Just a reminder- Screenplay will be providing a live relay of the Shell Classic International Barenboim and Berlin Staatskapelle concert tonight in Royal Festival Hall’s Clore Ballroom. Admission free.
Tonight they perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 and Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande, featuring a wide range of orchestral textures and colours.
The concert begins at 7.30pm
We look forward to seeing you tonight!
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As part of Shell Classic International 2009/10 Berlin Staatskapelle and Daniel Barenboim perform four concerts at Royal Festival Hall on Friday 29 January, Sunday 31 January, Monday 1 February and Tuesday 2 February.
Screenplay offers the fabulous opportunity of watching these sold out concerts live in Southbank Cent
re’s Clore Ballroom. Admission free!
Join us in the Ballroom for this momentous occasion where Barenboim performs the complete cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos.
Full programme details:
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Take an intimate look 
into Leonard Bernstein’s life, genius and discipline. Download a podcast of Craig Urquhart, Bernstein’s assistant from 1985–1990, speaking to Edward Seckerson (writer, broadcaster and chief classical music and opera critic for The Independent) about his memories of his colleague and dear friend Lenny.
The most memorable concert for me was the Freiheit concert in Berlin, Christmas Day 1989. The Wall had fallen and it was a tremendous time of joy and celebration in Berlin. He formed an orchestra made up of the allies. But that day in Berlin was also a very quiet time. The only thing you could really hear in Berlin were people chipping away at the Wall. [Bernstein] asked a young child if he could borrow the hammer and started chipping away at the Wall himself. It was so symbolic for him because he spent his whole life trying to break down walls.
To go through an average day would take about six hours, as there is no such thing as an average day with Leonard Bernstein. Rehearsals would begin at ten, so I would have to either be in the hotel suite or at the Dakota to make sure that he was awake, functioning, dressed. He was usually very cooperative but there were some days, like all of us feel, that it is just not what you want to be doing – you would rather stay in bed. But he would get going.. he would read the newspaper and have breakfast. He would usually have a tirade against something that’s happening in the world that would disappoint him…
No matter what he was doing – because he was living five lives at a time – he always had time for his friends. He always wrote thank you notes. He always did little poems for friends for their birthdays. It was his nature to be that way. He was extremely grateful to everybody that worked with him. He was very much aware he could not do this all on his own.
The Bernstein Project continues!
Upcoming events:
» 7 February: Conductor and Interpreter
» 14 February: Broadway Prepared: Featuring Nina Bernstein
» 25 February: George Steiner: The Music of Thought
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In the latest podcast from Southbank Centre residents the London Phiharmonic Orchestra, Finnish conductor Osmo Vänska gives us a preview of the forthcoming Sibelius series he has curated for the orchestra.
Vänska tells Edward Seckerson what the music of Sibelius means to him, and why he chose not to programme the popular Violin Concerto in this four concert series which features all seven symphonies. Plus a Grammy Award nomination for the recordings of Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with Colin Currie and Marin Alsop (recorded live in concert at the Royal Festival Hall) and a look back at November’s Schnittke Festival with violinist Clare Duckworth.
Info on the concert series:
The London Philharmonic Orchestra presents a complete cycle of Sibelius’s symphonies set alongside some of his lesser known works all performed at Southbank Centre from the 27 January to the 5 February.
Osmo Vänskä, one of the world’s leading interpreters of Sibelius’s music and a regular collaborator with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, curates a four-concert cycle of the composer’s symphonies. Osmo is joined by fellow Finn Helena Juntunen, one of the country’s best-kept vocal secrets and rising Norwegian star Henning Kraggerud in the opening concert for Sibelius’s Violin Concerto.
The festival also allows the Orchestra’s Principal Cellist Kristina Blaumane an opportunity to demonstrate her fine skills as soloist in Sibelius’s Cantique and Devotion for cello and orchestra.
For more information about the individual concerts and to book tickets visit:
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/festivals-series/sibelius-miraculous-logic
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The French circus-theatre company Collectif Petit Travers is a French circus-theatre company. This January, they present their latest show, Pan-Pot, a firework display of world-class juggling performed to live piano music by classical masters Liszt, Mozart and Beethoven, and modern composer Ligeti. Almost like notes from a piano, objects fly with precision, grace and awesome speed, building to a spectacular climax. Watch the video for a taster of what you’ll see.
Tickets available from our website.
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