This is Rattle, Barbican Centre

It starts with a Fanfare by Helen Grime, and Elgar's Enigma Variations, and ends with the musical equivalent of a fireworks display – three spectacular pieces by Stravinsky, and in between comes music familiar and unfamiliar, for large and small forces, in and out of the concert hall: Sir Simon Rattle's new life as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra will, in short, be as varied as his plans for those musicians, their audience, and anyone else in London who will listen.

This Is Rattle is a 10-day festival of concerts, film and opera, centred on the Barbican, but also taking place up the road at LSO St Luke's, and at Milton Court Concert Hall, to mark Rattle's return to Britain after 15 years as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Highlights include the opening concert, New Music Britain (14 Sept), which also introduces Rattle's stated commitment to putting British music at the forefront of every season. The concert will also be streamed live to the Barbican Sculpture Court Cinema.

Children and young people will be the on-the-spot creators of Opera in a Day: The Faust Legend (17 Sept), devising a work in one day and presenting it in the evening. That afternoon, Rattle and his old orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will play Patrick Doyle's score to Kenneth Branagh's film Henry V live, as the film is relayed. In the evening, Rattle and the LSO and soloists will perform Berlioz's colossal The Damnation of Faust.

The Stravinsky triple bill that closes the festival (24 Sept) with The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring is also played on 21 Sept, preceded by a screening of The Making of a Maestro, the BBC's 2015 programme about Rattle's life and career.

The festival also focuses on music by three of the most important figures in contemporary British music – Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Adès and Oliver Knussen.

Tickets go on sale on 3 February. Click here for details of the whole 20-plus-event festival.