Vasily Petrenko

Elisabeth Leonskaja

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

A big anniversary calls for an even bigger celebration and, as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra turns 80, that’s exactly what we’re hosting tonight – live from the spectacular surroundings of the Royal Albert Hall, where the RPO is proud to be Associate Orchestra.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at 80

Royal Albert Hall

An entertaining one-hour exploration, featuring insights and a complete performance. This concert has no interval.

In 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his last symphony. We’re still not quite sure how he did it: creating a masterpiece so perfect that for more than two centuries, it has shared a name with the king of the gods. But why is it considered to be a masterpiece? Here to answer that question (and more) are multi-award-winning writer and historian Leah Broad, Vasily Petrenko (conducting the RPO for the first time at Cadogan Hall) and the full Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with an entertaining guide to what makes Mozart tick. They’ll take the Symphony apart and show you how it works. And then they’ll put it back together, concluding the evening with a full performance. Whether you’re a hardcore Mozart fan or a total newbie, it’s an experience that never fails to inspire.

Mozart Revealed

Cadogan Hall

Get ready for another unmissable evening of soul music with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as the Royal Albert Hall is filled with the seminal sounds of the iconic Motown label, as well as other sensational soul artists of the era.

This get-up-and-dance concert features songs by the artists who brought gospel, blues and soul music to new heights such as: Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Jackson 5, Martha Reeves and, the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin.

Symphonic Soul: A Celebration of Motown and More

In the darkest days of the Second World War, the 70-year-old Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a symphony that sounded like a vision of peace. From misty opening to visionary finish, the Fifth Symphony is Vaughan Williams doing what he does best: spacious, eloquent and rapturously beautiful. But it’s got drama, too, and this evening conductor Adam Hickox places it alongside two powerful and atmospheric 20th-century landscapes by Vaughan Williams’ contemporaries. Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture is bold and defiant – the work of a woman who spoke with her own voice in communist Poland. And RPO Artist-in-Residence Liya Petrova explores the fire and ice of Sibelius’ mighty Violin Concerto: a gripping showcase for the ‘gorgeous sound’ (Sunday Times) of this award-winning violinist.

Sibelius Violin Concerto

Join the RPO for an evening delving into deep space in high definition.

Grammy® award-winning American composer Eric Whitacre’s symphonic work Deep Field was inspired by the world’s most famous space observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and its greatest discovery – the iconic Deep Field image.

After the interval, the RPO presents Anne Nikitin’s score to Lightroom’s critically acclaimed The Moonwalkers. Narrated and co-written by Tom Hanks, The Moonwalkers provides an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions to the moon by going behind-the-scenes of the Artemis programme, including interviews between Hanks and Artemis astronauts. Shown on a big screen in the Royal Albert Hall, this will be the first chance to hear Anne Nikitin’s original soundtrack, performed live in concert by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Accompanying the evening’s music, our big screen will feature two specially created films. This concert offers audiences their first opportunity to experience The Moonwalkers outside its original Lightroom setting, in a specially curated edition featuring original NASA footage, Andy Saunders’ Apollo Remastered images, and a pre-recorded narration by Tom Hanks – transporting you to the lunar surface. Opening the evening, Eric Whitacre’s music is paired with Deep Field: The Impossible Magnitude of Our Universe, combining Hubble’s breathtaking imagery with bespoke animations.

The Moonwalkers: Live in Concert

Brahms’ First Symphony begins with the beating of a heart in torment and ends with a hymn of triumph. Debussy’s Prélude à I’après-midi d’un faune is very different – as a soft, sultry flute opens the gateway to a dream-world of sensuous sound. Two huge imaginations; two unforgettable musical journeys, brought thrillingly to life by our inspirational guest conductor Ariane Matiakh, tonight making her RPO debut. But in between comes the most wonderful adventure of all, as cellist Zlatomir Fung, a former RPO Artist-in-Residence, gives the world premiere of a magical new work by the innovative British composer Laurence Osborn. We haven’t heard it yet – no one has! But Laurence has taken his inspiration from the world after dark, in all its mystery and wonder. Be there when it comes to life.

Brahms 1

From delicate piano chords that ripple like grass in the wind, to melodies in the strings that soar into a blue infinite sky, little music can make your imagination instantly take flight like the music of Joe Hisaishi. This November, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes the renowned composer – whose scores for the films of Studio Ghibli have enchanted a captive audience of millions across the world – to the stage of Royal Albert Hall as he conducts a selection of his own works.

Beyond the screen, Joe Hisaishi’s music for the concert hall has been performed extensively: from the BBC Proms to Seoul's Lotte Concert Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein. His contemporary music unites his gift for orchestration with inspiration that draws from minimalism to Romanticism to the Baroque. Expect something extraordinary and startlingly inventive as we perform the UK premiere of his kaleidoscopic Concerto for Orchestra.

To let the unrestrained magic of Joe Hisaishi’s music work on you, there’s nothing like being there to hear it in person.

Hisaishi conducts Hisaishi

Back by popular demand, Sir John Rutter’s Christmas Celebration returns to the Royal Albert Hall in 2026.

Join us for this much-loved Christmas spectacular – full of John Rutter’s own works and arrangements, as well as seasonal symphonic classics and sing-along carols – all conducted by Sir John himself and featuring the highly esteemed Bach Choir.

Sir John Rutter's Christmas Celebration

Christmas music couldn’t feel more at home than at the cosy Cadogan Hall – located in the heart of London’s most exquisite borough, Chelsea.

The winter season sees the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra don woolly white beards and bobbled hats to bring you a sackful of festive orchestral delights.

Conductor Stephen Bell and two guest vocalists make for the perfect Christmas elves as they magic up some Yuletide spirit with blazing brass fanfares, enchanting croons under the Christmas tree, Christmas chart-toppers old and new, and sing-a-long carols with a resounding ‘five gold rings’ from the entire Hall guaranteed… you won’t want to say that you missed our Christmas Cracker.

Christmas Cracker

The darkness lies heavily on the demon-king Kastchei’s shadow kingdom – so heavily that you can almost hear it and feel the air shimmer. Suddenly, there’s a flash, and with a dazzling cascade of sound, an adventure begins. Stravinsky’s The Firebird is one of the great musical fairytales; a story that Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are delighted to retell tonight. And there’s a reason why Grieg’s Piano Concerto is one of the world’s favourites, too. Melodies this good always feel fresh, and never fresher than when they’re played by Eric Lu – the multi-award-winning pianist who’s taking the world by storm. First, though, ancient passions burn beneath the tranquillity of the English countryside in Butterworth’s haunting rhapsody. This should be something special.

Stravinsky The Firebird

‘Thus fate knocks at the door’: even if you’ve never heard a Beethoven symphony, you’ll know the shattering four notes that open his Fifth. But if that’s all you know, you’re in for the ride of your life, as Vasily Petrenko conducts the symphony that redefined classical music – a white-knuckle ride from despair to triumph, told in music so powerful that it left Beethoven’s contemporaries gasping for breath. Follow that? You can’t, so we’re beginning with a symphonic scene from Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova, her last piece of composition before her marriage to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and a showstopper from the 20th century, the daredevil piano concerto that the young Prokofiev wrote in an age of revolution to demonstrate his own off-the-scale skills. And who better to play it than a good friend of the RPO – the ‘pristine, lyrical and intelligent’ (The New York Times) Jan Lisiecki?

Vasily Petrenko conducts Beethoven 5

From the dim lights of New York City jazz clubs to the glimmering marquees of old Hollywood, the Great American Songbook has illuminated some of the world’s most romantic and glamorous places. This Valentine’s Day, take a trip with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and be transported to a time when dance halls swelled with swing rhythms and love songs floated out of theatres late into the evening.

Lush orchestral arrangements meet heart-melting melodies, popularised by great performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett and Judy Garland, including: So in Love, Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, My Funny Valentine, The Way You Look Tonight, Someone to Watch Over Me, It Had to Be You, A Fine Romance, The Lady is a Tramp, and more. Showstopping soloists Sumudu Jayatilaka and Iain Mackenzie and sparkling conductor Richard Balcombe will bring the music to life.

Romantic, elegant and full of familiar melodies, this is the perfect excuse to spend time with the special people in your life enjoying classic songs and music that have defined love for generations.

’S Wonderful: Timeless Love Songs

Vasily Petrenko raises his baton. The air shimmers, a trumpet pierces the darkness, and the whole universe explodes into glorious sound. When Richard Strauss composed Also sprach Zarathustra, he set out to tell the entire story of humanity in music, and from heaven-splitting opening to enigmatic close, it’s an incredible ride – a fitting climax to a concert that bursts with emotions and ideas on a truly heroic scale.

Beethoven’s Fifth and final piano concerto is so stirring and majestic that his contemporaries called it the ‘Emperor’, played tonight by Elisabeth Leonskaja, an artist who has dedicated her long and distinguished career to interpreting the works of Beethoven.

The evening begins with the eternal battle between the human spirit and the pleasures of the senses: Wagner’s barnstorming Overture to Tannhäuser. Music to make the pulse race, played with heart and soul.

Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra