The Philharmonia Orchestra's London season closes at the end of June with Lorin Maazel's keenly anticipated Brahms Cycle, bringing this much-lauded project to London for the first time since its huge success in New York in 2007.

“Saving the best for last, Maestro led a fabulous reading of the D Major Symphony. This is the orchestral essay, above all others, that achieves pure joy."
New York Philharmonic performing Brahms’ Second Symphony under Lorin Maazel, The New York Sun, April 2007

“Maazel's Brahms was no less distinctive than Harnoncourt's Beethoven or Gergiev's Mahler: old music refashioned by a personal and uncompromising vision.”
Washington Post on Maazel’s earlier Brahms: The Romantic series with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, May 2003

Lorin Maazel will conduct all four symphonies and A German Requiem over three performances at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, the final two in a single day, 28 June. With the 50th Anniversary of Maazel's first performances with the Philharmonia due to be a highlight of the Orchestra's Spring 2009 season, and a major European tour planned in Autumn 2009, the Orchestra is delighted to be developing even closer links with one of the world's most sought-after conductors; Maazel was Associate Principal Conductor and then Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra between 1970 and 1980, and has returned regularly for guest performances ever since.

Lorin Maazel, on working with the Orchestra, commented:
“I look forward to making music again with the musicians of the Philharmonia Orchestra, with whom I have been working for almost 50 years. They all bring a commitment to music-making that bodes well for our fans and for Brahms’ fans in London next month.”

Read Lorin Maazel's biography.