Southbank 2014-15 classical season announced. Sort of.

The Southbank Centre have slipped out via Twitter what I hesitate to describe as an online 'list' of 2014-15 classical music dates.

What they have in fact provided is few skimpy puff paragraphs with multi-level links to some of the concerts mentioned. It will take you at least three clicks to find particulars of any specific event, more if you accidentally venture on to the wrong sub menu. Several of the events mentioned don't seem to have a date set yet; some have a date but no repertoire. Chaos. As exasperated buyer Faye commented on Twitter, "I just want a simple clear list of dates, concert details & artists. Is that too much to ask?"

As a result I can't suggest a definitive list of highlights. But a likely favourite for many will be an extended visit from Daniel Barenboim in April-June 2015. A cycle of Schubert Piano Sonatas is preceded by two concerts with the Staatskapelle Berlin, featuring soloists Lisa Batiashvili and the elusive Martha Argerich.

I am puzzled that there seem to be no opera or song recital dates, but if anyone has the patience to dig through the website and uncover any, do please share.

By the way, despite forking out a small fortune for membership, I have yet to receive an email to let me know what's on, or that booking starts on 27 January.

If the Southbank Centre want to know why advance bookings are down, they might think for a moment about how hard they make it to buy tickets.

Comments

[Krasarepo]

If you search on the webiste using opera you will find Pelleas and the Miserly Knight. There may be more but don't have time to look

[JohnVecchio]

Donizetti Les Martyrs at QEH on 4/11.
Rachmaninov's Miserly Knight on 21/1/15 with wagner bits, and Verdi Rquiem with Easr European cast on 25/1 both under Jurowski.
Some highlights from Rosenkavalier but I have failed to track down the date again.

[Ruth]

Opera: Donizetti's "Les martyrs" by the OAE and Opera Rara on 4/11/14, and "The Miserly Knight" along with some Rheingold orchestral excerpts by the LPO on 21/1/15.

[Faye]

Seriously - the website is an unmitigated disaster and has been for ages now. I'm personally only interested in concerts involving big name singers or operas.......but it's almost impossible to browse what is available because everything is such a mess and it's so damned frustrating having to plough through dozens of pages of garish technicolour for various different "series" in the hope of accidentally stumbling across something that you fancy seeing.

And even once the season is announced they have a habit of sneakily adding in extra performances at a later date without really telling anyone......

It would also be useful if you could search under a generic term for "opera" instead of having it all mixed up together with orchestral performances, modern dance, panpipe concerts and God knows what else.

I've totally given up now. I'll use the search box function to check if any of my favourite singers are appearing but otherwise I have no idea if any opera is on, unless Intermezzo writes a blog post about it or one of my friends mentions it on Twitter.

I've seen nothing but negative feedback about this on Twitter this morning - it would be great if the Southbank took notice of our frustrations and did something to improve matters.

[Andres]

Also from the OAE:

Two one-acts from Rameau
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/oae-flying-the-flag-lamour-81400

Bits of Boris
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/oae-flying-the-flag-russia-81416

Pieces of Don Giovanni
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/oae-flying-the-flag-the-bohe-81493

[Nikolaus Vogel]

The Philharmonia is also programming L'enfant et les sortileges as part of its French season.

[TheManOnTheBus (and in the Amphitheatre!)]

Does membership here get you priority booking for more than one ticket? I ask because (whilst I would expect so), they also have a "dual membership" option which emphasises taking a friend along to the Hawyard. So not clear at all.

Thanks.

[inter mezzo]

Yes, you can book more than one ticket (not sure of the max), but you only get one free entry to the Hayward with a single membership

[Catriona]

The only mention of Rosenkavalier I can find is a concert including the Suite on 4th December 2014 http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/philharmonia-04122014-80572. Considering they have two singers listed to perform exerpts from Hansel & Gretel it seems odd that they're apparently not doing any vocal music from Rosenkavalier as well.

[John in Santa Fe]

In beginning to plan my autumn trip to London, it was nice to get an email this morning from the Southbank. But it's as difficult as ever to actually see what is on - and it's not much better when going directly to the various orchestras' websites directly, though the LSO's is a bit better than others.

Couldn't they just create a site where it would be possible to scroll down a list of dates with the programme details included???

Mahler 3rd or Mahler 2nd on 1 November??
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/lpo-141101-80850

Southbank site says 3rd, then describes the Resurrection. LSO's site only describes the latter, so we have to assume that is correct.

[Ed]

100% agree! I've also been complaining in tweets/blog posts for months and months. I'm in the digital media industry, so I like to think that I may be more used to using various online user interfaces.. But I still find it so difficult to browse and discover events without spending hours clicking on what seems like a million things. Completely a case of style over substance. The Barbican's website may look 10 years older, but for me it's 10 times better.

[Mark Summers]

I eventually managed to work out what was on the cards for next season by going to http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/classical-season-201415
and then clicking through the individual components on the left hand side, mainly in order to avoid an epileptic fit from the flood of flashing multicoloured tiles, but I totally agree that the rollout was a farce. I also cannot see the point of the SBC going to the trouble of inviting people to a grandly titled Classical Season Revealed meeting on the 28th if they've revealed (in the loosest definition of the term) the information in advance anyway. I actually got a ticket for this meeting on the expectation that attendees would get some kind of hot-off-the-press printout of what's on, but I won't bother now as it isn't worth spending an hour and a half of my life being told what i know already just for a free glass of Royal Festival Hall merlot.
As a more general point, do classical music programmers in London ever compare notes? There appears to be a a dismayingly large amount of overlap between the Barbican and the South Bank seasons. I understand the need to schedule pieces that are likely to sell, but surely there cannot be infinite demand for Mahler, or Bruckner, or even Rachmaninov. And what is the point of Ashkenazy starting a Sibelius cycle only a couple of months after Rattle's? Maybe to pick up the overspill of people who like Sibelius but couldn't get tickets for the Berliners?
Maybe you can tell me IM, how does the classical music audience break down in London? Are people loyal to specific venues, or to specific orchestras? Or are they magpies like me? I'm genuinely interested.

[Richard Carter]

Agreed it was a pain to see what was on, but the actual booking process this morning was amazing easy. No queue at all, I was finished booking by 10:15., and got really good tickets - the back row of the side stalls were terrific value at £10 a time for the Barenboim solo piano concerts, £15 for all the orchestral ones.

[JohnVecchio]

There are enough LPO concerts of interest to me , to qualify for a quantity discount but reading their site , this can only be calculated by telephone booking. So hours of frusrtation on the 'phone then.

[Richard Carter]

At least it's been corrected now (not sure whe they did it, though).

[Frances]

Looking at the website now, I despair even more. The links from the member's priority booking page to the orchestra's pages are all broken and the 2014-15 festival links have gone from the whatson/festival menu. At the moment the only way I can see to find the new season is to select a concert you just happen to know is programmed and go from there. Earlier in the week the 20124/15 icon did appear on the home page but not now.
Before booking opened I tried to find the priority dates for various orchestras on the website but these were also well hidden.
Bearing in mind that priority booking brings in revenue for the Southbank a year in advance it seems strange to make it such a secret feature!
Now the new building projects are seemingly on hold perhaps some resources could be found to make the website a little more functional.

[inter mezzo]

Not easy to find, but this is the page you want: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/classical-season-201415

[Frances]

That's what is so bizarre.... the information IS there but only if you know where to find it. Why make it some kind of initiative test?