Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony creates a thrilling and impactful climax to a concert full of exciting and popular music. Be lured by the temptress Carmen in music of passion, betrayal and murder, and enchanted by the fairytale magic of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet music. Dreamy summer days are evoked in The Lark Ascending, which regularly features as No 1 in Classic FM’s annual Hall of Fame, while the Rococo Variations for cello and orchestra hark back to the classical era but with a Tchaikovskian spin.

The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) is the country’s leading orchestra and widely regarded as one of the top musical ensembles in the Asia-Pacific region.

In June 2016 the PPO historically became the first Philippine orchestra to perform at the world-renowned Carnegie Hall in New York and has gone on to perform in Kuji and Tokyo, Japan as part of the Asia Orchestra Week.

The PPO is proud to premiere works by Filipino composers and continues to promote music appreciation through outreach concerts in schools, parishes, government agencies, and underserved communities in Metro Manila and in different regions in the country.

Grzegorz Nowak serves as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in Manila.

For the last 15 years he has served as the Principal Associate Conductor and then Permanent Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) in London. He has led the RPO on tours to Switzerland, Turkey, Armenia and Poland, as well as giving numerous concerts throughout the UK. His many RPO recordings include Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ and ‘Italian’ Symphonies, Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Dvořák’s Symphonies Nos.6–9, all of the symphonies of Schumann, and the complete symphonies and major orchestral works of Brahms and Tchaikovsky.

In 2017 he was appointed Music Director of Teatr Wielki – National Opera in Warsaw, Poland

The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance will open with a short work by Filipino composer Jeffrey Ching, the orchestra’s composer-in-residence, who studied philosophy and music in Cambridge and London.
In celebration of this cultural exchange between the UK and the Philippines, Jeffrey Ching is writing a specially commissioned piece for the UK tour, which he describes as 'a dialogue across cultures which is also a playful commentary on the rituals of the concert hall'. This will be an exciting and entirely appropriate inclusion in the evening’s programme.