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Classical music

Browse concerts from the Barbican Classical Music programme featuring leading orchestras and soloists from around the world.

Highlights

Musicians in a blue lit hall
Event
Classical music Contemporary music

Soundhub Showcase

Join us for an evening of cutting-edge contemporary music with four world premieres from the LSO Soundhub 2025/26 Members.

Selina Ott
Event
Classical music

Making America: Blanchard, Herrmann & Latimer

Hollywood dreams meet all-American nightmares. Fabien Gabel conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music from Vertigo and The Sea Hawk and dives into the myths and memories of a new American century.

Bernard Hermann Suite from ‘Vertigo’
Ryan Latimer Bestia: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra
Terence Blanchard Suite from ‘Fire Shut Up in my Bones’ (UK Premiere)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold Sea Hawk
Fabien Gabel conductor
Selina Ott trumpet
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Gabriela Montero
Event
Classical music

Gabriela Montero in Recital

Venezuelan pianist and composer Gabriela Montero performs an assortment of piano pieces from and inspired by Spain. 

Antonio Soler Sonata in G Major No 45
Domenico Scarlatti Sonata in G Major K 427
Sonata in c-sharp minor K 427
Antonio Soler Sonata in c-sharp minor No 21
Sonata in F Major No 89
Domenico Scarlatti Sonata in F Major K 438
Enrique Granados 8 Valses Poéticos
Isaac Albéniz Triana from Iberia Book II
Alicia de Larrocha Sueño Infantil
Minué Triste
Impromptu
Frederic Mompou Cançó i dansa No. 6
Isaac Albeniz Sevilla from Suite española
Enrique Granados Andaluza from 12 Danzas españolas, Ep. 37
Isaac Albeniz Eritaña from Iberia Book 4
Frédéric Chopin Bolero, Op 19
Franz Liszt Rhapsodie espagnole
Gabriela Montero piano
Lawrence Power
Event
Classical music

Darkness Visible: Âme x Lawrence Power

Âme Creative Studios make their Barbican debut with Lawrence Power in a concert that breaks down the walls of the concert hall and takes you on a musical journey across the City of London at night.

Lawrence Power viola
Âme creative Studios
Special guest artists to be announced
Stephen Banks
Event
Classical music

Making America: Billy Childs’s Saxophone Concerto

Dark ships and shining seas: John Adams’s Harmonielehre is the dazzling climax to a concert celebrating the American dream at its most terrible – and hopeful.

Du Yun Hundred Heads (European Premiere)
Billy Childs Diaspora: Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra (UK Premiere)
John Adams Harmonielehre
Elena Schwarz conductor
Steven Banks saxophone
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Antonio Pappano conducting
Event
Classical music

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. 

Benjamin Britten Sinfonia da requiem
Leonard Bernstein The Age of Anxiety
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6, ‘Pathétique’
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Antonio Pappano conductor
Beatrice Rana piano
Giorgi Gigashvili
Event
Classical music

ECHO Rising Stars: Giorgi Gigashvili

Georgian pianist and ECHO Rising Star Giorgi Gigashvili performs much-loved piano pieces alongside a new work by Georgian composer Natalie Beridze.

Domenico Scarlatti Sonata in C Major K 847
Sonata in A major K 113
Frederic Chopin Ballade No 4 in F minor Op 52
Natalie Beridze New work (ECHO commission)
Lili Boulanger D’un vieux jardin and D’un jardin clair from Trois Morceaux pour Piano
Maurice Ravel Miroirs
Giorgi Gigashvili piano
Nathalie Stutzmann conducting
Event
Classical music

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. 

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No 3
Richard Wagner Overture: Rienzi
Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier – Suite
London Symphony Orchestra
Nathalie Stutzmann conductor
Leif Ove Andsnes piano
A still life of pears and a dog onlooking
Event
Classical music

Academy of Ancient Music: Rhythm Across Time

Academy of Ancient Music joins The Wave Quartet in an ingenious, audacious musical voyage across five centuries. 

Antonio Bertali Ciaconna in C major
Francesco Geminiani Concerto Grosso Op 5 No 12 ‘La Folia’
George Frederic Handel Chaconne in G major HWV 435
Johann Sebastian Bach Harpsichord Concerto in G minor BWV 1058 (arr for two marimbas and strings)
Iannis Xenakis Reponds B for solo percussion
Constanzo Festa Variations on ‘La Spagna’ - Contrapunto 46, 88, 77 and 108
Johann Sebastian Bach Harpsichord Concerto in C major BWV 1061 (arr for marimbas and strings)
The Wave Quartet
Christoph Sietzen director & marimba
Academy of Ancient Music
Bojan Čičić director & violin
Nederlands Kamerkoor
Event
Classical music

Nederlands Kamerkoor: Forgotten

Nederlands Kamerkoor bring to the Barbican their urgent new project Forgotten – a moving musical and theatrical exploration of living with dementia.

David Fennessy Letter to Michael
Nederlands Kamerkoor
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Event
Classical music

Anne-Sophie Mutter with Maximilian Hornung and Lauma Skride

Anne-Sophie Mutter will celebrate her 50th anniversary on stage in 2026 and 2027, presenting a programme alongside fellow trio musicians Maximilian Hornung and Lauma Skride

André Previn The Fifth Season for violin and piano
Aftab Darvish Likoo for violin solo (UK & European premiere)
André Previn Trio (2009)
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Trio in B-flat major Op 29, 'Archduke'
Anne-Sophie Mutter violin
Maximilian Hornung cello
Lauma Skride piano
Brent Michael Davids
Event
Classical music

Making America: Requiem for America

The BBC Symphony Orchestra presents Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People — Brent Michael Davids’s searing work which confronts hard truths about America’s founding.

Brent Michael Davids Requiem for America (World Premiere)
Teddy Abrams conductor
Brent Michael Davids Native American flute
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus
Sir Simon Rattle facing the audience in the Barbican concert hall
Event
Classical music

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.

Gustav Mahler Symphony No 4
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle conductor and presenter
Lucy Crowe soprano
Soprano Lucy Crowe pictured in a field, with the sun setting in the background
Event
Classical music

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. 

Roberto Gerhard Symphony No 3, Collages
Richard Strauss Four Last Songs
Gustav Mahler Symphony No 4
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle conductor
Lucy Crowe soprano
Maria Duenas
Event
Classical music

Making America: Oramo conducts Bartók & Korngold

Strangers in a strange land: Sakari Oramo conducts music by Bartók and Korngold, European composers stranded in America and dreaming of a better world.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold Violin Concerto
Bela Bartók Concerto for Orchestra
Sakari Oramo conductor
María Dueñas violin
BBC Symphony Orchestra