With some pieces, the myth is almost as compelling as the music – and few masterworks are more shrouded in myth than Mozart’s uncompleted Requiem. But nothing speaks more eloquently than Mozart’s own inspiration, and tonight, on the eve of All Souls, Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Chorus bring heart and soul to his haunting final words.

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Mozart's Requiem

Barbican Centre

‘Perhaps people find something they need in this piece ... something they were missing.’ Henryk Górecki’s ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ translates a century’s loss and pain into sound, gathering up the broken pieces – of history, prayer and poetry – and giving them a home in music that’s as much requiem as a symphony. Joshua Bell is the soloist in Ukraine-born composer Thomas de Hartmann’s emotive, cinematic Violin Concerto, a lament for the Nazi destruction of his homeland. The concert opens with Respighi’s warmly expansive reworking of an organ chorale prelude by J. S. Bach.

Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

Royal Albert Hall

Crystal Pite’s poignant work grapples with themes of safe passage, displacement, community and mortality.

Light Of Passage

Royal Opera House

The perfect pick-me-up for a Sunday afternoon in early January, offering the sparkle of Vienna right here in Birmingham. There’s something incredibly romantic and truly joyful about elegant waltzes, playful polkas and light-hearted operetta. So, let the CBSO whirl you into a new year feeling romanced, revitalised and ready for 2025!

Viennese New Year

The International Convention Centre

Opening with the overture to Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, the work he claimed lifted him from a “mere concoctor of opera-texts” to a true poet, we then discover Strauss’s range in a curation of his orchestral songs with soprano Francesca Chiejina, from the exuberant motherly joy of ‘Muttertändelei’ (Mother-talk) to the nervous contemplation of ‘Ruhe, meine Seele!’ (Rest, my soul!). But even without words, we see Strauss’s impeccable knack for storytelling in the symphonic fantasy Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow), a fantastical tale of motherhood and humanity. Contrasting with the narrative-driven works of these two great dramatists is Mozart’s ferociously fun Thirty-Fifth Symphony.

Wagner, Strauss and Mozart

The Bridgewater Hall

Nicholas Collon joins us for an adventurous programme of scenic orchestral works featuring the world premiere by Composer-in-Association Tom Coult, Francesca Chiejina performs Seven Early Songs alongside a programme including Strauss' Alpine Symphony.

BBC Philharmonic | 1 April

In 1906, following the success of The Dream of Gerontius and The Apostles, the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival commissioned Elgar to write a third large oratorio for its festival that year.

Francesca Chiejina

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 29, 2026

Elgar: The Kingdom · Southbank Centre

Past events

Oct 31, 2025

Mozart's Requiem · BBC Symphony Orchestra

Oct 31, 2025

Mozart's Requiem · Barbican Centre

Future and recently performed repertoire

Singer in Requiem by Mozart

Barbican Centre

Singer in The Kingdom by Elgar

Southbank Centre

About

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