Bruce Liu Plays Ravel
The Philharmonia Orchestra welcomes outstanding pianist Bruce Liu back for Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, inspired by the jazz he heard on a tour of the US.
Ravel frames a serenely beautiful Adagio with outer movements of carefree, effervescent energy.
It’s the perfect showcase for the ‘magician’s fingers’ (Le Monde) of Bruce Liu, winner of the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition.
Tchaikovsky himself said that his Fifth Symphony represented ‘a complete resignation before Fate’, but that hasn’t stopped it becoming a firm audience favourite.
It opens with the sound of funereal footsteps on the clarinet. A singing horn melody gives the second movement a more hopeful mood, but the fateful ‘footsteps’ theme returns in the third movement waltz, and triumphs in the stormy finale.
To open, Ryan Bancroft has chosen Britten’s Four Sea Interludes. They’re taken from his opera Peter Grimes, a compelling portrait of a fishing community whose lives are intertwined with the sea and the weather. The orchestra vividly depicts the different faces of the sea, from dawn tranquility to a fearsome storm.
Performers
Philharmonia Orchestra
Ryan Bancroft conductor
Bruce Liu piano
Repertoire
Britten: 4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Interval
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5
Need to know
Box package
You can buy an exclusive box package for this event. More details of our Royal Festival Hall exclusive box package.
For your visit
This event is held at the Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre
The Royal Festival Hall is open six days a week.
Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 11pm
Monday, closed.
Plan your visit
The Royal Festival Hall is home to our largest auditorium as well as The Clore Ballroom, National Poetry Library, Members’ Lounge, Festival Bar & Kitchen, Ballroom Cafe and Skylon restaurant.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
On Level 2 of our Royal Festival Hall you can grab a slice of life by the Thames with drinks and freshly made pizza at our Festival Bar & Kitchen which opens out onto our Riverside Terrace. You can grab a coffee and a slice of freshly made cake from our Ballroom Cafe. Or alternatively enjoy destination dining in the restaurant at Skylon.
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.