Vasily Petrenko conducts Elgar’s Violin Concerto

As part of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th Anniversary London Season, we are thrilled to welcome new Music Director, Vasily Petrenko, back to London’s Royal Festival Hall to conduct a series of British masterworks. Join the journey as we celebrate the themes of freedom, hope and adventure – illustriously explored within the music of some of the nation’s greatest composers.

The RPO warmly welcomes one of the most in-demand violinists of our times, Ning Feng, to perform Elgar’s Violin Concerto – one of the composer’s most ambitious orchestral compositions. Recognised as being one or the most technically demanding concertos in the violin repertoire, it was clearly a particularly personal work for Elgar, full of sensitivity, passion and emotion.

William Walton’s Johannesburg Festival Overture whets our musical appetites before we hear Stravinsky’s extravagant Petrushka. Writing for the Ballets Russes, Stravinsky was composing the music for this story of a hapless puppet’s unrequited love in Switzerland at the same time that Elgar was penning his Violin Concerto in London.