Thousands Of Visitors At The BMW Lso Open Air Classics In London's Trafalgar Square

LONDON – May 29, 2013: A capacity crowd of thousands visited Trafalgar Square on Monday evening, May 27, 2013, to be part of the BMW LSO Open Air Classics. The London Symphony Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev played works by Hector Berlioz to a crowd of all ages. The concert was the second in a pioneering series of annual outdoor concerts by the LSO in partnership with BMW that had its successful premiere last year also on Trafalgar Square. The aim of BMW LSO Open Air Classics is to bring outstanding classical music performed in the open air – free for everyone in an informal atmosphere.

Apart from Hector Berlioz’s “Le corsaire” overture, the orchestra performed a special arrangement of the “Symphonie fantastique” by composer Gareth Glyn. For this, they were joined by young musicians from LSO On Track, the Orchestra’s award-winning music education and community programme, and students from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Following an ovation from the capacity audience, Gergiev and the LSO performed the Hungarian March from “The Demnation of Faust” by Berlioz as encore. LSO animateur and composer Rachel Leach guided the audience through the evening.

Dr Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, greeted the audience on the square: “We are proud to contribute to the diverse cultural landscape of this extraordinary city.”

Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the LSO said: “The LSO is delighted that their partnership with BMW continued so successfully on this Bank Holiday Monday and that so many people took up our invitation. We are already looking forward to next year’s concert!”

About BMW’s Cultural Commitment
For more than 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in over 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the main focus of its long-term commitment on modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. In 1972, three large-scale paintings were created by the artist Gerhard Richter specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group's Munich headquarters. Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Zubin Metha, Daniel Barenboim and Anna Netrebko have co-operated with BMW. The company has also commissioned famous architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au to design important corporate buildings and plants. In 2011, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a global initiative of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum and the BMW Group celebrated its world premiere in New York. The BMW Group takes absolute creative freedom in all the cultural activities it is involved in for granted – as this is just as essential for groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business.