21st-century music is focus of London Southbank Centre season

[January 24, 2014]   LONDON (Reuters) — London's Southbank Centre and its four resident orchestras will present a 2014/2015 season with an emphasis on contemporary music as well opening up the center's concert venues to top-rank visiting orchestras, the center announced on Thursday.

Among the new music on offer are works commissioned by Southbank Centre from Steve Reich, Anna Clyne, Terry Riley, Unsuk Chin, Kaija Saariaho, Simon Holt, and with the Philharmonia Orchestra, James MacMillan.

The focus on 21st-century music comes after what the center says was the success of its "The Rest Is Noise" festival that focused on music of the 20th century.

"Building on the huge success of 'The Rest Is Noise' festival, when we saw more than 120,000 people engage with 20th-century music in a new and intensive way, this year we present a season marked by its focus on 21st-century music," Jude Kelly, the center's artistic director, said in a press release.

The new works and more conventional repertoire will be heard on the programs of the four resident ensembles, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and other artists.

Among visiting ensembles, Daniel Barenboim will conduct two concerts with the Staatskapelle Berlin in performances of Beethoven, Strauss, Elgar and Tchaikovsky, together with Barenboim's solo performance in a cycle of Schubert's Piano Sonatas over four concerts as part of The Barenboim Project.

Also appearing will be Gustavo Dudamel with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker returning to Southbank Centre for The London Residency 2015 in partnership with the Barbican Centre, performing Mahler's Symphony No. 2 alongside German avant garde composer Helmut Lachenmann's Tableau.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra will present works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Nico Muhly. Richard Tognetti with the Australian Chamber Orchestra will perform works by Haydn, Mozart and Jonny Greenwood.

(Writing by Michael Roddy; editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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