Half Six Fix: Lachenmann and Beethoven 7

The Concert

Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.

The Music

Lachenmann’s My Melodies creates an amazing soundscape, introducing an array of unconventional instrumental techniques, including whistles, scrapes, and whispers. Against this atmospheric backdrop, eight solo horns unite, functioning as a cohesive force highlighting the remarkable virtuosity of the LSO’s musicians.

Before My Melodies you will hear the First Movement from Beethoven’s Symphony No 7, one of the most unusual, fascinating and bold of his nine major orchestral works. It is also the piece with which the composer’s contemporary reputation was sealed, and that with which – at its premiere in December 1813 – the increasingly deaf composer made his last public appearance as a conductor.

The Performers

Ilan Volkov is a musical omnivore and a dynamic figurehead of the contemporary music scene. Hear his insights as he introduces this concert, which brings together two sound worlds, two centuries apart, each work illuminating the other.

Ilan Volkov has arguably been more adventurous and introduced a wider range of contemporary music than any other conductor working regularly in the UK.
The Guardian

Change of Conductor
Conductor François-Xavier Roth has withdrawn from his engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra in the 2024/25 season. The LSO is grateful to Ilan Volkov for stepping in to conduct the Barbican concerts on 27 and 28 November. The programmes for these concerts will remain as originally planned.