Listen to our John Cage Spotify playlist

John Cage was the most influential and controversial American experimental composer of the 20th Century. He was the father of indeterminism, a Zen-inspired aesthetic which expelled all notions of choice from the creative process.Rejecting the most deeply help compositional principles of the past – logical consequence, vertical sensitivity, and tonality among them – Cage created a ground-breaking alternative to the serialist method, de-constructing traditions established hundreds and even thousands of years earlier; the end result was a radical new artistic approach which impacted all of the music composed in its wake, forever altering not only the ways in which sounds are created but also how they’re absorbed by audiences. Indeed it’s often been suggested that he did to music what Karl Marx did to government – he levelled it.

On 16 October, as part of Ether 2012, pianist Rolf Hind, one of our great interpreters of modern piano music collaborates with choreographer Rui Horta and a cat named Mia in a new work that showcases the genius of one of the twentieth century’s great artists and his Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, a group of 20 short pieces for prepared piano that are often considered amongst his finest achievements.

Have a listen to our John Cage spotify playlist, featuring some of his best know work including the infamous 4’33” plus a selection of his Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. Click below to listen.  

 

Catch Danza Preparata – John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano – at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Tuesday 16 October as part of Ether 2012. Get tickets here. 

 

 

Vladimir Jurowski’s 2012/13 season highlights

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Vladimir Jurowksi, introduces his concert highlights for September – December 2012.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 26 September, and 29 September at Royal Festival Hall.

Find out more/book tickets

Tell us what you’d like to to hear more of

In September we will be continuing with our series of classical music podcasts.

To help us produce content that interests you, we want to know what you would like to hear more of, and how you think should we theme our podcasts? Guide through the eras of music; following orchestra members throughout the series or beginners guide to music – anything at all. Just let us know by leaving a comment below.

Thanks for your help!

Listen to Southbank Centre classical music podcasts from earlier on this year

BRYN TERFEL APPEARS ON NEWSNIGHT

Bryn Terfel appeared on Newsnight last night to talk about his festival Brynfest which is at the Southbank Centre next week. You can also see his encore from Tuesday evening’s concert with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra.

Watch here from 39 mins in >>

SOUNDS VENEZUELA IN FULL SWING

Our weekend of free events, workshops and performances is almost finished! We have had a fantastic couple of days exploring the power of art and music to change the world. We have had great responses from loads of people who were here to take part, including this blog  on Sinfini Music. On the matter of Saturday’s concert, The Guardian said that Dudamel displayed ” instinctive virtuosity” and Bachtrack commented that “the power he brought to the music was astonishing”.

We are finishing the weekend with a bang with tonight’s sold out concert by the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Gustavo Dudamel. Watch the live stream of the sold out concert here: www.guardian.co.uk/bolivarlive and join in the conversation on twitter tonight using #bolivarlive.

You can now watch Saturday’s concert in full on the Southbank Centre Classical Music microsite until the end of the summer!

COMPOSER DAVID BRAID AND PIANIST SERGEI PODOBEDOV ON BBC RADIO 3 + SPECIAL OFFER ON TICKETS

Composer David Braid and pianist Sergei Podobedov will appear together on BBC Radio 3’s InTune programme on June 29th ahead of their forthcoming concert at Southbank Centre. The show starts at 4.30pm that day but will also be available on iplayer.

David will be discussing his recent work and Sergei will be performing ‘Lyrical Toccata’ one of the ‘Three Pieces for Piano’ that feature on David’s new CD with Toccata Classics: ‘Chamber and Instrumental Music’, Please see: http://bit.ly/LaTRXo for details of the new disc, which will be released next month.

Sergei will also be performing some movements from Schumann’s Carnaval, which he will perform in full at David Braid’s forthcoming CD launch concert at the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, on Monday 2nd July at 19:45.

We are offering a special offer on tickets for this event – £8 for the best available seats. Simply type the word ‘BRAIDMUSIC’ into the promo-code box on the event page before choosing your seats.

For more information on David Braid and Sergei Podobedov, please see: www.davidbraid.net and http://www.sergeipodobedov.com

To find out more about the concert, and to book tickets, click here

London Philharmonic Orchestra introduces new works by four young composers

On Tuesday 12 June, 7.30pm at Queen Elizabeth Hall, members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Foyle Future Firsts perform new works by current members of the LPO Leverhulme Young Composers programme – Mark David Boden, Laura Jayne Bowler, David Curington & Hollie Harding.

Here the young composers talk about their works:

listen to ‘Composer Hollie Harding introduces her new piece As Echoes Subside’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Composer David Curington introduces his new piece After Onement, I’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Composer Laura Bowler introduces her new piece 3811 Nautical Miles’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Composer Mark David Boden introduces his new piece Shadows of a Changing Land’ on Audioboo

The concert also features Tristan Murail’s masterpiece Les Courants de l’espace and Per Nørgård’s cult classic, Voyage into the Golden Screen.

Find out more / book tickets

Watch a clip of Alisa Weilerstein playing the first movement of Dvořák’s cello concerto

Alisa Weilerstein performs Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra alongside a programme of Mozart and Tchaikovsky at Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 19 May, 7.30pm.

Watch the OAE’s teaser film on the photoshoot for their 2012/13 brochure

GETTING TO KNOW DAVID BRAID

On 2nd July Southbank Centre welcomes David Braid to the Purcell Room to present his new album of chamber and instrumental music. The evening will include performances from The Erato Piano Trio, pianist Sergei Podobedov and clarinettist Peter Cigleris.

Steve Reich said of David’s work: “ ‘Morning’. Integration of voice with string quartet beautifully done – Very honest stuff”.

We catch up with David ahead of the concert.

What are you particularly looking forward to about your forthcoming concert at Southbank Centre?
It’s been a few years since I had something played here, it will be good to return as I love the atmosphere – it’s very relaxed and ‘human’. As a composer I suppose I should say I’m looking forward to the performance itself. However, it can be rather stressful to be honest, being stuck in the stalls while others play, as it’s out of one’s hands, so I’m looking forward to it being over and getting back to work on my new piece – I much prefer composing to having concerts, although I’m extremely pleased to be having them of course!

Is there a piece of music you would pick out as one of the ‘best’ works ever written?
Well there are the obvious ones by the big three composers, discussed a great deal by others I expect, so I’ll avoid those and say Sibelius’ 5th Symphony – What to say about it though? – too much, it speaks for itself really, but in brief: such unbelievably perfect structure plus its powerful and somehow inevitable geometry across time – music that tells you something/everything about spacetime that cannot be even slightly approached by using language – also his 7th Symphony of course, plus a great number of John Dowland’s lute songs, clearly in the same class as Schubert’s, but a lot closer to home for me; Lutoslawski’s 4th symphony also – transcendent!

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?
Time travel obviously – facing forward of course! I would like to have a chat for a few hours with someone from 15,000-20,000 years in the future (I’d have to bring an army of linguists and philologists with me of course – he/she/it would have to bring historians too so we could understand each other). It would need to be someone who is very well-informed on the then-current scientific, artistic and ethical developments. I would risk blowing a mind-fuse for this.

If you could programme your ideal Southbank Centre show, which artists (living or dead) would you bring together?
I’d get Bach to come and improvise on the organ! If he was busy that day I’d ask Dowland to come and play the lute.

What is the most played piece of music on your mp3 player or in your CD collection?
I only really listen to vinyl these days and I have no mp3 player as I can’t listen to music that much as it distracts from composing, so I never bought one. So, most-played? Glenn Gould’s record of Byrd and Gibbons, (I’ve actually got two copies of this so when the first wears down I have a spare) followed by Beecham’s Sibelius’ 7th (only one copy of this unfortunately – hence its 2nd place).

Do you have any strange rituals you carry out before or after you perform?
I’ve not performed for many years so not as such. However, before a performance of my stuff I tend to worry a lot and drink a couple of beers to be quite honest.

For more info and to book tickets, click here