Best Barbican concerts: the top musical performances of 2020/21
The Rite of Spring
The exciting conductor Mirga Gražinyté-Tyla (pictured) and her CBSO are joined by Nicola Benedetti in the atmospheric Sibelius Violin Concerto. Ravel’s doomy La Valse opens an unmissable programme that ends with Stravinsky’s dramatic The Rite of Spring, which in 1913 caused a riot and changed music for ever.
Read more ...Igor Levit and the Cleveland Orchestra
Part of a year-long 50th birthday celebration for composer Thomas Adès opens with his new Angel Symphony. Igor Levit (pictured) is the distinguished soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 9. Plus, the astringent Scriabin Symphony No 2.
Read more ...BBC Symphony Orchestra, 90th birthday celebration
In all the talk about the future of the BBC, not much is said about its five orchestras and their non-stop live-performance schedule and broadcasts. The London-based BBC Symphony Orchestra is the backbone of the Proms. Hear it celebrate its 90th birthday with Bruch’s much-loved Violin Concerto, and music by Mahler, Janáček and others. Dalia Stasevska (pictured) conducts. Soloists are violinist Johna Dalne and baritone Roderick Williams.
Read more ...Isata Kanneh-Mason
The inspiring young pianist (pictured) complements music by Beethoven, Clara Schumann and Chopin with the 20th-century piano works by Poulenc, George Gershwin and Samuel Barber in a very attractive recital played in the small and resonant concert hall. Don’t miss the chance to catch this rising player.
Read more ...1 Milton Street, EC2Y 9BH
Joyce DiDonato: My Favourite Things
The American mezzo-soprano (pictured) dazzles wherever she performs. Returning to an eager London audience after her Covent Garden triumph in Agrippina, she gives a recital of music both soulful and high-energy by composers including Monteverdi and Handel. She is joined by the scintillating early music specialists Il Pomo d’Oro under Francesco Corti. Unmissible.
Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon
As the year that marks 250 years since the birth of Beethoven comes to a close, Sir Simon Rattle (pictured) and the London Symphony Orchestra are joined by the Polish virtuoso Krystian Zimerman in all five of Beethoven’s innovative and entertaining piano concertos. Follow the composer’s 20-year journey, breaking new ground with every work, and marvel at the stamina of a pianist who won Warsaw’s prestigious Chopin Competition at 18...
Handel's Messiah
There will be plenty of performances of Handel’s great oratorio at this time of year, but this one will be exceptional. Richard Egarr directs the Academy of Ancient Music and its choir from the harpsichord. Soloists include soprano Rowan Pierce, counter-tenor Iestyn Davies (pictured) and bass Ashley Riches. Learn more about this musical phenomenon at a free pre-concert talk at 6:30PM.
Girls of the Golden West
Witness the UK premiere of the acclaimed new opera by American minimalist John Adams (pictured). The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer is joined by the BBC Singers and soloists in a concert performance that is sure to be the talking point of the new year. Exploring racial tension, sexual abuse and the desperation of the 19th-century Californian gold rush, the composer gives voices to the era’s victims and dreamers, his libretto based on writing by Mark Twain.
Read more ...Czech Philharmonic
One of the most famous orchestras in the world is conducted by Semyon Bychkov and joined by the phenomenal pianist sisters, Katia and Marielle Labeque (pictured) for Mozart’s Piano Concerto for Two Pianos. Two Czech composers bookend the concerto – Miloslav Kabeláč and Antonin Dvorak, whose Symphony No 9 ‘From the New World’ is one of the most-loved works in the repertoire.
Evgeny Kissin
The Russian-born piano virtuoso Evgeny Kissin (pictured) plays mostly Chopin in a rare London recital that lets its hair down at the end with Gershwin’s jazzy and bluesy Three Preludes. Marvel at this former child prodigy, now one of the most sought-after artists on the international music scene.
Read more ...Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason
Brother and sister, the cellist (pictured) and pianist are a musical sensation, both accomplished performers in their own right. They have played together since their childhood in the prodigious musical family. Here they play music by Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, and Britten’s teacher, Frank Bridge.
St John Passion
A Good Friday performance of Bach’s account of the Easter story, performed by the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner (pictured), with the English Baroque Soloists. Dramatic story-telling, heart-felt arias and chorales build to an exultant ending. Listen out for wonderful instrumental solos too.
Mark Simpson world premiere
The important world premiere of the Violin Concerto by leading modern British composer Mark Simpson is given by Nicola Benedetti (pictured) with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda. Plus: Three Nocturnes by Debussy and the great Symphony No 6, the Pathétique, by Tchaikovsky.
Jonas Kaufmann & Sir Antonio Pappano
A musical partnership like no other, the great German tenor and the conductor with whom he often works at Covent Garden step away from the opera stage and let rip with some of the great arias from the repertoire, with Pappano at the piano. Expect the great composers, including Verdi, and some special guests...
Read more ...The Tempest
British opera royalty give a concert performance of Thomas Ades’s 2004 opera, based on Shakespeare’s play. The composer directs the Britten Sinfonia and Voices, with Nicky Spence (pictured) as Caliban, Marta Fontanals-Simmons as Miranda, Toby Spence, who created the role of the king’s son Ferdinand, now singing the King.
Read more ...