Hear world-class performances from your armchair, as opera houses, orchestras and soloists entertain, mostly free, on air and online, and on DVD. For our favourites, click on Read More. And look out for one-off performances among dates listed below.
Culture Whisper constantly updates this list as more initiatives launch, keeping Londoners abreast of new ways to enjoy the best music at home.
The Royal Opera House continues its live performances from Covent Garden with increasingly ambitious programmes of ballet, instrumental music and song. Next up: an evening of arias and duets from operas including Porgy and Bess, plus Bach and Mendelssohn played by members of the orchestra, and two pas de deux by Royal Ballet artists (27 June, and on demand, on subscription).
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The biggest music festival in the world, the BBC Proms, will go ahead this summer, in a different form, with many memorable Proms streamed. But there will be live music-making. Listen out for world class music-making from leading artists around the globe, emerging talent, and today's most innovative composers.
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A hugely increased appetite for classical music during lockdown is fed by the BBC's addition to its Culture in Quarantine programme on television, on radio and online. Orchestral, chamber music and solo recitals are featured, as well as documentaries and landmark archive performances. Opera includes streaming of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes (pictured), performed on the Suffolk coast where it set.
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Solo artists and ensembles all over the world have come together as if on a single platform, playing concert favourites, overlooked music and contemporary sounds. 'Spin the wheel' and discover something new or spend time with an old friend.
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The Sixteen, under Harry Christophers, normally perform worldwide, their pure sound perfect for both early and contemporary music. From home the singers have filmed themselves singing, part by part, John Sheppard’s uplifting Libera Nos ("Deliver us') while relaxing or carrying out household chores. Each singer recorded two films – except for pregnant soprano Katy Hill who went into labour. You can see her new baby daughter, Anna, in the closing bars, a wonderfully hopeful ending to this consoling piece.
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The world-class singing, the sense of occasion, even a glass or two of fizz – the unmistakable elements of Glyndebourne Festival Opera can be enjoyed from home this summer, as the opera house puts classic productions online, having cancelled the festival in full.
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Aurora Orchestra is one of London's most dynamic orchestras. Under conductor Nicholas Collon, it constantly rethinks masterworks in the classical repertoire and explores the best new music. Here the musicians launch a new digital concert season, featuring Beethoven, Mozart and Beethoven, alongside modernists Nico Muhly, Anna Meredith and Brett Dean.
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Here's a wonderful way to keep the young musicians in your family engaged with music-making. The best fun in music is to be had when you are singing and playing with others, and that doesn't have to stop if you are housebound, thanks to the vivacious and popular violinist and her musical friends...
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Mozart's effervescent comedy The Marriage of Figaro was one of the big hits of Garsington Opera's 2017 season, and now you can relive those summer nights and invite an all-star cast into your home. Joshua Bloom is the resourceful Figaro, who wrongfoots the boss who lusts after his fiancée, Susanna, sung by Jennifer France.
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The best dance and opera productions from the Royal Opera House are streamed most Fridays. First opera, with dance by the Royal Ballet, is Handel's lively Acis and Galatea (3 April). Then Mozart's comedy Così Fan Tutte (10 April) and Britten's Eliabethan opera Gloriana (24 April). All at 7PM
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A fantastic music library of opera and concerts features both British orchestras and companies such a Glyndebourne Festival Opera (pictured) and leading international productions and ensembles. New titles are added all the time, and you enjoy a free 30-day trial before committing to a subscription at around £9 a month,
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Opera houses and concert halls Europe-wide are within reach though EU-funded Arte, an ever-changing treasure trove of performances and documentaries in English or another European language of your choice. Register free, and build your own library, or dip in to new programmes. Currently on offer, in this big Beethoven year, the early version of his opera Fidelio, Leonore from Vienna, starring Royal Opera House favourite Jennifer Davis (pictured).
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Sign up free to this Belgium-based international opera library, and you can help yourself to productions from all over the world, with new ones added almost daily. Among the archive, Garsington Opera's big 2019 hit The Bartered Bride, with the stupendous Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw (pictured). Coming soon: Mozart's Lucio Silla from La Monnaie, Brussels, and his Die Entführung aus dem Serail from Glyndebourne.
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Round the clock, BBC Radio 3 features live and recorded performances, music-based interviews, features and documentaries. Our favourite: Composer of the Week, Mon-Fri 12PM-1PM, revealing a life and its work, and In Tune, Mon-Fri 5PM-7PM, with studio performances from exciting young artists such as Thomas Gould (pictured).
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Many of the finest productions at Covent Garden are available on DVD, on the Opus Arte label. Recent favourites include Ermonela Jaho in a five-star Verdi's La Traviata (pictured), but the list runs into hundreds. You can even compare and contrast different productions.
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Sir Simon Rattle's Barbican-based orchestra has a vast array of concert pieces online. Build your own programme, with your favourite soloists. We love Janacek's spirit-raising Sinfonietta with its big brass fanfare.
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'There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.' That's the wisdom of pianist Igor Levit (pictured), who has put his brilliant and beguiling playing online. Works include some by Beethoven, continuing the mark 250 years since the composer's birth.
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For 30 days a free trial with streaming service takt1 will open the doors of the world's concert halls and opera houses, both for live performances and for memorable evenings from concerts past. Coming up, Sir Antonio Pappano conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in an all-Liszt programme (24 April). In the meantime, dip into the library: we love the 2019 concert from Vienna featuring Shostakovich's Symphony No 10 and the virtuosic Yuja Wang (pictured) in the romantic Schumann Piano Concerto.
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The stupendous Berlin orchestra, one of the oldest and most disciplined in the world, has put its archive online and it's free if you redeem an online voucher before 31 March. Concerts on offer are both recent successes and historic events, such as the landmark 1997 European Concert from Versailles, directed from the keyboard by Daniel Barenboim (pictured).
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You'll feel you should have worn your tiara when you log on to the Austrian capital's elegant and world-beating operas online. Years of spectacular productions are being streamed. Coming soon: Puccini's Tosca, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier (pictured).
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