RPO concerts on BBC Radio 3 this July

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RPO concerts on BBC Radio 3 this July

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Tue 7 Jul 2026

Credit: Andy Paradise

Hear the RPO in concert on BBC Radio 3 for a week of broadcasts

From the week commencing Monday 13 July, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a series of live recordings of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Classical Live and Radio 3 in Concert. Experience some of our most outstanding concerts from recent seasons at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall conducted by Music Director, Vasily Petrenko.

From expansive landscapes that imprint on the soul in Strauss' Alpine Symphony, to Elgar's portrait of the tragicomic Falstaff, to RPO Composer-in-Association Joe Hisaishi's endlessly inventive The Border (Concerto for Three Horns and Orchestra), there are vast musical worlds waiting to be discovered.

All programmes will be available to listen to after broadcast on BBC Sounds.

Listen live to BBC Radio 3 Listen to all available episodes of Classical Live Listen to all available episodes of Radio 3 in Concert

Listen

Schedule of broadcasts

Find out about when and where you can listen to each performance on BBC Radio 3 below.

RPO strings performing at the Royal Festival Hall

Monday 13 July, 1pm: Elgar's Falstaff

Classical Live broadcasts Vasily Petrenko and the RPO's performance of Elgar's symphonic poem that captures the dreams and despair the Shakespearean knight who has become a man out of time. Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 9 June 2024.

Listen on BBC Sounds (from 1hr8m in)

Vasily Petrenko conducting the Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall

Tuesday 14 July, 1pm: Mahler's First Symphony

The first concert in our series of Mahler symphonies in our 2025–26 season at the Royal Albert Hall, Classical Live broadcasts our performance of Mahler's Symphony No.1 recorded on Tuesday 21 October 2025, of which The Telegraph said ‘under the sensitive direction of conductor Vasily Petrenko, it seemed a proper masterpiece.’

Listen on BBC Sounds (from 59m in)

Katy Woolley, Alexander Edmundson and Ben Hulme standing at the front of the stage holding their horns with the orchestra applauding behind them

Tuesday 14 July, 7.30pm: Hisaishi x Scriabin

Radio 3 in Concert broadcasts our concert from Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall that took place on Friday 5 June 2026, where we performed Rachmaninoff's evocative tone poem The Isle of the Dead and the London premiere our Composer-in-Association Joe Hisaishi's The Border (Concerto for Three Horns and Orchestra), featuring horn soloists Alexander Edmundson, Ben Hulme and Katy Woolley. We closed out the concert with Scriabin's Symphony No.3, a work which pushed at the edges of Romanticism and grasps towards the composer's ideas of divinity, mysticism and spiritual awakening.

Listen on BBC Sounds

The RPO and Philharmonia Chorus performing on stage at the Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 15 July, 1pm: Rachmaninoff's The Bells

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 11 April 2024, we joined the Philharmonia Chorus and soloists Mirjam Mesak, Pavel Petrov and Andrii Kymach for Rachmaninoff's dramatic choral symphony, 'The Bells', inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem of the same name.

'Petrenko’s baton played its own part, whipping up fire and tension.' The Times

Listen on BBC Sounds (from 58m in)

A wide shot of the RPO at the Royal Albert Hall

Thursday 16 July, 1pm: Strauss' Alpine Symphony

First composed in 1902 and completed in 1911, Strauss’ Alpine Symphony traces a day’s journey through the Alpine mountains from daybreak to sunset. Its grand narrative, inspired by the philosophy of Nietzsche, is matched by a grand orchestration, featuring 120 players, 12 off-stage horns and wind and thunder machines. Classical Live broadcasts this recording from the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday 20 May 2025.

Listen on BBC Sounds (from 1hr in)