Artists

Kazuki Yamada – conductor
Baiba Skride – violin
Stephen Farr – organ

Programme

Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte Listen

Berg Violin Concerto Listen

— Interval —

Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3, 'Organ' Listen

Hearing the huge Royal Festival Hall organ playing with a full orchestra is something you experience not just with your ears but with your whole body.

Let the sound fill you from top to toe as we perform Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony. Saint-Saëns poured his soul into what he considered his finest work, saying “I gave everything to it I was able to give.” The majestic organ writing, fragments of plainsong and fugal passages recall the 20 years he spent as a church organist – the best in the world, according to Franz Liszt. And the addition of two pianists to the orchestra is perhaps a nod to his later career as a concert pianist. But more than a musical autobiography, or simply a showcase for the organ, this is a spine-tingling orchestral masterpiece.

Charismatic conductor Kazuki Yamada opens the evening with Ravel’s haunting Pavane, conceived as a stately dance for an imaginary little princess of the Spanish Golden Age. Then Latvian violinist Baiba Skride joins the Orchestra in Berg’s Violin Concerto. Berg dedicated it “To the memory of an angel”, the 18-year-old Manon Gropius. Its anguished central sections are framed by a gentle Prelude and a hymn-like Adagio.

Need to know

Prices & Discounts

£10 – £65

Multi-buy offer available; under-18s and concessions discounts available; discounted tickets for students via Student Pulse (limited availability)

Running time:

1 hr 45 mins, including a 20 minute interval

Recommended age

From 7+

Programme notes

Free printed programmes will be available at the venue. Digital programme notes available here.

Box office

Philharmonia Box Office: 0800 652 6717
Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm

Before the event

Venue

Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall

Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London
SE1 8XX

View on Google Maps

You may also like

2022/23 London Season

A world of transformative musical experiences
from our home at the Southbank Centre.

 

View season

Sold out
Top