BBC Philharmonic returns to Bridgewater Hall this month

Following four appearances at the BBC proms, the BBC Philharmonic is set to return to Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall later this month for an autumn season. Featuring six concerts running from September to December, the upcoming season will present two UK premieres of works commissioned by the BBC alongside works by much-loved composers including Wagner, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven.

Kicking off on 30 September, the season’s opening concert will see mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly join forces with the orchestra, led by chief conductor John Storgårds in performances of Janáček’s Sinfonietta and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’. The orchestra and soloist will also give their second joint performance of Alma Mahler’s Six Songs following their performance of the works at the BBC Proms in July.

The orchestra will collaborate with conductor Mark Wigglesworth and pianist Sunwook Kim for its second concert of the season, offering Manchester audiences a programme of Elgar, Brahms and Beethoven in October. Later that month Eva Ollikainen will take up the baton to lead the BBC Philharmonic and pianist Richard Goode in performances of Haydn, Mozart and Debussy as well as ARCHORA by Ivors Award-winning composer Anna Thorvalsdottir which received its world premiere with the BBC Philharmonic at the 2022 BBC Proms.

John Storgårds then returns to lead the orchestra in collaborations with violinist Tobias Feldmann (28 October) and soprano Francesca Chiejina (4 November) before taking the stage as both conductor and violinist alongside pianist Alexandra Dariescu (25 November) for music by Copland and Nielsen, plus two UK premieres of two BBC commissions. Sebastian Fagerlund’s Helena’s Song, from his Autumn Sonata and Shades of Unbroken Dreams by James Lee III, which marks the 60^th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

The BBC Philharmonic’s autumn season will close on 2 December with a programme led by Sir Andrew Davis combining Tippett’s The Rose Lake with a selection of works from Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel selection and culminating in Beethoven’s Symphony No.8 in F major.