Philharmonia 70th Birthday Gala, Royal Festival Hall

Few musical works exemplify ‘Greatness’ like Beethoven’s 9th Symphony - a masterpiece that sits beyond other masterpieces. Written in the early 1820s by the profoundly deaf composer, it immediately represented new possibilities for the medium, with its unprecedented orchestral size, and more unusually for a symphony, its use of a vocal chorus which sings an ‘Ode to Joy’ in the memorable, epic and triumphant finale.
It’s always a treat - and to hear it played by the ever-reliable Philharmonia Orchestra, at the conclusion of its 70th Anniversary Gala Concert, will be little short of special. What’s more: they’ll be under the baton of the extraordinary German conductor Christoph von Dohnányi - grandson of the legendary composer Ernő - who, at the age of 86 is making fewer and fewer outings, each of them more precious as a result.
The night also will offer the chance to hear Robert Schumann’s stunningly beautiful Piano Concerto, which he completed in 1845. The young German composer began work on it some years previous: inspired by his to-be wife Clara, who premiered the piece at the piano, Schumann envisaged an amalgam of a symphony, a concerto and a sonata, and ended up with an exuberant work bursting with melody, energy and joy - it’s not to be missed.
It’ll be a terrific night, with joy at the core. This great orchestra deserves a night to celebrate its seventy years’ worth of brilliant contribution to British culture; they couldn’t have picked better music to help them do it.