earlier. The text – which draws from the Book of Genesis, John Milton’s epic Poem Paradise Lost (1667), and the Book of Psalms – resonated deeply with Haydn’s devout Catholic faith.

The Creation

Southbank Centre

But this new land mass is not what our explorer thinks it is… it is, in fact, a garbage patch in the middle of the ocean.

Life of the Sea

Both Symphonie fantastique (1830) and Harold in Italy (1842)  trace a musical journey from reverie to wild finale.The initial suggestion to write a work for solo viola came from the great violinist Paganini. Inspired by Byron’s 1812 poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Berlioz created “a series of orchestral scenes” in which the solo viola plays a “melancholic dreamer”.

Symphonie fantastique

Tonight’s event “reconstructs” the programme of a concert on 7 March 1897. It was the last time Brahms attended a public performance of his own music. That evening the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Hans Richter, were to play the three pieces here in what may seem like a curious order to modern audiences (particularly given the ending of ‘La Chasse’…)

Vienna 1897: Brahms’ Last Concert

Children between the ages of two and five sit up close to orchestral musicians and take part with their grown-ups – it’s even better than pizza!