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Journeys of Discovery: Destiny

Sunday 23 April 2023, 7.30pm
Royal Festival Hall

Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Elgar Cello Concerto
Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony

Vasily Petrenko Conductor
Daniel Müller-Schott Cello

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Dukas and Tchaikovsky spirit us away into worlds of sorcerers and ghosts, while Elgar’s bittersweet concerto grounds us in the fragility of life.

Right from jaunty trio of bassoons that dance the first theme of Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Dukas offers us a masterclass in orchestral colour. Each episode of Goethe’s ballad is imagined in playful detail, from the march of the brooms to the raucous mayhem that ensues.

Elgar’s concerto brings us back to the somber realities of life. Part lament for the First World War, and written in the autumn of his life, it yearns for a simpler, untainted past. It is a moment of contemplation in an otherwise energetic programme.

The writer Harold Schonberg once described Tchaikovsky’s music being ‘as emotional as a scream from a window on a dark night.’ His Manfred Symphony is a perfect example. In Byron’s dramatic poem and ghost story, Manfred is a man tormented by guilt and remorse who uses the dark arts to summon spirits to help him forget his past and escape his fate.

Tchaikovsky’s fateful music makes the perfect partner for Manfred’s travails while also delighting in his escapes into fantasy. The work contains both the lightest, most impressionistic moments and the loudest climax he ever wrote.

‘To experience Daniel Müller-Schott’s intimate and instinctive understanding of the cello’s sound world throughout this wide variety of unaccompanied works is a completely compelling musical journey.’
Gramophone on Daniel Müller-Schott


 Unfortunately Truls Mørk is no longer able to perform due to illness. We are grateful to Daniel Müller-Schott for stepping in. The programme remains unchanged. 


Eye icon website large print programmes

Large print versions of the programme for this concert are available on request. Please email your request to Doran Crowhurst crowhurstd@rpo.co.uk at least one full week before the performance.


Ticket information

Tickets from £10.

Groups of just 6+ save up to 35% 

RPO Club members save 50% on up to two tickets per London season and receive a host of other benefits. For more information please contact Jo Thomson (Friends' & Groups' Manager) on 020 7608 8840

Student tickets £8, book via Student Pulse.


Tickets for RPO Brent Members

A limited number of tickets are available for this performance at a special price for RPO Brent Members for price bands B - E.
Members should click on the link above to be transferred to the Southbank Centre’s website. Click buy tickets and then in the top right hand corner click on the link which says ‘Have a promo code?’. Insert your promo code which was emailed to you and then select one of the yellow seats.

Tickets are limited so if the offer is not applied that may be because there are no longer any tickets available for this offer.

Find out more about the RPO Brent Membership and sign up here.