Name: American Classics
Start: 2024-09-25T19:30:00
Location: Royal Albert Hall

Get ready for an exhilarating musical journey across London as the city's top orchestras present an array of concerts highlighting the genius of Leonard Bernstein. From Esther Yoo's enchanting violin performance in 'Serenade' at Cadogan Hall to 'American Classics' at Royal Albert Hall, and the festive 'Christmas Swing' at the Barbican Centre, there's something for every music lover to enjoy. Don't miss out on this spectacular celebration of Bernstein's timeless contributions to music.

Celebrate Leonard Bernstein with Vibrant Concerts at London's Premier Venues

London is set to come alive with the timeless melodies of George Gershwin and other American classics! The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will sweep you off your feet with 'American Classics' at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris on September 25, 2024. Then, join Claire Booth and Jâms Coleman at Wigmore Hall on November 29 for a delightful cabaret program. As the holidays approach, don’t miss 'Christmas Swing: Gershwin, Bernstein, and Tchaikovsky' at the Barbican Centre on December 18 and 19, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. And mark your calendars for May 5, 2025, when the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Holst, Gershwin, and Martin at the Barbican.

Celebrate Gershwin in London: From American Classics to Christmas Swing

This autumn, London will host an array of orchestral performances celebrating the brilliance of Samuel Barber among other legendary composers. From Joyce DiDonato’s enchanting performance at the Royal Festival Hall to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s American Classics at the Royal Albert Hall, and the Kensington Symphony Orchestra’s season opener featuring Barber's works at St John’s Smith Square, music lovers are in for an unforgettable treat.

Celebrating Samuel Barber: Musical Masterpieces in London

Eric Lu

Julian Ovenden

Michael Seal

Anna-Jane Casey

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Christmas comes but once a year and here in Chelsea, there’s only one way to celebrate. The RPO’s annual Christmas Cracker is as much a part of the season as mulled wine, Elf on the Shelf and the King’s Road window displays! So join us in the festive splendour of Cadogan Hall for a real feast of Yuletide music, old and new. There’ll be well-loved songs, seasonal classics and a stocking full of tunes for the whole family, as conductor Stephen Bell and star vocalists Juliette Crosbie and Matt Ford launch the celebrations with a swing. And it’s all gift-wrapped by the luxurious symphonic sound of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – go on, treat yourself.

Christmas Cracker

Cadogan Hall 

In communist Russia, Soviet officials called it an ‘optimistic tragedy’. Shostakovich simply called it his Tenth Symphony. Dark, tense, packed with secret messages and featuring at its centre a terrifying scherzo that might or might not be musical portrait of Stalin himself. Shostakovich’s Tenth is one of the greatest of all 20th-century symphonies, and few living conductors understand it more intimately than RPO Music Director Vasily Petrenko. ‘Shattering’ and ‘thrilling’ were just two of the words that critics used to describe his recording of the Tenth Symphony.

Shostakovich x Beethoven

Royal Festival Hall

If music be the food of love, opera is the ultimate candlelit dinner – an endless banquet of soaring passion, tender emotions and melodies that go straight to your heart. This Valentine’s Day, treat the special people in your life to the full menu:  a whole evening of operatic romance at its most indulgent, dressed in the silken sound of the full Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and delivered with love by maestro Jordan de Souza and a glittering line-up of opera stars. Expect glorious tunes, beautiful singing and the elegant atmosphere of Cadogan Hall. All for just one wonderful night… and you know they’re worth it.

Valentine's Opera Gala

You never know where inspiration will strike. For Dvořák, the sight of a train arriving in Prague station suggested the opening of his Seventh Symphony. Personal tragedy did the rest, and the result is one of the most stirring (and beautiful) of Romantic symphonies: tense, stormy and pounding with emotion. It’s a perfect match for guest conductor Adam Hickox, just as Brahms’ huge, sunlit Second Piano Concerto could have been written for the glorious sound and effortless brilliance of Pavel Kolesnikov – the award-winning piano virtuoso from Siberia who’s made his home in London, dazzling ears and stirring souls whenever he plays. And because genius loves company, it all starts with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – and the irrepressible overture to the perfect comic opera.

Dvořák, Brahms and Mozart

‘I am the new Bacchus, pressing out glorious wine for the human spirit’: Ludwig van Beethoven never pulled his punches, but until you’ve heard his Seventh Symphony in full flight, you’ve never known just how intoxicating music can be. That’s just the climax to a whole concert that takes aim straight at the emotions. At the end of a long life, Richard Strauss poured all the colours of the sunset into his heart-rending Four Last Songs – they’re a favourite on Desert Island Discs, and when they’re sung by the glorious voice of soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, you’ll understand why. Conductor Kevin John Edusei launches the evening with a vision of beauty from Canadian composer Samy Moussa, inspired by the magnificent landscape of the Caucasus Mountains.

Strauss’ Four Last Songs

The young Prokofiev wrote his First Violin Concerto in an age of revolution, but you’d never guess – it’s practically a fairy-tale in sound. And, with her ravishing sound and lightning-fast fingers, there’s no more stylish interpreter than the Moldovan violinist Alexandra Tirsu – especially when she’s accompanied by conductor Eun Sun Kim (‘A major star’ – The New York Times). Lili Boulanger’s vibrant and playful march, written around the same time as the Prokofiev, makes for an energetic opening; meanwhile, Sergei Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony is the orchestral equivalent of a blockbuster movie – a sweeping emotional drama, filled with winter storms, huge sunlit vistas and mile after mile of unforgettable melodies. Is this the ultimate romantic symphony? All we know is that it sounds wonderful, and we can’t wait to share it.

Alexandra Tirsu plays Prokofiev

Art imitates life, they say. It isn’t meant to happen the other way around, and Mahler learned the hard way that you should be careful what you wish for. At the climax of his tragic Sixth Symphony, he portrayed an artist felled by three mighty ‘hammer blows of fate’. Not long after he completed the Symphony, three devastating blows reduced Mahler’s family and career to ruins.

Mahler 6

Royal Albert Hall

At the age of 22, Rachmaninov had his heart broken. He poured all his ambition and all his emotion into the epic score of his First Symphony, which goes off like a volcano – wild, passionate and positively brimming with inspiration. For many years it was lost, but today conductor Nil Venditti gives this youthful tour-de-force its due. The Northampton-born composer Edmund Rubbra, meanwhile, was one of the most admired names in post-war British music, but today his radiant Piano Concerto – inspired by the flowers and moods of the English countryside – is a real rarity. Pianist Mark Bebbington has made it his mission to rediscover Britain’s lost masterworks, and this one’s a jewel. You might be about to discover your new favourite piece.

Rachmaninov's Symphony No.1

He’s too modest to admit it, but Sir John Rutter might just be the world’s best-loved living classical composer. Millions have sung his music, millions more have been touched by it: fresh, sincere and written with genuine love, it’s part of all our lives. For the RPO, any chance to work with Sir John is a special occasion, and tonight’s concert is no exception as he conducts Reflections, his joyous piano concerto, performed tonight by British pianist Steven Osborne. That’s the highlight of a concert that features two of Sir John’s favourite American classics – pure uplift – and another, very special treat, as he conducts RPO principal oboe John Roberts in a delightful solo showpiece. Experience musical history in the making.

Sir John Rutter conducts Reflections

Imagine an explosion of love on a cosmic scale. Mix in 1940s film score, a pounding rhythmic workout and the sounds of a Javanese gamelan, all washed in blissful impressionist colours. Now add a huge orchestra, a world-class pianist and a vintage electronic instrument straight out of science fiction and you’re still not even halfway to imagining Messiaen’s mind-boggling Turangalîla-Symphonie. 77 years after its premiere, it still sounds like nothing on earth.

Messiaen's Turangalîla

A trumpet sounds an ominous fanfare, the orchestra cries out, and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony thunders into life. But that’s just the beginning – and, after all, this is Mahler! 68 minutes later, the whole orchestra is punching the sky in triumph. It’s an epic struggle from darkness to light, as powerful as any Hollywood blockbuster and every bit as colourful, filled with horn calls, dark visions and, of course, Romantic music’s most passionate love letter – the famous Adagietto that Mahler wrote for his young wife Alma.

Mahler x Korngold

‘In this realm, time becomes space…’ From CS Lewis to Terry Gilliam, Wagner’s Parsifal has been an inspiration to the very greatest creative artists. Vasily Petrenko conducts a symphonic suite that weaves all the power and beauty of Wagner’s five-hour masterpiece into one sumptuous orchestral tapestry: music that glows from within, sounding more radiant than ever in the Royal Festival Hall.

Wagner x Taneyev

A sparkling programme filled with timeless American classics, from the captivating sounds of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man to John Williams’ Olympic Fanfare and Theme. Originally composed for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984, our performance will celebrate its 40th anniversary and coincide with the Games in Paris this year. Plus Gershwin’s jazz-inspired Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, as well as music from the much-loved musical West Side Story.

American Classics

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