Forgive me if my list of 12 LA Phil Concerts to see this season is a bit heavy with concerts led by Gustavo Dudamel. This is Gustavo Dudamel’s final season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He’s off to the New York Philharmonic next year, but will still conduct concerts at the Hollywood Bowl next summer.
It’s not just Dudamel on this list, but the concerts I feel speak loudest about who the Los Angeles Philharmonic is as it closes one chapter and looks forward to its next.
Here are my 12 LA Phil Concerts To See This Season:
DUDAMEL CONDUCTS MAHLER’S RESURRECTION – Oct 9th – 12th
For anyone who has experienced Gustavo Dudamel conducting the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, any opportunity to hear him do so again is a gift.
This year that gift comes in the form of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor. This is also known as the Resurrection Symphony.
If you saw Bradley Cooper’s film, Maestro, this is the symphony Cooper, as Leonard Bernstein, is conducting late in the film.
This large work – it can run as long as 90 minutes – involves two soloists, a large orchestra, organ and a chorus. It was composed over six years from 1888-1894 and had its world premiere in 1895.
Joining as soloists are soprano Chen Reiss and mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor. The Los Angeles Master Chorale serves as the chorus.
I’ve seen Dudamel conduct Mahler many times and found each performance to be transformative.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
PROMETHEUS WITH ESA-PEKKA SALONEN – January 9th – January 11th
This season composer/conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen is Conductor Laureate, as he has been for several years. Next year he adds the title of Creative Director.
He opens this concert, as he did many times when he was Music Director, with the world premiere of a new work.
Gabriella Smith’s Violin Concerto opens the concert with Pekka Kuusisto as the soloist. I’m a big fan of Smith’s work, so this should be a very memorable concert.
Also on the program is Debussy’s la demoiselle élue a 22-minute work from 1889. This work calls for two soloists: a soprano (Liv Redpath) and a mezzo-soprano (Jingjing Xu). The Los Angeles Master Chorale joins for this piece.
The concerts close with a performance of Scriabin’s tone poem Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. Scriabin’s composition calls for a piano soloist. Jean-Yves Thibaudet returns once again to Walt Disney Concert Hall to play.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
SALONEN & LEVITT SCALE BUSONI’S MASTERPIECE – January 17th – January 18th
I’ve never seen Ferruccio Busoni’s Piano Concerto in C Major performed live. It’s not commonly performed. It is not your typical concerto. It has five moments, runs 70 minutes in length and calls for an all-male chorus.
Pianist Igor Levit has performed this work with Salonen conducting before.
Reviewers were running out of superlatives to describe the performance. Expect the same here.
In looking at Levit’s schedule between now and June 21, 2026, these two concerts are the only times he’ll be performing Busoni’s piano concerto. You won’t want to miss one of these two performances.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
TCHAIKOVSKY & THOMAS ADÉS FEATURING YUJA WANG– February 6th – February 8th
William Marsey’s Man With Limp Wrist had its world premiere in 2023 by Hallé with composer Thomas Adés conducting. Marsey was commissioned to write this work by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This concert marks the US premiere of the work and Adés will once again be conducting.
Yuja Wang joins for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
It’s a work she recorded live with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra that was released in 2013. You know how talented she is, this should be phenomenal
The second half of the concert begins with Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini, a very dramatic tone poem he composed in 1876. The concert closes with Adés’ Aquifer. Interestingly, the Hyperion Records recording of Man with Limp Wrist that Adés conducted also closes with Aquifer.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
DUDAMEL CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN AND LORENZ – February 12th – February 15th
Venezuelan composer Ricardo Lorenz gets the world premiere of his Humboldt’s Nature in these concerts. The work was commissioned by the LA Philharmonic. I’ve heard his King Mangoberry recording from 2019, and if I were in Los Angeles I’d make a beeline to hear Humboldt’s Nature.
For other good reasons as well. Pianist Yunchan Lim joins for a performance of Schumann’s Piano Concerto which was written as one work and completed in 1841. With additional composing it was expanded into a concerto and completed in 1845.
In the second half of the concert, the LA Phil presents Incidental Music from Egmont by Beethoven. Jeremy O. Harris, the playwright who gave us Slave Play, has reimagined this work and created the role of a narrator. Cate Blanchett takes on that role. There is also a soprano and Elena Villalón sings that part.
Gustavo Dudamel conducts.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
GUSTAVO CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN: MISSA SOLEMNIS – February 20th – February 22nd
At a press conference to announce the 2025-2026 season, Gustavo Dudamel said he had to wait until he was old enough to understand and conduct Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. It’s another enormous work running 80 minutes with a large orchestra including organ, chorus and soloists.
For these performances the soloists will be Seok Jong Baek (tenor), Nicholas Brownlee (bass), Sarah Saturnino (mezzo-soprano) and Pretty Yende (soprano). Two choirs will be performing in these concerts: Orfeó Català and Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana. Both will be under the direction of Xavier Puig.
If you’ve never heard Missa Solemnis, this would be a fine introduction to it. One hopes the LA Phil will be recording it for those who can’t be there.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
THE GREAT WALL OF LOS ANGELES – March 7th
This one-off concert looks to be amongst the most interesting concerts of the year. There is a mural in Los Angeles by Judy Baca called The Great Wall of Los Angeles. Dudamel was so impressed by the work that he reached out to several composers to compose new works corresponding to sections of the mural.
Those composers as Juhi Bansal, Nicolás Lee Benavides, Viet Cuong, Xavier Muzik, Estevan Olmos and Nina Shekhar. This hour-long work will be accompanied by a film from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant).
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
JOHN WILLIAMS AND RACHMANINOFF – March 13th – March 15th
Composer John Williams’ Trumpet Concerto was composed in 1996 for the Cleveland Orchestra. I’m sure their musician was quite good.
But anyone who has seen the LA Philharmonic perform the film scores of Williams knows that Thomas Hooten was born to play his music.
He is always a highlight of the Maestro of the Movies concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. He is the soloist for these performances.
On Saturday and Sunday, the concert will open with the Theme from Jurassic Park. Friday is regularly a shorter concert as part of the Casual Fridays program.
The concerts end with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. Anna Handler conducts.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
GERALD BARRY’S SALOME – March 24th
In March of this year, Theatre Magdeburg gave the world premiere performance of Gerald Barry’s opera Salome. Barry takes Oscar Wilde’s play and reinvents it. Hugo Shirley in his Opera Now review said, “the whole thing is over in little over an hour, its sheer absurdist energy drawing you completely into its world.”
For this performance Alison Scherzer sings the role of Salome.
Joining her are Vincent Casagrande as The Prisoner, Sarah Hershkowitz as The Queen, Justin Hopkins as The Young Syrian, Karl Huml as The Soldier and TIMUR as The King.
Thomas Adés condcuts. This marks the US premiere of Salome which was commissioned by the LA Phil.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
TURANGALÎLA – April 10th – April 12th
In a season filled with big works, this 75-minute symphony by Olivier Messiaen fits right in.
The myth of Tristan and Iseult, the same one that Wagner chose for my favorite of his operas, was the inspiration here with its themes of love and death.
Messiaen wrote the work over two years from 1946-1948.
It was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra who gave the world premiere performance in 1949 with Leonard Bernstein conducting.
Simone Young leads the LA Philharmonic in these performances. The work calls for two soloists: one on piano and the other on ondes Martenot (an early electronic instrument). Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Cynthia Millar are the soloists.
Zack Winokur directs this concert, so there will be more than just the orchestra and soloists.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
DIE WALKÜRE CONCERTS -May 19th – May 24th
In January of 2024, the Los Angeles Philharmonic teamed up with Frank Gehry and director Alberto Arvelo to perform Wagner’s Das Rheingold. Gehry handled the scenic design and the concerts were terrific.
You didn’t think they’d stop there, do you? Here comes the second opera in Wagner’s Ring Cycle –Die Walküre.
The opera traditionally runs well over 4-1/2 hours. The LA Philharmonic has separate performances of the three acts of the opera.
Act I is performed on May 19th and May 22nd. Jessie Faselt sings Sieglinde, Solomona Howard sings Hunding and Jamez McCorkle sings Hunding. For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
Act II is performed on May 20th and May 23rd. Joining the three singers from Act I are Christine Goerke as Brünnhilde, Ryan Speedo Green as Wotan and Sarah Saturnino as Fricka. For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
Act II is performed May 21st and May 24th. Joining the previous cast from Act I and Act II are Lindsay Ammann was Waltraute, Gabrielle Beteag as Schwertleite, Siphokazi Molteno as Rossweise, Taylor Raven as Grimgerde, Zoie Reams as Siegrune, Alexandria Shiner as Gerhilde and Laura Wilde as Ortlinde. For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
At the same press event I referenced earlier, I asked Dudamel if, even after he’s left the LA Philharmonic, the other two operas from the Ring Cycle would be taking place in subsequent seasons. He said they would.
GUSTAVO DUDAMEL & YO-YO MA – May 28-May 30th
The last superstar to join Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil before Dudamel heads to New York is cellist Yo-Yo Ma. For many that is all you need to know.
But I think it buries the lede. The work Ma is performing is the world premiere of Angélica Negrón’s Cello Concerto.
The website for the event says it is an “underwater field recordings-inspired concerto” that was inspired by a workshop “she facilitated with Ma and the Billion Oyster Project in New York City.”
Regardless of the inspiration, Negrón is an amazing composer, and this is a must-see concert.
The second half of the concert finds the LA Philharmonic performing Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life).
Dudamel has had a heroic adventure with the LA Philharmonic. I’ve been fortunate to have witnessed all but this final year (so far).
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
These are just my selections. You might want to check out the entire season to find the shows that most interest you. What are they? Let us know in the comments. Enjoy the LA Phil’s 2025-2026 season.
Main Photo: Gustavo Dudamel (All photos courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic unless otherwise noted)