As a part of the Great Big Green Week – a nationwide celebration of action on climate change, taking place across the UK from Saturday 18 to Sunday 26 September – the LSO staff team and members are taking time this week to think, act and learn more about eco-friendly practises, both within and outside of the LSO.
Anton Bruckner came from a humble village background and rose to become one of the Greats of classical music. Critics consider him a master of harmonic and rhythmic invention, a radical counterpoint to what had gone before.
Delve into the Austrian composer's life, inspiration and why his music continues to captivate us today, ahead of Sunday's concert at the Barbican: Bruckner's Journey to the 'Romantic' Symphony, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
This year's BMW Classics will have many firsts: the first time our open-air concert has returned to Trafalgar Square since 2019; the first time Ayanna Witter-Johnson's lockdown piece DreamCity will be performed by LSO East London Academy Musicians; and the first time violinist Leia Zhu performs with the London Symphony Orchestra. Ahead of Sunday's concert, we speak to Leia on what she is looking forward to on the day, and her favourite thing about Saint Saëns' music.
Our Autumn 2021 season starts this weekend! And acclaimed soprano Lucy Crowe bookmarks our September to December series of concerts from our Barbican home with performances on 12 September – including the world premiere of Exiles by Julian Anderson, Natural History by Judith Weir and Vaughan Williams’ A Pastoral Symphony – and on 16 December, with Mahler’s blissful Symphony No 4.
Ahead of it all, Hannah Fiddy spoke to Lucy about how her goals and aspirations have shifted during lockdown, being bullied as a child and her thoughts on the pieces she’s singing with the LSO.
One of the multiple premieres we'll hear in this Saturday's Soundhub Showcase is Curved Form (No. 23) by Alex Groves. A former Member and now Associate of the LSO's scheme supporting early-career composers, Alex reveals what the final preparations before the concert will be for a piece that, before this week, he's never heard before!
