Los Angeles Philharmonic, Barbican
Symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich, a Bernstein classic, and the first performance in Europe of an important new composition about our sense of place – spring highlights for 2018
Gustavo Dudamel is the LA Phil's dynamic music director. Photo: Mark Allan
'Knock-out, colourful, high-octane...' Praise for the Los Angeles Philharmonic under its music director Gustavo Dudamel was unstinting when the musicians took up residence at the Barbican in 2016, and a return visit in 2018 is already eagerly awaited.
Three concerts on consecutive nights next year show the range of the orchestra, which will then be in its 100th year, and which since its foundation in 1919 has forged a reputation for championing new music – much of that now among modern classics – as well as playing works at the heart of the orchestral repertoire.
Dudamel, who has been with the orchestra since 2009, raises the curtain (2 May) with the stirring Shostakovich Symphony No 5, and with two less well-known works: Varèse’s expressive Amériques , inspired by the composer's move to the US from his native France, and a new work by a former LA Phil music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
On the second night (3 May), the LA Phil New Music Group gives the European premiere of Ted Hearne's musical map, Place, which depicts in music the crossroads between history and personal experience.
The residency concludes (4 May) with a spectacular programme for orchestra and choir, when the LA Phil is joined by the London Symphony Chorus and soloists for Leonard Bernstein's moving Chichester Psalms and Beethoven's great Symphony No 9, the Choral.
Three concerts on consecutive nights next year show the range of the orchestra, which will then be in its 100th year, and which since its foundation in 1919 has forged a reputation for championing new music – much of that now among modern classics – as well as playing works at the heart of the orchestral repertoire.
Dudamel, who has been with the orchestra since 2009, raises the curtain (2 May) with the stirring Shostakovich Symphony No 5, and with two less well-known works: Varèse’s expressive Amériques , inspired by the composer's move to the US from his native France, and a new work by a former LA Phil music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
On the second night (3 May), the LA Phil New Music Group gives the European premiere of Ted Hearne's musical map, Place, which depicts in music the crossroads between history and personal experience.
The residency concludes (4 May) with a spectacular programme for orchestra and choir, when the LA Phil is joined by the London Symphony Chorus and soloists for Leonard Bernstein's moving Chichester Psalms and Beethoven's great Symphony No 9, the Choral.
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| What | Los Angeles Philharmonic, Barbican |
| Where | Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Barbican (underground) |
| When |
02 May 18 – 04 May 18, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM |
| Price | £15 - £65 |
| Website | Click here for more information and booking |