Romeo and Juliet Forever: Pekka Kuusisto conducts Philharmonia Orchestra

As long as teenagers fall in love, the story of Romeo and Juliet will never go out of fashion.

Pekka Kuusisto brings together three composers’ takes on Shakespeare’s story, from the ‘Sinfonia’ that opens Bellini’s 1830 opera The Capulets and the Montagues, to Bernstein’s 1957 Broadway triumph West Side Story. Bellini’s trumpets and drums foretell a fatal battle, Tchaikovsky frames his yearning love theme with music full of anxiety and violence. And Bernstein captures the febrile energy and passion of adolescence in memorable numbers including ‘Somewhere’ and ‘Mambo’.

“Until you’ve heard Martin Fröst, you really haven’t heard the clarinet”, according to The Times. Well now’s your chance – the extraordinarily talented Fröst is the soloist in a new concerto, Weathered, by our Featured Composer Anna Clyne. The concerto is in five short movements, each describing a different material being weathered – worn down, re-shaped, damaged, but perhaps also rendered more beautiful and more precious.