• The highly anticipated return to London of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela under conductor Gustavo Dudamel, after their brilliantly received Prom in 2007. They will make their home at the Royal Festival Hall from 13 to 18 April 2009 for a special Southbank Centre residency. Concerts on 14 and 18 April will be complemented by chamber music performances by members of the Orchestra, and joint projects with the Centre's Resident Orchestras.
• A focus on some of the great orchestra/conductor partnerships of the day, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra and its Music Director and co-founder Ivan Fischer (1 October 2008) and Mariss Jansons with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (29 November 2008 and 29 March 2009) – part of a unique four-year relationship.
• A programme that spans the whole orchestral spectrum from the traditional to the new, from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra making its first visit to the refurbished Hall (19 February 2009) to Ensemble Intercontemporain with Pierre Boulez (10 & 11 December 2008).
The Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer opens the Shell Classic International series on 1 October 2008 with a lyrical, early 20th-century programme of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht with soloists Christianne Stotijn and Jorma Silvasti.
Exemplary partnership and leaders in the period-instrument field, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, return with the Monteverdi Choir for a second pair of concerts on 4 and 5 October, which focuses on Brahms and sets some of his major and most popular works in the context of his love for and knowledge of the music of his predecessors and immediate contemporaries. These two programmes include Brahms Liebeslieder suite and Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 alongside music by Bach, Handel, Hassler and Eckhard.
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, one of the world's finest chamber orchestras, returns with three great piano soloists. Mitsuko Uchida directs two Mozart piano concertos from the keyboard on 24 November 2008; Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs Beethoven's first three piano concertos on 21 April 2009; and conductor Yuri Temirkanov is joined by pianist Denis Matsuev for a concert of Prokofiev and Shostakovich on 29 May 2009.
Following rave reviews for their performance of Mahler's 5th Symphony in the Hall's opening season (2007), the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons return in 2008/09 for two concerts. Continuing a four-year relationship, this lauded partnership will perform Bruckner's 4th Symphony together with Mozart's Linz Symphony on 29 November 2008 and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No.2, and Strauss' Four Last Songs, with soprano Anja Harteros, on 29 March 2009. Alongside these concerts there will be opportunities to get closer to the musicians with talks, involving Jansons and some of the Orchestra's players, and open rehearsals.
Founded by Pierre Boulez in 1976, Ensemble Intercontemporain, one of the world's leading contemporary music ensembles, will give two concerts in December, celebrating Messiaen's centenary on 10 December and the 100th birthday of Elliot Carter on 11 December. Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who along with Boulez was a student of Messiaen, joins the Ensemble to perform on both nights. Works include Messiaen's virtuosic Sept Haikai, Boulez's sur Incises, Carter's Clarinet Concert and his Catenaires (written for Aimard).
One of the giants of the Western orchestral tradition, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, makes a welcome return to the Royal Festival Hall, with Honorary Conductor Zubin Mehta, on 19 February, performing the final symphonies of Haydn and Bruckner. The Orchestra was a regular visitor to the Hall before the refurbishment – the last visit being in 2005.
Hailed as one of the most exciting orchestras in the world today, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela with conductor Gustavo Dudamel will be resident from 13 to 18 April 2009. The residency is focussed around two concerts in the Hall by the Orchestra on 14 and 18 April – the first programme will include Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra and the second Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Additional events throughout the residency will include the Orchestra members performing chamber music concerts in other Southbank Centre venues and work with the Resident Orchestras.
Continuing another strong Southbank Centre relationship, Zurich Opera returns with Mark Minkowski for a concert performance of Handel's Agrippina on 17 May, in the year marking the 250th anniversary of the composer's death. Minkowski is acclaimed for his interpretations of Handel and is joined by some of Europe's finest opera singers including mezzo-sopranos Vesselina Kasarova, Marijana Mijanovic and soprano Malin Hartelius.
Marshall Marcus, Head of Music at Southbank Centre said: 'From dynamic young arrivals on the orchestral scene to the world's most established classical musicians, this Shell Classic International programme complements our Resident Orchestras season. We're especially excited that Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela are going to be Resident with us – and the remarkable opportunities this gives the Orchestra and our Residents for creative exchange.'
This is the second year that Shell has supported the Shell Classic International season as part of its major sponsorship of Southbank Centre's Transformation project, which included the reopening of the refurbished Royal Festival Hall in June 2007. As neighbours on the South Bank for over 40 years, Shell shares with Southbank Centre a strong commitment to the regeneration of the area. -- www.southbankcentre.co.uk
