| London Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Vladimir Jurowski | Direction |
| Pierre-Laurent Aimard | Piano |
Music by Stravinsky and Messiaen join a Birtwistle Piano Concerto premiere played by Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
When Olivier Messiaen's teacher suggested he listen to birdsong, he unlocked a career-long obsession. This reached a culmination inOiseaux exotiques, a musical exploration of birds from the delicate tweets of the Laughing Thrush to the penetrating cry of the Prairie Chicken.
'The composer must renounce colouristic orgies in order to develop healthy concepts', Igor Stravinsky once said. His ballet scoreOrpheus is an essay in refinement and restraint, but his Symphonies of Wind Instruments from 27 years earlier reflects the animal wind and brass colours of Messiaen's birds.
After that, in the composer's 80th birthday year, comes the first UK performance of Harrison Birtwistle's Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless for piano & orchestra.
Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk Musica Viva, Casa da Musica Porto, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and PRS for Music Foundation.
The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall at 6pm - Free pre-concert event. The LPO's creative ensemble for teenagers, The Band, plays its first set of the season. Taking the works of Stravinsky, Messiaen and Birtwistle as inspiration, The Band will be working alongside LPO musicians to create and perform their own strikingly original music. Free
