Southbank March Symphonies

In March, Southbank Centre continues to host major composer and artist-focused projects running throughout the 2009/10 season. On 6 March as part of the Shell Classic International series, one of the world’s most celebrated musical partnerships between conductor Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra returns to the Royal Festival Hall for the third of their four-year relationship with Southbank Centre. For their only UK appearance in the 2009/10 concert season, Jansons and the Orchestra will perform Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony as well as Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Danish baritone Bo Skovhus.

Founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, Southbank Centre Resident Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra celebrates its 65th anniversary in 2010 with a gala birthday concert on 30 March by former Principal Conductor Riccardo Muti. One of the most recorded orchestras in the world, with more than 1,000 recordings, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Muti will present two works that have long been at the heart of the Orchestra’s repertoire, Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony and Violin Concerto with violinist Joshua Bell.

Also resident at Southbank Centre, the London Philharmonic Orchestra is joined by pianist Hélène Grimaud for Schumann’s Piano Concerto on 12 March and by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter for Brahms’ Violin Concerto on 16 March. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment continues its survey of the complete Beethoven symphonies with two concerts on 4 and 10 March conducted by Principal Artist Iván Fischer. One of the world’s leading exponents on contemporary music, the London Sinfonietta presents two adventurous programmes – an all-Niccolo Castiglioni concert on 31 March conducted by Southbank Centre Associate Artist Oliver Knussen and a concert on 17 March featuring the London premiere of Gerald Barry’s Beethoven and the UK premiere of Richard Ayres’ In the Alps conducted by Martyn Brabbins.

As part of Southbank Centre’s International Chamber Music Season, the Emerson String Quartet returns to the Queen Elizabeth Hall to give three all-Bohemian programmes on 2, 3 and 5 March performing the chamber works of Janácek, Martinů, and Dvořák, coinciding with the Emersons’ latest record release of the same repertoire on Deutsche Grammophon. International Piano Series’ Chopin at 200 continues on 1 March, one of the composer’s two disputed birthdays, with an all-Chopin recital by the venerated Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini. Later in the month, Southbank Centre welcomes three young keyboard lions, Yundi Li in his first Royal Festival Hall recital on 16 March, Yevgeny Sudbin in his IPS series debut on 25 March, and Yuja Wang performing Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 24 March.

Southbank Centre’s season-long The Bernstein Project continues on 26 March with a rare performance of Bernstein’s one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti and Bright Sheng’s arrangement of Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles, by the British new music ensemble Psappha. Leading voice coach and Voicelab Director Mary King concludes Southbank Centre’s four-part West Side Story Experience on 21 March with a day of vocal and dance sessions culminating in a sing-along screening of the classic film.

Southbank Centre celebrates some of the UK’s most promising young artists by hosting the showcase for Department for Children, Schools and Families’ Music and Dance Scheme on 26 and 27 March. Drawing together nine top specialist schools including the Yehudi Menuhin and the Royal Ballet Schools, the scheme has directly benefited Nigel Kennedy, Daniel Harding, Darcey Bussell, among many others. The performances, open rehearsals and workshops at the Royal Festival Hall promise opportunities to spot the stars of tomorrow.

For more information please contact the Ticket Office on 0844 847 9910 or visit the website: www.southbankcentre.co.uk