Bring music back to your life after lockdown: The Philharmonia Orchestra is back

Philharmonia Orchestraå

If you’ve been down – and who hasn’t – then, prepared to be brought well-and-truly all the way back up, thanks to a new initiative in London.

The Philharmonia Orchestra from London’s Southbank Centre is, this season, bringing out programme for October and November 2020: six online performances in two strands, encompassing live-streamed concerts, pre-recorded performances and radio broadcasts, as the Orchestra continues to build out its new digital performance schedule.

Called Philharmonia Sessions, they’re putting on a series of critically acclaimed free, pre-recorded digital performances, conceived and created especially for an online audience!

It’ll continue with two new releases, following three films this summer that have reached six-figure audiences in the UK and around the world, and drawn critical acclaim.

The next Philharmonia Sessions feature Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting Beethoven’s ballet score, The Creatures of Prometheus (24 November), in a dramatic format filmed at Battersea Arts Centre with Stephen Fry narrating a new script by Gerard McBurney. The project is adapted from the programme that Salonen would have opened with for the Philharmonia’s 2020/21 London Season.

Jakub Hr?ša and cellist Alisa Weilerstein follow on 5 November, in an all-Dvo?ák programme featuring his Rondo and Silent Woods for cello and orchestra. Both Philharmonia Sessions will be premiered, free-to-view, on the Philharmonia’s YouTube channel.

There’s more, too. Scroll on for the full listing or find more at the Philharmonia Orchestra website.

LIVE STREAM: SANTTU-MATIAS ROUVALI – AMERICAN DREAMS
Monday 26 October 2020, 7.30pm

Santtu-Matias Rouvali – conductor

COPLAND Appalachian Spring
STEVE REICH Music for Pieces of Wood
PRICE Dances in the Canebrakes
STRAVINSKY Dumbarton Oaks

  • Live streamed from Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and then available on-demand.
  • Streamed via Philharmonia (UK) and IDAGIO Global Concert Hall (outside UK).
  • Paid ticketed.

LIVE STREAM: SALONEN CONDUCTS BRITTEN & RAVEL
Thursday 29 October 2020, 7.30pm

Esa-Pekka Salonen – conductor
Julia Bullock – soprano

RAVEL Pavane pour une infante défunte
BRITTEN Les Illuminations
RAVEL Mother Goose (complete ballet)

  • Live streamed from Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and then available on-demand.
  • Streamed via Philharmonia (UK) and IDAGIO Global Concert Hall (outside UK).
  • Paid ticketed.

PHILHARMONIA SESSION: JAKUB HR?ŠA CONDUCTS DVO?ÁK
Thursday 5 November 2020, 7.30pm

Jakub Hr?ša – conductor
Alisa Weilerstein – cello

DVO?ÁK Silent Woods, for cello and orchestra
DVO?ÁK Rondo, for solo cello and orchestra
DVO?ÁK Czech Suite

  • Filmed at Battersea Arts Centre (filmed on 2/3 October)
  • YouTube premiere
  • Free

LIVE STREAM: ELIM CHAN CONDUCTS MENDELSSOHN
Thursday 12 November 2020, 7.30pm

Elim Chan – conductor
Sergey Khachatryan – violin

JESSIE MONTGOMERY Strum
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4, Italian

  • Live streamed from Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and then available on-demand.
  • Streamed via Philharmonia (UK) and IDAGIO Global Concert Hall (outside UK).
  • Paid ticketed.

PHILHARMONIA SESSION: BEETHOVEN’S PROMETHEUS
Tuesday 24 November 2020, 7.30pm

BEETHOVEN The Creatures of Prometheus (complete ballet)

Esa-Pekka Salonen – conductor
Stephen Fry – narrator
Gerard McBurney – script writer

  • Filmed at Battersea Arts Centre (filmed on 3/4 November)
  • YouTube premiere
  • Free

LIVE STREAM: BENEDETTI PLAYS BEETHOVEN

Monday 30 November 2020, 7.30pm

Pablo Heras-Casado – conductor
Nicola Benedetti – violin

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 2

  • Live streamed from Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and then available on-demand.
  • Streamed via Philharmonia (UK) and IDAGIO Global Concert Hall (outside UK).
  • Paid ticketed.