From January 2025, the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) will launch The Chamber Sessions, a
series of intimate hour-long 6.30pm concerts at St John’s Church Waterloo. Following the success of
our 2024 chamber concert series, we are delighted to continue this partnership with St John’s as the
church celebrates its 200th year, bringing audiences closer to the music and showcasing members of
the LPO in a more intimate setting.
The first concert, on 23 January 2025, opens with a quintet that Mozart called ‘the best work I have
ever written’ in a letter to his father. While the Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Winds, K452 is,
indeed, a work of considerable merit, Mozart’s satisfaction with it may have resulted as much from
his skill in solving the technical problems of combining the piano with an unusual collection of wind
instruments. When the piece was written in 1784, no one had previously written music for the
combination of piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon – why it attracted Mozart at this point
remains an unsolved riddle. The concert continues with an adventurous quintet romp: Hindemith’s
Kleine Kammermusik for winds, and Grammy-nominated American composer Valerie Coleman’s
Tzigane, inspired by Middle Eastern scales and gestures that buzz with a wild, free spirit.
On 22 February 2025, an LPO string trio will bring to life a vivid collection of sonic portraits, featuring
the captivating music of Andrew Norman. His Companion Guide to Rome draws inspiration from the
grand proportions of the city’s churches, the intricate patterns of their floors, the textures of their
surfaces, and the lives and legends of the saints they honour. Continuing this sacred theme, the New
London Chamber Choir will join the Orchestra for Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel – a meditative
soundscape for chamber choir, solo viola, celeste and percussion, written in tribute to the visionary
artist Mark Rothko and the Texas chapel displaying his intriguing black-hued paintings.
7 March 2025 sees The Chamber Sessions foreground works by composers of colour, opening with
LPO Composer-in-Residence Tania León’s String Quartet No. 2. This free-form quartet is marked by
interactive solos with a ghostly sense of tonality and impressions of gestured improvisations. Jessie
Montgomery’s Break Away was born out of a series of improvisations riffing on several different
styles of music from hip-hop to electronica. The score calls on the quartet to both play with and
‘break away’ from the score at various points, attempting a seamless dialogue between the written
notes and the whims of the players. With an eclectic musical palate and crafty compositional
technique to match, Brian Raphael Nabors’s Jump draws from combinations of jazz funk, R&B and
gospel, with the modern flair of contemporary classical music. Former LPO Young Composer Daniel
Kidane’s Foreign Tongues sees the cello pitted against the other string players, aiming to explore the
idea of different languages communicating and interacting with each other. Vera, Hannah Kendall’s
brilliant early work, rounds off this concert.
London Philharmonic Orchestra Artistic Director, Elena Dubinets, says: ‘We’re delighted to be back
at St John’s Waterloo for its 200th anniversary. This very special space creates an atmosphere where
smaller chamber works can have the greatest of effects, with audience and orchestra sharing the
musical experience more closely than in a traditional concert hall. It’s exciting to be foregrounding
the works of composers of colour as part of the series, as well as presenting varied pieces inspired by
the hall’s setting and community’
Euchar Gravina, Artistic Director at St John’s Waterloo says: ‘We are very pleased to welcome back
the London Philharmonic Orchestra to our historic Grade II* listed venue for a concert series that
brings diverse and imaginative programming to our audiences, with a special focus on contemporary
classical music. Now in its 200th year, St John’s Waterloo treasures collaborations like these, which
enrich our year-round cultural programme and strengthen our role as a bridge between the local
community and the cultural institutions in our area.’
The partnership between LPO and St John’s also includes joint Education and Community projects,
including accessible participatory musical experiences with the local communities we both serve.
Tickets start from £12. To book, please visit the LPO website
Listings
Thursday 23 January 2025, 6:30pm
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Winds, K 452
Paul Hindemith Kleine Kammermusik for Wind Quintet
Valerie Coleman Tzigane Wind Quintet
Members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Saturday 22 February 2025, 6:30pm
Andrew Norman The Companion Guide to Rome for string trio
Morton Feldman Rothko Chapel
Members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Friday 7 March 2025, 6:30pm
Tania Leon String Quartet No. 2
Jessie Montgomery Break Away for string quartet
Brian Raphael Nabors Jump for Oboe, Clarinet & String Quartet
Daniel Kidane Foreign Tongues for string quartet
Hannah Kendall Vera
Members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra