Please note: this programme (and start time) changed in February 2013. Publications printed before this will advertise a performance of Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust, and are incorrect.
The new season opens with an event that brings together a stellar cast under Esa-Pekka Salonen's baton to perform Berlioz's electrifying choral symphony, Romeo and Juliet. Widely considered to be his most original and dramatic programmatic work, it is a tour de force for orchestra, chorus and soloists. A personal homage to his own heroes Shakespeare and Beethoven, it has been described by the musicologist Donald Tovey as "one of the most gigantic and convincing masterpieces of music-drama" ever written, pushing the limits of the contemporary orchestra's capabilities in terms of colour, programmatic scope and individual virtuosity. Wagner attended its première in 1839 and was deeply affected by it, later presenting Berlioz with the score of his own Tristan und Isolde inscribed with the words "To the dear and great author of Romeo and Juliet, from the grateful author of Tristan and Isolde."
Sung in French with English surtitles
More concerts at Royal Festival Hall:
Temirkanov conducts in London
Jun 27 2013, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Yuri Termirkanov conducts Mussorgsky’s great Pictures at an Exhibition, Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with soloist Sayaka Shoji
Temirkanov conducts in London
Jun 30 2013, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Temirkanov conducts Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 where he is joined by pianist Maria João Pires










