October is Classic FM’s Live Music Month with Viking

28 October 2020, 13:57

Promoted by Viking

As many concert halls remain closed, we’re bringing the power, excitement and intimacy of live performance to you on Classic FM – thanks to Viking – this October. Here are the highlights...

October is Classic FM’s Live Music Month with Viking.

Throughout October, our programmes will be packed with special live recordings from our Partner Orchestras and other world-leading musicians, and each night The Classic FM Concert will be showcasing a fantastic selection of live music.

With exclusive ‘Classic FM Sessions’, special all-live Classic FM Concert programmes, and famous live recordings chosen by your favourite presenters, we’re aiming to bring the power, excitement and intimacy of live performance directly to you – at a time when many of us still can’t make it to concerts, and many concert halls sadly remain closed.

Read more: Find out more about Classic FM’s partners’ live music events >

John Williams conducts an extract from ‘Flight to Neverland’ from Hook

John Suchet will be bringing the concert hall to your home every weeknight from 8pm, in The Classic FM Concert. You can find the full schedule of concerts here, but these are some of the highlights throughout October...

1 October: Philharmonia Orchestra

Live Music Month with Viking begins with an evening of music from the Philharmonia Orchestra, with an exciting new performance of music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake – recorded with the orchestra’s principal conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali at London’s Royal Festival Hall in November 2019.

5-7 October: Live in LA

The second week of Live Music Month begins with three nights ‘stateside’, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (Classic FM’s Orchestra in America).The electrifying recordings, captured live in concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, feature an all-Beethoven evening conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann; a performance from young star pianist Daniil Trifoniv; and music by the man called “the Dean of American Composers” by his contemporaries: Aaron Copland.

9 October: John Williams in Vienna

The famous film director Steven Spielberg once said: “Without John Williams, bikes don't really fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches, nor do men in red capes. There is no Force, dinosaurs do not walk the Earth, we do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe.”John Suchet dedicates an evening to a full live concert, with the man himself conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Vienna Musikverein in January 2020, featuring some of his most famous film scores.

Catch up on Global Player, the official Classic FM app >

12 October: Live in New York

John starts the week by taking listeners to New York for an evening of only the best performances, captured live in concert.

On the evening of what would have been Luciano Pavarotti’s 85th birthday, John celebrates the inimitable tenor with highlights from one of his famous outdoor concerts in Central Park in June 1993, where Pavarotti performed for half a million fans for free.

13 October: London Symphony Orchestra Live

On 13 October, John shines the spotlight on the London Symphony Orchestra, Classic FM’s Orchestra in the City of London, with a programme full of live recordings from the Barbican Hall.

There’ll be performances of Debussy and Mozart, but the centrepiece of the evening is the orchestra’s first ever recording on their own record label, LSO Live: Dvořák’s Symphony No.9 (‘From the New World’), performed in September 1999 under Colin Davis.

Simon Rattle conducts the LSO in London's Trafalgar Square

15 October: Live in Berlin

John whisks listeners away to great musical destination for an evening of live performances on 15 October, given indoors and out, in the German capital city of Berlin.

The programme opens with a recording from March 1989 by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No.3.

After, there’s performances from Martha Argerich, Mark Markham and Jonas Kaufmann.

Read more: The best classical music and opera online streams available >

19-20 October: Live at Carnegie Hall

John invites you to join him in the best seats of the house at the iconic Carnegie Hall in New York City, for live performances from some of the world’s finest musicians across the next two evenings.

There’s performances from the world-class Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, talented siblings Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the Cleveland Orchestra and more.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays 1783 Guadagnini cello owned by Rostropovich

21 October: Legends Live

John dedicates an evening to celebrating great musical legends: those musicians no longer on the stage, whose performances will stand the test of time.

The two-hour concert features recordings from the formidable Claudio Abbado and pianist Alfred Brendel.

But the centrepiece of the evening is a full performance of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ symphony, live from Barbican Hall in April 2006, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.

22 October: The Academy of Ancient Music Live

One of Britain’s finest period-instrument ensembles, the Academy of Ancient Music, is celebrated with a live concert recording from Milton Hall in November 2019.

The programme sets the light-hearted joyful music of Haydn and his contemporaries against the sublime and other-worldly beauty of Johann Sebastian Bach’s choral and vocal music.

Live Music Month: Czech Philharmonic Piano Trio performs Suk’s ‘Elegy’

28 October: Live in Pittsburgh

John turns his attention to one of America’s greatest ensembles: the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

He takes listeners back to the opening night of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s 2019/20 season, live from Heinz Hall in Pennsylvania in September 2019, under their current music director: Manfred Honeck.

30 October: Live with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – A Birthday Celebration

For the penultimate day of Classic FM’s Live Music Month, John presents a very special exclusive concert: an evening with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

On 5th September 2020 the orchestra celebrated 100 years to the day of their first ever concert, coinciding with their first full concert since the COVID-19 crisis, in an event conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and live streamed on Classic FM’s Facebook page. This programme gives listeners a chance to hear that concert in full.

Listen to Classic FM’s Live Music Month with Viking throughout October. The Classic FM Concert will feature all-live programmes every night from 8pm to 10pm.

For more information on how you can explore the world in comfort from your home, visit Viking.tv.