BBC Philharmonic 2017/18 Concert Season

BBC Philharmonic: Mahler – Symphony No. 3 at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 24 September 2017, from £12.00 - Book now

Juanjo Mena will be joined by a vast ensemble of musicians and singers for Mahler’s Symphony No.3, as he begins his final season as the BBC Philharmonic’s Chief Conductor.

BBC Philharmonic: Messiaen | Shostakovich at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 6 October 2017, from £12.00 - Book now

Written at the Nazis’ Stalag VIII-A prison camp, and first performed there by the composer and three fellow prisoners of war, Quartet for the End of Time is among the most stark, vulnerable and yet ultimately inspirational works of the last century.

BBC Philharmonic: Stravinsky | Sibelius | Beethoven at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 21 October 2017, from £12.00 - Book now

The first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth herald the start of one of the greatest symphonies ever written…..Conductor Nicholas Collon and Violinist James Ehnes join the orchestra for an evening not to be missed.

BBC Philharmonic: Brett Dean | Beethoven | Sally Beamish | Elgar at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 4 November 2017, from £12.00 - Book now

Completed at the end of 2016 and premiered by tonight’s soloist, Jonathan Biss, in the US in January, Sally Beamish’s potent and political new piece was written in response to Beethoven’s immaculate First Piano Concerto.

BBC Philharmonic: Arlene Sierra | Bartók | Dvořák at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 25 November 2017 - Book now

Arlene Sierra’s Nature Symphony, a BBC Philharmonic commission, receives its world premiere and two longtime favourites from France cross the Channel to join the orchestra: conductor Ludovic Morlot and piano dynamo Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

Rodion Shchedrin | Shostakovich at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 9 December 2017, from £12.00 - Book now

Outstanding French soloist Renaud Capuçon performs Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1, a piece that the composer hid from dictator Stalin until after his death.

BBC Philharmonic: Smetana | Saint-Saëns | Berlioz | Janáček at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 12 January 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

Leading British conductor Edward Gardner is your guide for a joyous European tour to lift the January gloom featuring Smetana’s effervescent overture The Bartered Bride and Janácek’s heart-on-sleeve love letter to his hometown of Brno.

BBC Philharmonic Elgar | Rachmaninov | Sibelius at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 27 January 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

Pianist Kathryn Stott – a resident of Manchester and a longstanding friend of the BBC Philharmonic – performs Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis.

BBC Philharmonic: Schuller | Ives | Gershwin | George Walker | Antheil at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 10 February 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

In 1996 George Walker became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music – and tonight Joshua Ellicott joins the orchestra for the long-overdue UK premiere of the work that won the award: Lilacs.

BBC Philharmonic: Simon Holt | Mahler at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 17 February 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

Inspired by his Bolton childhood but evoking other worlds entirely, Simon Holt’s kinetic percussion concerto positively fizzes with energy. Colin Currie joins the orchestra to perform this exciting work with chief guest conductor, John Storgårds.

BBC Philharmonic: Anna Clyne | Mozart | Mahler at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 3 March 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

Ben Gernon’s first Bridgewater Hall concert as the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor is marked by a pair of firsts – the UK premiere of Anna Clyne’s intensely atmospheric nocturnal miniature, and Mahler’s debut symphony.

BBC Philharmonic: Copland | Korngold | Vaughan Williams at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 24 March 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

John Wilson is our translator for two journeys into the great wide open: Copland’s Appalachian Spring paints a vivid portrait of rural Pennsylvania, while Vaughan Williams’s wartime Fifth Symphony sings of a troubled England

BBC Philharmonic: Tchaikovsky | Shostakovich | Ginastera at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 19 May 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

Tasmin Little performs Karol Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto. Piercing, passionate, fiery and free, it’s arguably the first modern violin concerto, and makes tremendous demands on any soloist who chooses to take it on.

BBC Philharmonic: Strauss | Mark Simpson | Shostakovich at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 21 April 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

Three years after the BBC Philharmonic’s world premiere of The Immortal drew rapturous acclaim from critics and audiences, Mark Simpson, the orchestra’s Composer in Association, presents his Cello Concerto performed by Leonard Elschenbroich.

BBC Philharmonic: Wagner | Wolfgang Rihm | Weber | Beethoven at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 12 May 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

Famed for working double duty as an acclaimed soloist and principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, the peerless Stefan Dohr performs the UK premiere of a work written especially for him: Wolfgang Rihm’s Horn Concerto.

BBC Philharmonic: Szymanowski | Tchaikovsky at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 14 April 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

The poignant but little-heard symphonic ballad The Voyevoda from the pen of Tchaikovsky opens the programme and guest Alban Gerhardt performs Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto.

BBC Philharmonic: Albéniz | Falla at The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre, 9 June 2018, from £12.00 - Book now

For his final Bridgewater Hall concert as the BBC Philharmonic’s Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena spirits us away to his Spanish homeland with a programme that includes a concert performance of Manuel de Falla’s vibrant,one-hour opera, La vida breve.