María Dueñas Plays Sibelius

María Dueñas won the Menuhin Violin Competition in 2021, aged just 18. Since then she has gathered rave reviews and a devoted global fanbase, and she ‘held the audience in the palm of her hand’ (The Guardian) in her BBC Proms debut in 2023.

Hear her in Sibelius’ expressive and deeply personal Violin Concerto, one of the undisputed pinnacles of the violin repertoire.

Submarea, by Swedish composer Mats Larsson Gothe, was commissioned as a score for Joakim Odelberg’s awe-inspiring underwater film of the wild Nordic coast, shown on the Royal Festival Hall’s huge screen.

Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony is a striking example of his inventive – some would say irreverent – attitude to traditional musical forms.

It has just two movements, and at its heart is a passage in which the snare drum player is instructed to improvise ‘as though determined at all costs to stop the progress of the orchestra’.

Though he never claimed this was music ‘about’ the First World War, Nielsen spoke of a battle between the forces of evil and the forces of nature, ‘peaceful and unaffected’, in this dramatic symphony.

Performers

Philharmonia Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conductor

María Dueñas violin

Repertoire

Mats Larsson Gothe: Submarea (with film) (UK premiere)
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Interval
Nielsen: Symphony No.5

Need to know

Age guidance

For ages 7+

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.

A concrete building with flags on the roof, with the London Eye and Big Ben in the background

A lively crowd cheers with raised hands, while a performer in a white hat and suit plays guitar, against red lighting.

A guitarist performing on a dark stage at the Royal Festival Hall, lit up by multiple spotlights.

Pianis Víkingur Ólafsson is seated at a grand piano while playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the stage of Royal Festival Hall

Organist Carol Williams plays the Royal Festival Hall organ whiich is illumiated with bold colours

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.

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Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.

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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.

Other places to eat and drink whilst you’re here