World Renowned Philharmonia Orchestra Lead by Esa-Pekka Salonen Announces Details For Its 75th Anniversary Celebrations

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES DETAILS FOR FIRST PART OF ITS 75TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS 

THE SEASON OPENS IN JANUARY WITH A PROGRAMME CENTRED ON 1945, THE ORCHESTRA’S FOUNDING YEAR, AND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF A MAJOR NEW COMMISSION BY MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE 

WARNER CLASSICS WILL RELEASE A MAJOR 24-DISC BOX SET, PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA: BIRTH OF A LEGEND, OF CELEBRATED RECORDINGS AND RARE GEMS FROM THE PHILHARMONIA’S FIRST TWO DECADES

PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR & ARTISTIC ADVISOR ESA-PEKKA SALONEN CONDUCTS THE OPENING WEEKEND OF PHILHARMONIA AT 75 AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL ON 16 AND 19 JANUARY

The Philharmonia Orchestra has announced part one of a year of programming to celebrate its 75th anniversary, marking three-quarters of a century of world-class concerts, definitive recordings, technological innovation, community-led outreach and artistic adventure. Philharmonia at 75 opens in January 2020 with a pair of concerts conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen focusing on the orchestra’s founding year and featuring the world premiere of a new commission from Mark Anthony Turnage, Towards Alba, a Horn concerto commissioned by the Philharmonia with support from John and Carol Wates.

The Philharmonia is a world-class symphony orchestra for the 21st century. Founded in 1945, in part as a recording orchestra for the nascent home audio market, today the Philharmonia uses the latest digital technology to reach new audiences for symphonic music. VR experiences featuring music by Sibelius, Mahler and Beethoven, placing the viewer at the heart of the orchestra, have been presented at Southbank Centre, where it is Resident Orchestra, and internationally. The Orchestra is led by Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. Fellow Finn Santtu-Matias Rouvali takes over from Salonen as Principal Conductor in the 2021/22 season.

Esa-Pekka Salonen said “The Philharmonia started as a direct result of the advent of the LP. The orchestra’s founding was a response to the technological development of the day and ever since, the Philharmonia has been at the forefront of tech in classical music. Utilising pioneering technology and constantly being at the forefront of industry developments means that the orchestraadapts easily to new frontiers and new repertoire, because development has been in its DNA since its birth.”

On 16 January 2020, Salonen conducts a French Horn-themed programme inspired by famous French Horn players connected with the Philharmonia, including Dennis Brain, Richard Watkins (soloist in the world premiere of Towards Alba) and Salonen himself. The performances of Richard Watkins in Turnage’s Horn Concerto and Allan Clayton in Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings are supported by John and Carol Wates.

On Sunday 19 January 2020, the Philharmonia performs a concert of music composed in 1945, the year the Orchestra was founded. Salonen conducts three very different masterworks composed for a world emerging from the destruction of the Second World War: Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 6, Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto (with Principal Oboe Tom Blomfield the soloist) and Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements. This concert is supported by the Nathan Family.

In addition to the initial concerts, and to celebrate three-quarters of a century of remarkable recordings, the orchestra is partnering with Warner Classics, which owns much of the Orchestra’s back catalogue, to release a box set of recordings from the years the Philharmonia was run by its founder, Walter Legge (1945-64).

Philharmonia – Birth of a Legend features recordings with conductors that made the early Philharmonia one of the greatest orchestras in the world: Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Guido Cantelli, Arturo Toscanini, Otto Klempererand Carlo Maria Giulini. 

Classic recordings sit alongside rarely-heard gems. A link to the modern-day Philharmonia is made with a bonus recording licenced from the BBC, of Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht at Royal Festival Hall in September 2018.

Philharmonia – Birth of a Legend was coordinated by Jon Tolansky. The box set will be released internationally on 24 January 2020

Concert listings, full 2019/20 London Season
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Southbank Centre

The Philharmonia is proud to be supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

A registered charity, the Orchestra relies on individual and corporate generosity to deliver its programme.

The Philharmonia’s Principal International Partner is Wuliangye.

Biographies:

Philharmonia Orchestra
Founded in 1945, the Philharmonia is a world-class symphony orchestra for the 21st century. Based in London at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and with a thriving national and international touring schedule, the Philharmonia creates thrilling performances for a global audience. The Orchestra is led by Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, its Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor since 2008. Fellow Finn Santtu-Matias Rouvali takes over from Salonen as Principal Conductor in the 2021/22 season.

The Philharmonia performs around 50 concerts a year at its Southbank Centre home. Under Salonen and other key conductors, the Philharmonia has created a series of critically-acclaimed, visionary projects, distinctive for both their artistic scope and supporting live and digital content. In 2019, Salonen presents Weimar Berlin: Bittersweet Metropolis, a celebration of the Weimar Republic era through the prism of its music, drama and film. 

The Philharmonia is orchestra-in-residence at venues and festivals across England: Bedford Corn Exchange, De Montfort Hall in Leicester, The Marlowe in Canterbury, Anvil Arts in Basingstoke, the Three Choirs Festival in the West of England, and Garsington Opera. At the heart of the Orchestra’s residencies is an outreach and engagement programme that empowers people in every community to engage with, and participate in, orchestral music.

Internationally, the Philharmonia is active across Europe, Asia and the USA. The 2019/20 season sees the Orchestraembark on major tours with Esa-Pekka Salonen. In September 2019, they travel to Europe, including a return to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie; in January 2020 Salonen leads a tour of Japan and South Korea.

The Philharmonia’s international reputation in part derives from its extraordinary recording legacy, which in the last 10 years has been built on by its pioneering work with digital technology. VR experiences featuring music by Sibelius, Mahler and Beethoven, placing the viewer at the heart of the orchestra, have been presented at Southbank Centre and internationally.

Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen has been Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor of the Orchestra since 2008. Santtu-Matias Rouvali is Principal Conductor Designate, succeeding Salonen in 2021. Jakub Hrůša is Principal Guest Conductor; Christoph von Dohnányi is Honorary Conductor for Life and Vladimir Ashkenazy is Conductor Laureate.

Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen’s restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical music in the 21st century.
He is currently the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Conductor Laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009. This season is his second of three as the Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, and his first of five years as Artist in Association at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. Additionally, Salonen is Artistic Director and cofounder of the annual Baltic Sea Festival, now in its 14th year, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea.

Salonen’s works move freely between contemporary idioms, combining intricacy and technical virtuosity with playful rhythmic and melodic innovations. His pieces for symphony orchestra include Giro (1982), LA Variations(1996), Foreign Bodies (2001), Insomnia (2002) and Nyx(2011), as well as two concertos: for pianist Yefim Bronfman and for violinist Leila Josefowicz. The latter won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, is performed on three continents this year and was featured in a 2014 international Apple ad campaign for iPad. Salonen’s most recent composition, Karawane, for orchestra and chorus, premiered during his time as the first-ever Creative Chair at the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, while his cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last spring under Salonen’s own direction, before going to the New York Philharmonic, which also gave the New York premiere of his Wing on Wing.