2023 saw the Orchestra perform in breathtaking concert halls around both the UK and the rest of the world, as well as in schools, cathedrals, car parks and shopping centres, bringing the thrill of orchestral music to audiences old and new. 

Some of our players had the privilege of performing for the King's Coronation in May to a domestic audience of 18.8 million viewers, and we also returned to Japan for the first time in a decade. Our flagship London season of concerts in the Royal Albert Hall and Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, Journeys of Discovery with our Music Director Vasily Petrenko, saw epic stagings of Mahler's Second and Third Symphonies, as well as Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Mahler's arrangement of Beethoven's Choral Symphony. Our Icons Rediscovered series began in October with a triumphant performance of Elgar's Symphony No.1, and November saw a special semi-staging of Tchaikovsky's final and rarely-performed opera, Iolanta, in the Royal Albert Hall.

RPO Resound, our community and education programme, celebrated its 30th anniversary and continued its mission to enrich the lives of local communities with music-making, bringing mental health workshops to Brent, continuing its relationship with stroke patients in Hull with STROKESTRA®, and establishing a new partnership with the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra to enable professional training and performance opportunities for young musicians.

Read on to see our highlights from 2023.

January

In January 2023 the Orchestra toured Germany and Belgium with our Music Director Vasily Petrenko, performing in Erlangen, Munich, Friedrichshafen, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Cologne and Antwerp with artists Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Jan Lisiecki, and Daniel Müller-Schott.

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^{© Richard Ion}

^{© Richard Ion}

"Petrenko repeatedly gave his Orchestra the opportunity to show off uninhibitedly and freely, which enhanced Grieg's Concerto to the maximum." Online Merker

^{© Richard Ion}

February

On Wednesday 8 February the Orchestra played its first concert back from across the channel in Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, featuring Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with soloist Javier Perianes, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, and Scriabin's fiery Poem of Ecstasy. 

^{© Andy Paradise}

"The orchestral playing was quite simply magnificent – the cumulative effect shattering." Seen and Heard International

^{© Andy Paradise}

On 14 February, in addition to our Orchestral Valentine's concert at Cadogan Hall, some RPO musicians played with young people from Brent Music Academy with original music in the recent Sound Shell installation in Wembley Park!

We also welcomed our Artist-in-Residence for 2022-23, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason.

March

On Thursday 2 March, Isata played her first concert of the year with us in Cadogan Hall, performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.3 with conductor Roderick Cox.

^{© Tim Lutton/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra}

On the Wednesday afterwards we sang and danced the night away yesterday at the Royal Albert Hall for Let's Face the Music, a showcase of the golden age of Hollywood musicals, with soloists Louise Dearman, Anna-Jane Casey, Julian Ovenden and Ricardo Afonso, presented by Bonnie Langford.

^{© Danny Kaan}

RPO Resound visited Rich Mix in London to give a key-note performance at a National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance event, where RPO musicians and participants in the Lullaby Project performed four lullabies that had been created by prison inmates as a way to connect with their children. 

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^{© Louise Mackey}

On Wednesday, 22 March, in the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, we performed Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with contralto Claudia Huckle before Mahler's momentous re-orchestration of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with The Bach Choir, Claudia, soprano Elizabeth Watts, tenor Nicky Spence and bass-baritone Matthew Brook.

Capping off a busy month was the second in our trio of Mahler's choral symphonies with his Symphony No.2 in the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 30 March, conducted by Vasily Petrenko and featuring the Philharmonia Chorus, soprano Elizabeth Watts and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston.

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"A finely crafted and spiritually uplifting performance." Bachtrack

^{© Andy Paradise}

April

We had the license to thrill as we performed The Music of Bond to a sold-out Royal Albert Hall with singers Alison Jiear and Lance Ellington and special guest presenter Anthony Horowitz.

^{© Danny Kaan}

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The finale of our series of Mahler symphonies came with the Third on Thursday 27 April, in the Royal Albert Hall, with mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp, the Philharmonia Chorus and the Tiffin Boys’ Choir. This was the first performance of Mahler's Third in the Royal Albert Hall to feature real church bells, which were on stage courtesy of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

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^{© Andy Paradise}

^{© Andy Paradise}

May

On Wednesday 3 May, we were pleased to welcome young musicians from St Gregory's Catholic Science College to the stage of Cadogan Hall, the culmination of RPO Resound's work with Isata Kanneh-Mason in schools around Brent.

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We were honoured to play a key role in the spectacular Coronation Service of Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May. A hugely memorable day for the nation and for us here at the RPO.

^{© Andrew Matthews}

Between 20 and 28 May we toured Japan with pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, playing in Fukuoka, Osaka, Tokyo, Takasaki, Nagoya and Tokorozawa.

^{© Josh Cirtina}

Some members of the Orchestra took on members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in a game of football!

June

The finale of Journeys of Discovery on Wednesday 7 June, came with spectacular fireworks and explorations into the depth of darkness in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto with Japanese soloist Nobuyuki Tsujii, followed in the second half with Shostakovich's wartime Symphony No.8.

"Petrenko didn’t hold back in his interpretation. The central climax of the first movement is one of the composer's most visceral moments and here, in the confines of the Royal Festival Hall acoustics, it was an overwhelming experience." Bachtrack

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^{© Andy Paradise}

^{© Andy Paradise} 

On Tuesday 6 June, the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra performed Video Games in Concert in the Royal Albert Hall. With music from World of Warcraft, The Witcher III, Hades, League of Legends and much more, the RPCO were joined by conductor Eimear Noone, singers Aisling and Lauren McGlynn and the Cantus Ensemble.

^{© Andy Paradise}

On Saturday 17 June, RPO Resound invited young people and families to make noise with instruments created from junk and recycled materials in Reading, and held a samba performance by Luke Jerram's Gaia installation in Reading Town Hall!

July

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had the privilege of performing for the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester between 24-25 June, first performing Vaughan Williams' rarely-heard opera The Pilgrim's Progress with British Youth Opera and conductor Charlotte Corderoy, followed by Francis Pott's A Song on the End of the World with conductor Adrian Partington and the Three Choirs Festival Chorus the day after.

"...the young and strikingly impressive Charlotte Corderoy was in command of her material, holding the pace and keeping everything together. The RPO produced appropriately ethereal sounds." Gramophone

"...the emotional surge and swell of Arnold Bax’s Tintagel [was] wonderfully conveyed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" The Guardian

^{© James O'Driscoll}

On Friday 28 July, RPO Resound's flagship project in Hull, STROKESTRA®, presented a free public performance in North Point Shopping Centre, Bransholme, with the STROKESTRA® Orchestra, featuring music written and performed by stroke survivors, their carers, health professionals and RPO musicians.

^{© Duncan Wood}

^{© Duncan Wood}

August

On Tuesday 15 August, we returned to the BBC Proms for a sell-out performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No.1 at the Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by Ligeti's Lontano, acknowledging the Austro-Hungarian composer's 100th anniversary and Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with soloist Alexandre Kantorow.

^{© Andy Paradise}

"Petrenko was a majestic presence, his gestures expansive and coaxing in the broad paragraphs and in his wise counsel to the orchestra in steering clear of bombast and empty rhetoric." Bachtrack

^{© Andy Paradise}

September

Early September saw the return of Wemba's Dream after its first performance in 2021. The festival celebration of the creative communities of Brent in Wembley Park saw music, dance, poetry and carnival arts from local groups performing alongside the Orchestra as Wemba's Dream: Join the Journey began with a carnival procession from the Olympic steps to Green Parking space, lead by Mahogany Carnival Arts. This was followed by poetry from spoken word group Word Up, Indian traditional dance by the Sujata Banerjee Dance Company, an original song by Reggae artist Trevor Brown, and a magnificent finale with the St Michael and All Angels Steel Orchestra. Music composed, arranged and orchestrated by Dani Howard formed the backbone of the event weaving in music by Lord Kitchener, Richard Rodney Bennett and Miley Cyrus.

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^{© Chris Winter}

On Wednesday 20 September, our hit show The Best of Broadway raised the roof in the Royal Albert Hall with an evening of show-stoppers from the musicals, featuring West End stars Kerry Ellis, Rachel John, Ben Forster and Michael D. Xavier, with conductor David Firman, presenter Clive Rowe, and BSL performers Paul Whittaker OBE and Stephen Heselton.

^{© Danny Kaan}

^{© Danny Kaan}

We also welcomed our Artist-in-Residence for 2023-24, Zlatomir Fung, who made his debut with us in Cadogan Hall on Wednesday 27 September, playing Elgar's Cello Concerto with conductor Elena Schwarz.

^{© Tim Lutton/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra}

October

The Orchestra took up its annual residency in Orlando's Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts for a week of spectacular concerts with the likes of Diana Ross, the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Harry Connick Jr., while our RPO Resound team held sessions and workshops with local schools and the Florida Youth Symphony Orchestra.

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^{© Preston Mack}

^{© Preston Mack}

The week after we were honoured to welcome the Antigua & Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra (ABYSO) to London. Over five days, we held a series of coaching sessions, open rehearsals and public performances with the ABYSO musicians, culminating in a joint concert at the Royal Academy of Music on Sunday 15 October, with RPO musicians, Brent Youth Concert Pops Orchestra, Jess Gillam, Khan Cordice and members of the Kanneh-Mason family. After attending an RPO rehearsal in Henry Wood Hall for Mozart's Horn Concerto No.4 with Felix Klieser, ABYSO musicians played in the foyer of Cadogan Hall before the concert on Thursday 12 October.

On Saturday 14 October, we gave our first Relaxed Performance of the 2023-24 season in Brent Civic Centre. These are concerts that are designed for those who find the traditional concert experience more challenging to attend, and audience members were encouraged to sing, dance, move about the space or just listen as they preferred, BSL interpretation, captioning, Makaton singalongs, and both interactive and sensory elements into the event.

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^{© Amanda Rose}

^{© Amanda Rose}

On Sunday 29 October, our Icons Rediscovered series with Vasily Petrenko opened to a busy Royal Festival Hall, beginning our exploration of the music of Elgar and Rachmaninov with Elgar's Symphony No.1 and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2, with pianist Nikolai Lugansky. The evening began with Lera Auerbach's orchestral tone poem Icarus, setting the scene with a soaring and fiery telling of the mythological flight and downfall.

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"[Elgar's Symphony No.1] showcased the orchestra’s current form, the strings rich and velvety, the wind and brass soloists dovetailing skilfully in Elgar’s endlessly shifting combinations of tone colour." The Guardian

^{© Andy Paradise}

November

On Wednesday 8 November, our Icons Rediscovered series continued in the Royal Albert Hall with a double bill of Tchaikovsky: Act II of The Nutcracker and the opera Iolanta, just how Iolanta was first premiered in 1892. The Philharmonia Chorus and a cast of international singers joined us for a heart-rending performance of the composer's final opera, making for a unique and memorable performance.

^{© Andy Paradise}

"Petrenko admirably captured its melancholy ambiguities as the woodwind darkness of the prelude – acrid oboes and bassoons, murky clarinet phrases – gradually gave way to brightness of texture and clarity of sound." The Guardian

^{© Andy Paradise}

On Wednesday 15 November, we returned to St Paul's Cathedral with John Rutter, who conducted his own Requiem with the Orchestra, The Bach Choir and soprano Lucinda Cox. The concert also featured the UK premiere of Rutter's St Cataldo, an orchestral telling of the story of the Irish saint, and the Ukrainian Prayer.

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^{© Tim Lutton/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra}

^{© Tim Lutton/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra}

December

Our second John Rutter performance of the season was his Christmas Celebration in the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 6 December, which featured baritone Roderick Williams, The Bach Choir, choristers from St Albans Cathedral and BSL artists Paul Whittaker OBE and Stephen Heselton, complete with John's annual quiz and superquiz!

^{© Duncan Wood}

^{© Duncan Wood}