London Philharmonic Orchestra with Anne-Sophie Mutter

Berlioz Le Carnaval Romain (9′) | Penderecki Violin Concerto No.2 (38′) | Prokofiev Symphony No.5 (46′)

Anne-Sophie Mutter needs no introduction to LPO audiences; the orchestra has enjoyed a long musical partnership with this incomparable artist. The prospect of hearing her luminous tone and effortless command in Penderecki’s impassioned Second Violin Concerto, which was written especially for her, is genuinely exciting, as is the opportunity to hear it conducted by Lukasz Borowicz, who has worked closely with the composer.

Bookending the programme are works of celebration and of war. Berlioz’s overture Le Carnaval Romain, based on his opera ‘Benvenuto Cellini’, expertly conjures the atmosphere of Rome, bustling with excitement during Carnival. Writing in the late months of the Second World War, Prokofiev channelled his sense of hope and ‘the greatness of the human spirit’ into his Fifth Symphony, which premiered in Moscow in 1945 to the sound of gunfire.