London Symphony Orchestra
Resident Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is built on the belief that extraordinary music should be available to everyone, everywhere. It was established in 1904 and today is among the world’s top orchestras
As Resident Orchestra at the Barbican since the Centre opened, it performs some 50 concerts here every year, under the batons of a family of conductors that includes Chief Conductor Designate Sir Antonio Pappano, Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle, Principal Guest Conductors Gianandrea Noseda and François-Xavier Roth, Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas and Associate Artists Barbara Hannigan and André J Thomas.
Events
London Symphony Orchestra/Tarmo Peltokoski
Feel the energy of Rautavaara’s joyously rhythmic concerto, and journey to Wagner’s fantastical world of gods, giants and river-maidens.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Laura Bowler
Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
London Symphony Orchestra/Barbara Hannigan
New music by Laura Bowler preludes Ligeti’s ethereal, dreamlike soundworld and Richard Strauss’s colossal, awe-inspiring homage to Nietzsche.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Dvořák
Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
London Symphony Orchestra/Anja Bihlmaier
An American dream: Dvořák’s ode to the US and Bernstein’s gritty portrait of New York frame a new concerto.
LSO Chamber Orchestra/Jaime Martín
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An irresistible, intimate triple-bill of Mozart – a chance to hear three of his lesser-performed concertos, each one as beautiful, refined and vibrant as anything he composed.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Shostakovich
Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert, featuring an iconic symphony by Shostakovich. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano
Korngold tugs at the heart in his Hollywood-flavoured concerto, while Shostakovich’s Fifth unleashes big tunes and white-hot intensity.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano
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Elgar’s oratorio includes some of his most deeply felt music, sumptuously scored and plumbing every emotion from anguish to elation.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano
Tchaikovsky juggles beauty and suffering, Britten reflects powerfully on grief and conflict, and Bernstein grapples with the modern world.
London Symphony Orchestra/Nathalie Stutzmann
Richard Strauss breathes dizzying life into 18th-century Vienna, Wagner recreates medieval Rome and Beethoven marries tenderness and high spirits.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Mahler
Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert, showcasing Mahler's Fourth Symphony, introduced by the performers and with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
Serenity, beauty and the sense of an ending infuse music by Richard Strauss and Mahler, preluded by Gerhard’s immersive soundscapes.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
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Sir Simon Rattle conducts four powerful moments from the final chapter of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, alongside his Siegfried Idyll.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Enigma Variations
Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert, showcasing two works by Vaughan Williams. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano
Sir Antonio Pappano and the LSO journey from darkness to light in Mahler's rapturous Fifth Symphony, alongside Elgar's Enigma Variations.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
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Janáček’s hilarious satire about art, lunar travel, nationalism – and sausages.
London Symphony Orchestra/Gianandrea Noseda
Orchestral fireworks with early Shostakovich and Schnittke, joined by the London Symphony Chorus for some stirring Brahms.
London Symphony Orchestra/Gianandrea Noseda
Prokofiev’s mind-blowing second Symphony, plus early Beethoven and a charming opener from Schubert.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Prokofiev 2
Kick-start your evening with a Half Six Fix concert. One piece in a 60-minute concert, introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
London Symphony Orchestra/Gianandrea Noseda
Shostakovich in both revolutionary and festive mood alongside a MacMillan Concerto, written for Nicola Benedetti.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano
Tippet's moving pacifist oratorio meets Beethoven’s immense Choral Symphony.
London Symphony Orchestra/Barbara Hannigan
Miracles and myths abound, from Bartók’s surreal ballet to Sibelius’s Finnish landscape – plus, a captivating new piece by Golfam Khayam.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Bartók
Kick-start your evening with a Half Six Fix concert. One piece in a 60-minute concert, introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, LSO & Sir Antonio Pappano
Wynton Marsalis and Sir Antonio Pappano blend jazz, blues and classical music in the crossover collaboration with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra/Barbara Hannigan
Albert Roussel and Maurice Ravel paint vivid portraits of the animal kingdom, Benjamin Britten conjures up a savage parade, and Joseph Haydn takes a trip to London for his final symphony.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Vaughan Williams
Kick-start your evening with a Half Six Fix concert. One piece in a 60-minute concert, introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano
Evocative portraits of night and the sea in an all-British programme: enigmatic Maconchy, meditative Walton, and awe-inspiring Vaughan Williams.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano
Bringing together Walton’s turbulent first Symphony with passionate statements of love and outrage from two American greats.
London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Walton
Kick-start your evening with a Half Six Fix concert. One piece in a 60-minute concert, introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
LSO Chamber Ensemble
Fanfares, massed cellos and electronics – a fascinating celebration of the music of Pierre Boulez, in his centenary year.
London Symphony Orchestra
Celebrating Pierre Boulez and his influences, in the composer’s centenary year: his beloved Debussy, alongside three intriguing world premieres.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
An all-British programme of Tippett, Turnage and Vaughan Williams inspired by opera and jazz – including an unmissable world premiere, to celebrate Sir Simon Rattle’s 70th birthday.
Discover
Profile: London Symphony Orchestra
Listen to our selection of LSO recordings from across the years in our Spotify playlist.
Barbican Sessions: Peter Moore
London Symphony Orchestra’s young trombonist, Peter Moore, performs 'Doolallynastics – a brief torture for solo trombone’ by Brian Lynn in our latest Barbican Session, filmed in one of our Frobisher Auditoriums.
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