Barbican Presents
Barbican Presents brings some of the greatest international classical artists, orchestras and ensembles to London, in a stimulating and eclectic mix of classical, contemporary, and Baroque music.
Events
Academy of Ancient Music: Haydn's The Seasons
Haydn’s life-affirming oratorio of nature, humanity and the eternal cycle of the year – conducted by AAM Music Director Laurence Cummings and brought vividly to life with striking new visuals.
ECHO Rising Stars: James Newby & Joseph Middleton
Navigate feelings of restlessness, longing and isolation as baritone James Newby and Joseph Middleton examine humans’ eternal search, geographical and psychological, for a distant object of desire.
Isata Kanneh-Mason
Take a trip down memory lane as pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason looks back in a nostalgic evening inspired by the imaginations and experiences of childhood.
Alison Balsom and Anna Lapwood
Superstar trumpeter Alison Balsom is joined by trailblazing organist Anna Lapwood for an intimate recital that’ll raise the roof, with arrangements from across the centuries.
Australian Chamber Orchestra: Beethoven and Bridgetower
Revolutionary music at its most super-charged: the exhilarating Australian Chamber Orchestra celebrate the radical music of Beethoven, and the inspiration he’s sparked ever since.
An Anatomy of Melancholy
–
Iestyn Davies’s crystalline voice, Netia Jones’s haunting visuals, and John Dowland’s ravishingly bittersweet music come together in an intimate theatrical meditation on the consolations of sorrow.
Australian Chamber Orchestra: River
The Australian Chamber Orchestra provide live accompaniment to breath-taking footage of the world’s mighty rivers, in a profound meditation on how water has shaped our landscapes and human existence.
Australian Chamber Orchestra: Indies and Idols
Discover how the kaleidoscopic dissonances and pioneering textures of 20th-century Polish classical music inspired some of the boldest sounds in 21st-century culture, as the two worlds collide.
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Harding & Leonidas Kavakos
Expect fireworks from the indisputable virtuosity of violinist Leonidas Kavakos, as he joins the stellar Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for the first night of their two-concert visit.
Oslo Philharmonic/Klaus Mäkelä & Lise Davidsen
Enjoy Lise Davidsen’s sublime soprano one last time, as she closes her artist spotlight, and our season, in the company of Scandinavia’s super-orchestra and their electrifying Chief Conductor.
Tai Murray & Martin Roscoe
Tai Murray brings her 'technically flawless' (Muso) playing to Romantic sonatas and 21st-century minimalism in an evening bridging the past and the present with pianist Martin Roscoe.
Lise Davidsen Vocal Masterclass
Lise Davidsen imparts her knowledge and experience to Guildhall School Musicians as she leads a masterclass with the singers of tomorrow.
Lise Davidsen & Freddie De Tommaso with James Baillieu
Lise Davidsen is the definition of box office in the opera world right now. And we’ve got the perfect vocal partner for her in Freddie De Tommaso, ‘a young tenor of limitless promise (The Times).
Jeremy Denk plays The Well-Tempered Clavier: Book 1
A set of preludes and fugues for keyboard, one in each key. It all sounds so rational, but in truth this is music of unparalleled imagination, fantasy, ingenuity and beauty from J S Bach.
Paul Lewis: A 50th Birthday Celebration
Join us to celebrate one of the greatest pianists our country has ever produced, in a birthday recital bookended by the repertoire for which he is most well-known and loved: Beethoven sonatas.
Khatia Buniatishvili
Come for the fireworks, stay for the poetry: pianist Khatia Buniatishvili brings her barnstorming technique and thoughtful musicality to music from great Baroque and Romantic masters.
Insula orchestra/Laurence Equilbey: Fidelio
Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio is an explosion of ideas. Part family drama, part political treatise, it’s an ode to love and freedom, as moving today as it was when first performed over 200 years ago.
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Nelsons & Rudolf Buchbinder
Andris Nelsons conducts one of the world’s most storied orchestras in Part II of his Strauss Project, with the brilliant pianist Rudolf Buchbinder providing an extra sprinkling of star power.
Discover
Barbican Sessions: Isata Kenneh-Mason
Isata Kanneh-Mason plays Brahms's Op 118, No 3 'Ballade' in our Fountain Room
Listen: Classical Music on Spotify
Follow our regularly updated Classical Music playlist for a sample of the music you'll hear across our programme.
Barbican Sessions: Satu Vänskä
In an empty Theatre, Satu Vänskä, Principal Violinist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, performs JS Bach's ‘Allemande’ from Partita II in D minor.
Listen: Contemporary Classical on Spotify
Discover music from across the Contemporary Classical spectrum – from Judith Weir and George Benjamin to Nils Frahm and Max Richter.
Barbican Sessions: Jess Gillam
In an empty Level G foyer, Jess Gillam performs her ECHO Rising Stars commission: Edmund Finnis's A Spiral Ascending, Kurt Weill's Je ne t'aime pas and Astor Piazzolla's 'Nightclub 1960' from Histoire du Tango with Leif Kaner-Lidström and Sam Becker.
