Philharmonia Orchestra

Resident at Southbank Centre

In 2012/13 the Philharmonia Orchestra will perform 37 orchestral concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, together with six small ensemble performances within its acclaimed Music of Today series.

The season’s headline event is a major series led by Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Esa-Pekka Salonen, Woven Words, exploring the world of Witold Lutosławski 100 years after his birth. As well as three orchestral concerts, the series will feature pre- and post-concert performances of chamber and cabaret music by Lutosławski and his contemporaries, a study day, chamber concerts in collaboration with the Royal College of Music, and significant online resources based around new documentary films shot on location in Poland.

Salonen also opens the season with Beethoven’s 9th symphony, and presents two other key season projects: the European première of the Prologue to Shostakovich’s recently-rediscovered satirical opera Orango, reconstructed by Gerard McBurney, and a special performance on 30 May 2013 marking the centenary of the first performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Other highlights include Unsuk Chin’s second season as Artistic Director of Music of Today, featuring composers including John Zorn, York Höller and Luke Bedford; a gala concert celebrating the bicentenary of Wagner’s birth; Daniele Gatti conducting a Verdi Requiem with an all-star cast; and John Wilson leading a concert performance of Léhar’s The Merry Widow.

Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lorin Maazel, Andris Nelsons, Sir Andrew Davis, Paavo Järvi and Yuri Temirkanov conduct two or more concerts apiece, and the stunning young conducting talents David Afkam and Kazuki Yamada make their debut appearances with the Orchestra.

See full event listings for the Philharmonia Orchestra's 2012/13 Season and 2013/2014 Season