John Eliot Gardiner Comes To Southbank Centre

Brahms was a champion of what is now called early music and these two concerts see music by his predecessors – some taken from concerts devised by Brahms himself – performed alongside his own work, giving a fascinating insight into his musical influences.

On Saturday 4 October, Brahms’ Third Symphony is performed alongside choral polyphony and folksongs by composers of the German and Italian Renaissance and Baroque, as well as his immediate forerunners. Works by Schubert, Gallus Zieler, Ludwig Senfl, Matthias Greitter, Caspar Othmayer and Heinrich Isaak are performed. Sunday 5th October’s performance takes a series of motets, psalms and cantata choruses by Heinrich Schutz and JS Bach which were performed in concerts actually devised and conducted by Brahms, and places them alongside the composer’s Fourth Symphony.

Links between Brahms’ work and that of the past is further explored with performances of choral music by Gabrieli, Lassus, Johannes Eccard, Jacobus Handl and Giovanni Rovetta.

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