Composer

A tour of England’s many musical characters: warmth in Anna Clyne’s Within Her Arms, a loving ode to her late mother; sparkle and bite in Benjamin Britten’s Piano Concerto, championed by soloist Leif Ove Andsnes; and noble humanity in Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, an affectionate series of portraits with the famous “Nimrod” at its heart. | Join us for a pre-concert talk 1 hour before most performances.

Enigma Variations & Britten

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

As reverence for nature grew under the influence of Enlightenment philosophy, so too did poetic expressions of wonder in life on Earth. Joseph Middleton is joined by Grammy Award-winning Fleur Barron and the captivating Swiss tenor Mauro Peter in a programme filled with heart-melting reflections on humankind’s relationship with the natural world and spiced with surprises, a Britten boogie-woogie and George Crumb’s haunting Processional for solo piano among them.

EPSG:4326

Fleur Barron mezzo-soprano; Mauro Peter tenor; Joseph Middleton piano

Wigmore Hall

Irritated with the bustle and bother of city life in Vienna, Beethoven found inspiration for his “Pastoral” Symphony on long, rambling walks in the countryside. The composer weaves shepherd tunes and bird calls into the music in a celebration of nature, amplified in these performances with artwork from the Kimbell Art Museum’s landscape collection. The concert opens with American composer Missy Mazzoli’s ballet suite Orpheus Undone and closes with Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, drawn from a series of poems about the mysteries of the night.

 Beethoven’s Pastoral

Sundance Square

Debussy’s La mer crowns a concert that surges with elemental power; whether Britten’s East Anglian seascapes or Shostakovich at his punchiest.

Sakari Oramo conducts Debussy and Shostakovich

Barbican Centre

Love, loss and revenge… join us for a vivid evening of music based on ancient Greek myths, interspersed with illuminating, witty contributions from stand-up classicist Natalie Haynes.

Britten Sinfonia’s Ancient Greek Meze

Milton Court Concert Hall

Experience a compelling evening of music led by Richard Robbins and featuring the Richmond Symphony and Richmond Symphony Chorus. This program brings together Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands, a moving and thought-provoking work for choir and strings; Britten’s vibrant Sinfonietta, Op. 1, brimming with youthful energy and color; and his luminous choral miniature “Concord” from Gloriana. The concert concludes with Copland’s “The Promise of Living” from The Tender Land, a heartfelt and uplifting tribute to shared purpose and hope. Be there for an unforgettable concert that weaves together voices and instruments in a powerful celebration of unity and expression. 

Copland, Britten & Shaw

Randolph-Macon College

St. Christopher's School

In the lead-up to the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death, young firebrand conductor Adam Hickox returns with music by the great composer, drenched in rustic charm and nostalgia. A similar primal yearning drives Stravinsky’s revolutionary The Rite of Spring, and the world premiere of Gavin Higgins’ new Clarinet Concerto is given by Mark Simpson as his time as our Artist in Residence comes to a close. Raised in a ‘heart-shaped’ territory on the Welsh border, a woodland region with its own dialect, Higgins’ musical language is also unique, infused with spirituality and an affinity with nature.

The Rite of Spring

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Britten and Tippett shared many traits: both were pacifists; conscientious objectors during the war; homosexuals, at a time when it was publicly outlawed in Britain; and both shared a love of older forms of music. Drawing on one of Corelli’s concerti grossi, Tippett’s Fantasia views the Baroque through modern eyes in this passing from darkness into light.

British Iconoclasts

Royal Northern College of Music

Britten and Tippett shared many traits: both were pacifists; conscientious objectors during the war; homosexuals, at a time when it was publicly outlawed in Britain; and both shared a love of older forms of music. Drawing on one of Corelli’s concerti grossi, Tippett’s Fantasia views the Baroque through modern eyes in this passing from darkness into light.

In Britten’s sparkling setting for voice and string orchestra (initially for soprano, later tenor) this phrase from French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud becomes an enigmatic throughline amid the poet’s eccentric scenes. Lose yourself in Britten’s crystalline textures, and Rimbaud’s magical imagery: of boats battered by whirlpools of light, of jugglers and rogues, cortèges of russet and opaline.

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Enjoy a varied programme of chamber music from Royal College of Music musicians at this lunchtime concert at St Pancras Church.

RCM at St Pancras Church

St Pancras Church, Euston Road

SHCS’s 61st season opens with Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández. A top prizewinner at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, he has been lauded as a “new cello genius” (Le Figaro), while the Los Angeles Times raved: “Pop-idol magnetism, superb technique, and exhilarating musicality reveal a sure star in the making…a cello phenomenon.” Ferrández debuts with a program of suites for solo cello featuring two radiant masterworks by Bach.

Pablo Ferrández, cello (Baltimore Recital Debut)

Johns Hopkins University

Composed in 1941 during his time in America, Britten’s An American Overture was intended for the Cleveland Orchestra, but was never performed during the composer’s lifetime, receiving its premiere in Birmingham in 1983. Barber’s much-loved Violin Concerto, composed two years earlier, features soloist Charlie Lovell-Jones.

The American Dream

Smith Square Hall

Join CMA Artistic Director Kathleen Carter Bell as she collaborates with members of the Harrington String Quartet and the ASO’s Principal Cellist for an evening of evocative music spanning from impressionist Paris to the Welsh countryside.

Echoes and Landscapes

First Baptist Church Amarillo

On Sunday 4th October, Regents Opera, Britain's most ambitious "fringe" opera company, give a performance of Benjamin Britten's epic and thought-provoking "War Requiem". Ben Woodward conducts a massed choir comprising members of many of the south of England's choral societies, a huge orchestra, fixed and managed by Alison Holford, alongside Philippa Boyle (soprano), Andrew Tortise (tenor) and Felix Kemp (baritone).

Regents Opera War Requiem

Fairfield Halls

Tenor Ian Bostridge CBE joins Leeds Song Director Joseph Middleton to open our 2026–27 season with a programme of rare intensity and insight.

Long‑established as one of the most compelling interpreters of Schubert and Britten, Bostridge brings his unmistakable intellectual depth and emotional immediacy to a recital that pairs selected Schubert songs with Britten’s searing The Holy Sonnets of John Donne.

Bostridge is one of the world’s leading tenors, with an international career that spans major concert halls, opera houses and festivals. His recital appearances have taken him to Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh and the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, as well as Carnegie Hall, the Bayerische Staatsoper, La Monnaie and Teatro alla Scala. On the operatic stage he has earned particular acclaim for roles such as Aschenbach (Death in Venice) at the Deutsche Oper and Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw) at La Scala.

Leeds Song: Ian Bostridge and Joseph Middleton

Leeds Conservatoire

Dani Howard wrote a new work when she won the Classic FM composition prize for the radio station’s 25th birthday in 2017 and now, internationally acclaimed for her inviting and shimmering sound world, she presents another new work written especially to celebrate the Orchestra’s 25 year relationship with Classic FM. There'll be iconic music from John Williams, a burst of Beethoven, Márquez's popular Conga party piece, and we'll hear ancient and contemporary British minds collide. Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra draws on themes by Henry Purcell, and Vaughan Williams reimagines the most famous of English folksongs. Something for everyone!

Classic FM Hall of Fame

Allan Clayton tenor; Christine Rice mezzo-soprano; James Baillieu piano

A glance at Fretwork’s copious discography reveals the scope of its musical interests and appetite for exploring the glories of the viol consort repertoire. It is joined by a cast of close colleagues and friends to celebrate its 40th anniversary at Wigmore Hall with a programme that reaches back to the consort music of Dowland, John Jenkins and William Lawes and forward to works by Sir George Benjamin and Silas Wollston. ‘Fretwork is the finest viol consort on the planet’, wrote the London Evening Standard, a view endorsed by sage critics worldwide.

Fretwork; Sir George Benjamin conductor; Susan Bickley mezzo-soprano; Iestyn Davies countertenor; Ian Bostridge tenor; Silas Wollston organ

Enigmatic Elgar, early Britten, a thrilling new work – and some outstanding young talent.
Britten’s Simple Symphony is surely one of his most popular works, its ‘Playful Pizzicato’ even turning up as the soundtrack to commercials. Its four movements are based on pieces Britten wrote as a precocious pre-teen, then reworked in his early twenties. Elgar’s Enigma Variations is also, possibly, his most popular work. Each variation of the theme depicts a friend of the composer’s, such as the famous ‘Nimrod’ movement - a portrait of ‘a long summer evening talk’ with August Jaeger. In between is Simcock’s new Triple Concerto, co-commission by the CBSO and composed for an exceptional trio of musicians, including CBSO Collaborative Artist Jess Gilliam on saxophone. Conductor Stephanie Childress makes her debut with the CBSO.

Elgar's Enigma Variations

Symphony Hall in Birmingham

‘So fluent, so confident, so glad to be alive’ is how The Times describes Timothy Ridout’s viola playing. He brings those qualities and more to this concert, given in partnership with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, which marked its 75th anniversary last year. Their programme includes Dobrinka Tabakova’s vibrant three-movement Suite in the Old Style and the young Benjamin Britten’s equally rousing Simple Symphony.

Timothy Ridout viola; Munich Chamber Orchestra

Two exceptional performers from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland take on Shostakovich’s emotive 1934 masterpiece for cello and piano as well as a varied trio of 20th century works by Benjamin Britten, Nadia Boulanger and the greatest cellist of his age, Mstislav Rostropovich.

Lunchtime Concert: Shostakovich's Cello Sonata

Perth Concert Hall

Hyeyoon Park’s debut concerto album, chosen by BBC Music Magazine as its Recording of the Month in January 2026, confirmed her place among today’s most expressive and thoughtful musicians. Since becoming the youngest ever winner of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2009, the South Korean violinist has generated international critical acclaim with interpretations described as ‘breathtaking’ by the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Hyeyoon Park violin; Juho Pohjonen piano

‘The truth untold, the pity of war, the pity war distilled …’ As Europe rose from the ashes of conflict, Benjamin Britten composed his War Requiem – fusing sacred texts with the poetry of Wilfred Owen to create one of music’s most personal (and powerful) gestures of sorrow, mourning and reconciliation.

Britten’s War Requiem

Southbank Centre

The Royal Swedish Orchestra is celebrating its 500th anniversary, and will perform Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring – the modernist ballet that was a notorious success when it premièred in Paris in 1913. Two works by Britten will also be performed: the orchestral suite »Four Sea Interludes« from the opera Peter Grimes, and the serenade, featuring tenor Michael Weinius and German horn player Stefan Dohr.

Rite of Spring with the Orchestra

Royal Swedish Opera

National Youth Choir of Northern Ireland Senior Choir, Belfast Philharmonic Youth Chamber Choir, Belfast Philharmonic Choir, Methodist College Chapel Choir, Royal Belfast Academical Institution Choir Tenors & Basses, Belfast Royal Academy Chamber Choir

Ulster Orchestra: Ode To Joy

Ulster Hall

The season starts with a mysterious masterpiece full of ‘dark sayings’. The theme, Elgar insisted, must be left unguessed and still baffles sleuths today, yet lies at the heart of one of the greatest works in British orchestral music. Our Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze explores the uncracked code in his introduction to, and performance of, Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Elegance, flair and passion follow with cellist Guy Johnston as soloist in Benjamin Britten’s only truly symphonic work. And Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, written in a flash of white-hot inspiration, kicks things off in celebratory style.

Season Opening Concert: Unveiling the Enigma

Benjamin Britten’s Sea Interludes from his hit opera Peter Grimes conclude with a violent storm. Here the tragic hero’s vision of happiness and inner peace is swept away by a final outburst from the orchestra. At the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin’s concert conducted by Simone Young, they are followed by the Adagio from Gustav Mahler’s unfinished 10th Symphony: a “tornado of life” (Jens Malte Fischer) that was written in one of the deepest crises that the composer suffered in the last summer of his life. Oscillating layers dominate the soundscape of Sappho/ Bioluminescence by the Australian composer Liza Lim, before the evening ends with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5.

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin I

Berliner Philharmoniker

The Ensemble Resonanz from Hamburg presents an eccentric programme full of creative surprises and contradictions in Berlin. The musical compass becomes disoriented by a dizzying alternation of places, times, styles and ideas. Milica Djordjević unleashes the forces of nature and evokes the energy of noise, Benjamin Britten soothes the spirits of the modern age and a leap back into the French Baroque reveals the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau as a visionary. The new work by Enno Poppe creates an enigmatic connection back into a time when the moods of our tonal system were still vividly coloured and nothing was standardised.

Ensemble Resonanz

Berliner Philharmonie

Jeremy Denk, Maria Włoszczowska and Royal Northern Sinfonia round off a three-night celebration of Mozart’s extraordinary piano concertos at Lammermuir Festival. 

Jeremy Denk plays Mozart Piano Concertos III

St Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington

Revitalising British opera over his four-decade career, Benjamin Britten’s lifelong fascination with the human voice yielded several outstanding works for solo voice and orchestra, rivalling anything he wrote for the stage with their drama, sophistication, and emotional impact. They explore everything from the pacifism that profoundly shaped his life to complex moral ambiguities that are as unsettling and captivating now as they were at their premieres.

Les Illuminations

St Mary's Church Haddington

When harp lessons were announced at a school assembly, Mared Pugh-Evans’s hand shot up immediately. She later recalled in an interview that she had always been very well-behaved — it was simply in her nature — but that moment may have been the most mischievous thing she had ever done. Little Mared was six at the time, and her father was the headmaster of her primary school. And that headmaster looked pretty stunned on the podium — perhaps mentally calculating the family budget, since a good harp can easily cost many tens of thousands of pounds. In Mared’s case, however, the investment more than paid off: by eleven she was already proving herself in competitions, and she has since earned numerous awards. The crowning moment came in 2024, when King Charles III appointed her “The King’s Harpist” — a royal position that had been reinstated by the then Prince of Wales in 2000. Back then, it went to Catrin Finch, the very harpist whose concert the young Mared had once listened to in rapt fascination, sparking her own love of the instrument. A “full circle” if ever there was one!

Mared Pugh-Evans

Lukaskirche Lucerne

The opening of the 2026/2027 season takes you on a musical journey across stormy seas, through sparkling nightscapes and symphonic dances with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, and the legendary soprano Nina Stemme. Here, the musical sea interpretations of British composers Ethel Smyth, Benjamin Britten and Edward Elgar meet with the Russian sonorous and dancing energy of Sergei Rachmaninov. A concert where natural forces, emotional storms and symphonic brilliance meet.

Sea Music and Symphonic Dances

Berwaldhallen

Song treasures in the Palace Chapel. Kathleen O'Mara (soprano) and Olesya Tutova (piano) in a chamber music concert in the Palace Chapel, Royal Palace, Oslo.

Kathleen O'Mara at the Palace

Royal Palace

NUSO - Norsk Ungdomssymfoniorkester performs a program of sea-themed program music, a journey through music history conducted by Berit Cardas.

Voices from the Sea

Stavanger Konserthus

Myths Op. 30 (Szymanowski), Cello Suite No. 3 Op. 87 (Britten), Intermezzo from Piano Quintet in A minor Op. 38 (Foote). Fanny og Alexander.

04 Evening Concert

Stavanger domkirke

Johannes Moser, known for performances seasoned by his capacious imagination and poetic artistry, is joined by his regular duo partner Andrei Korobeinikov in a programme hallmarked by two fascinating pairings of works. Nadia Boulanger’s 3 pieces, composed in 1914, provide a playful introduction to the five contrasting movements of the Cello Sonata Britten wrote for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1961, while Rachaminov’s Vocalise makes a charming companion to the cello version of César Franck’s weighty Violin Sonata.

Johannes Moser cello; Andrei Korobeinikov piano

The Heath Quartet, formed at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2002, has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Wigmore Hall and built a devoted following thanks to performances that make creative sparks fly. Its latest programme takes wing with Britten’s 3 Divertimenti, conceived in 1936 as part of Go play, boy, play, a projected suite of character portraits depicting old school chums, and flourishes in two contrasting quartets by Mozart and Robert Schumann.

Heath Quartet

Cambridge Summer Music Festival

Saffron Hall

When a young sailor is unjustly accused of mutiny, it triggers a tragic sequence of events. Good and evil, innocence and corruption come together in this heartbreaking opera, a seafaring epic brought to vivid life in Michael Grandage’s evocative, claustrophobic production.

Billy Budd

Glyndebourne

Broken Branches takes its title from Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe’s eponymous album, a cornucopia of musical and literary treasures drawn from East and West. Their programme touches on the mystical nature of being, something innate that connects different cultures, religions and regions with deep bonds of common kinship, and the universal stories and emotions that bring people together in union.

Karim Sulayman tenor; Sean Shibe guitar

Pieter Wispelwey, acclaimed by Gramophone as ‘a daring interpreter with thought-provoking ideas’, has twice recorded Britten’s First Cello Suite, testimony to his deep affinity for one of the greatest of works for solo cello, a rich 20th-century counterpart to the cello suites of JS Bach. The Dutch cellist is joined by his duo partner Paolo Giacometti in Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Cello Sonata, another majestic work inspired by and written for Mstislav Rostropovich.

Pieter Wispelwey cello; Paolo Giacometti piano

Thomas Larcher’s Still, originally composed in 2002, plays with the concept of the ‘video still’, a ‘frozen’ image from a video film, and the process of transforming it or leaving it unchanged. Timothy Ridout prefaces the piece as soloist in Britten’s string arrangement of his Lachrymae, leaving the Britten Sinfonia and Larcher to occupy the programme’s second half with Shaker Loops, a quintessential masterwork of American minimalism.

Britten Sinfonia; Timothy Ridout viola; Thomas Larcher conductor

Britten Sinfonia With Thomas Larcher

Wigmore Hall, London

9.  Chamber Concert

Hoghehus Lübeck

Led by William Long, and featuring acting and narration by the creative team “Really Inventive Stuff”, this family concert offers the perfect introduction to the orchestra and it’s many parts, preceded by an interactive instrument exploration station at 10 AM.

Family Concert: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

Lobero Theatre

Britten’s gripping psychological drama returns in this award-winning staging.

When a young sailor is unjustly accused of mutiny, it triggers a tragic sequence of events. Good and evil, innocence and corruption come together in this heartbreaking opera, a seafaring epic brought to vivid life in Michael Grandage’s evocative, claustrophobic production.

Michael Grandage returns to direct Britten’s opera, not seen at Glyndebourne for a over decade. Nicholas Carter will conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thomas Mole will play in the title role, Olivier Award-winner Allan Clayton and Sam Carl make their role debuts playing Captain Vere and John Claggart. See full cast and creative team details here.

Concert with Ensemble MidtVest and this year's star soloist Sebastian Klinger. Look forward to experiencing an absolutely world-class cellist.

Nørre Vosborg: EMV and soloist Sebastian Klinger

Nørre Vosborg

Jazz meets classical as pianist Makoto Ozone joins conductor Jun Märkl for Rachmaninoff’s spirited Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Ozone’s own O’Berek, and Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony complete a concert that features vivacity and charm.

Season Finale: Makoto Ozone plays Rachmaninoff

Hilbert Circle Theatre

The soap opera of Greek gods, heroes and heroines has been a rich source of inspiration for writers, painters and musicians for centuries. In this concert we hear tales of men and women behaving very badly indeed, set to extraordinary music.

Aldeburgh Festival Ii: Phaedra

Snape Maltings

For the first time, the Czech Philharmonic is opening the doors of its own subscription series to the LSO. Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem is heard alongside Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.

On Tour in Prague

Rudolfinum

For the first time, the Czech Philharmonic is opening the doors of its own subscription series to the London Symphony Orchestra symbolically on the 50th anniversary of the death of Benjamin Britten. His Sinfonia da Requiem will be heard alongside Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a work that the conductor Antonio Pappano calls a celebration of the beauty of life.

London Symphony Orchestra • Antonio Pappano

The cellist Rostropovich brought something out in Britten. The famously reserved composer responded to the cellist’s ebullience and demonstrative nature across a series of full-blooded works. Discussing whether Britten would write him a concerto, Rostropovich declared “Write for the cello everything that your heart tells you, never mind how difficult it is; my love for you will help me to master every note, even the most impossible ones”. Britten followed these instructions to the letter: difficult, at times, but full of heart, the Symphony for Cello is a bold, brave and sometimes boisterous encounter between cello and orchestra.

Aldeburgh Festival I: Cello Symphony

Archduke Rudolph of Austria was the pianist for the premiere of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto—and he also happened to be one of the composer’s most important patrons. To make him shine, Beethoven brought in two of the best players of the day. We’ve got our own trio of all-stars on tap for this program, which includes Schumann’s reflection of life in the Rhineland.

Beethoven Triple Concerto

Orchestra Room

A rip-roaring tour of the orchestra and a Welcome to Ipswich: two of Britten’s most joyful and energetic works.

In the last two years of his life, Britten experienced an astonishing burst of creativity. From chamber pieces to songs to a full-blown cantata, he wrote some of his most enduringly popular and vigorous works while seriously weakened by illness. Welcome Ode was his final work, composed for the Queen’s visit to Ipswich in her Jubilee Year in 1977. Scored for children’s voices and orchestra, it is one of his most uninhibitedly upbeat works, with a delightfully outdoorsy spirit.

Another work for young people is Britten’s dazzling Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which is what it says on the tin: a comprehensive look at every participant in a symphony orchestra. Each instrument gets a go at the tune by Purcell on which the piece is based, sometimes solo, sometimes in intriguing combinations. Britten was reportedly so thrilled with the first recording of this work that he bounced up and down with excitement. You may find yourself doing the same – especially at the prospect of a new narration for the work, from eminent actor Rory Kinnear.

This performance will welcome an audience of young people from local schools and communities, with limited tickets available on general sale.

Aldeburgh Festival 2026: Welcome to the Orchestra

Thomas Adès’ Alchymia has been hailed as ‘simply one of the best chamber music compositions of our time’ (Guardian). Inspired by the music of Shakespearean England, but with a voice all of its own, this major work for string quartet and basset clarinet was premiered in 2021 and has become an instant classic. Musica Viva Australia is excited to present the London-based Doric String Quartet performing this ‘magical and arresting’ (The Times) work with the ‘brilliance, charisma and sensitivity’ (The Mercury) of Australian clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff.

Musica Viva Australia presents Doric String Quartet & Lloyd Van’t Hoff

Queensland Conservatorium

Benjamin Britten / The Golden Vanity

Cité de la Musique

6. Chamber Concert: Depths of Passion

Allerheiligen-Hofkirche

[PIZZICATO] It all begins with sad news: the composer is dead, murdered! An inspector leads the investigation and questions the suspects, the orchestra's instrument families: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. They all seem to have a solid alibi. So who is the culprit? Through this thrilling search and thanks to Nathaniel Stookey's original music, discover the orchestra's instruments and learn the most astonishing secrets of classical music.

Investigation at the orchestra: The composer is dead

Philharmonic Hall of Liege

Chamber Concert “In memoriam”

Evangelische Akademie Tutzing

Munich Residence

Tchaikovsky never held back. He asked for his Fifth Symphony to be performed con desiderio e passione – with desire and passion – and when guest conductor Cornelius Meister joins the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall we can promise exactly that. With its heartfelt melodies and blazing colours, we love playing Tchaikovsky’s Fifth as much as you love hearing it, and there’s no more stirring way to finish a season packed with music at its most uninhibited.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5

Cadogan Hall 

Tchaikovsky never held back. He asked for his Fifth Symphony to be performed con desiderio e passione –‘with desire and passion’ – and when guest conductor Cornelius Meister joins the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, we can promise exactly that. With its heartfelt melodies and blazing colours, we love playing Tchaikovsky’s Fifth as much as you love hearing it, and there’s no more stirring way to finish a season packed with music at its most uninhibited. But that’s not all: the evening opens with a delightful new miniature from Composer-in-Association Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away). And Clara-Jumi Kang brings all her world-class insight to Britten’s powerful Violin Concerto, written on the eve of World War II. Strong emotions, stunningly played.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5

There’s a good reason why Elgar’s Cello Concerto is a classic: deep emotions surge beneath its haunted surface and if anyone can uncover them it’s our soloist, the remarkable Kian Soltani. Today, it’s just one stage on an emotional odyssey devised by our Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Hahn: a voyage that embraces the infinite longing of George Crumb and Richard Wagner, the volcanic grief of Benjamin Britten, and Scriabin’s final, multicoloured starburst of pure sonic bliss. Join us and be transported. 

Elgar’s Cello Concerto

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Britten’s delightful retelling of the Noah’s Ark story is specially composed for children’s voices and performance in a church. The Tulsa Youth Opera will not only sing the roles, but will help create the set, props, and costumes for this charming, family-friendly show.

Noah’s Flood (Noye’s Fludde)

First Methodist Church Tulsa

There’s a good reason why Elgar’s Cello Concerto is a classic: deep emotions surge beneath its haunted surface and if anyone can uncover them it’s our soloist, the remarkable Kian Soltani. Today, it’s just one stage on an emotional odyssey devised by our Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Hahn: a voyage that embraces the infinite longing of George Crumb and Richard Wagner, the volcanic grief of Benjamin Britten, and Scriabin’s final, multicoloured starburst of pure sonic bliss. Join us and be transported.

Usher Hall

In "Elements," Nina Šenk explores the balance between our everyday lives and elemental nature, each embodied by different groups of instruments. Benjamin Britten began work on his Violin Concerto in 1938, bringing the unfinished score with him when he emigrated to New York by ship with his partner, Peter Pears. The shock of two wars, the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, found its way into the work, as did the American popular music that Britten encountered during his stay in the USA. Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra was also written in exile, commissioned by the conductor Sergei Koussevitzky and his Boston Symphony Orchestra. Dietmar Holland described this last major orchestral work by Bartók, who, while seriously ill and almost penniless, had to wrest it from himself as a response to the horrors of the Second World War, as a "utopia of brotherhood between nations."

7th Symphony Concert

Eurogress Aachen

Sit back and enjoy a journey through the stars with music from Interstellar and Star Wars. Acclaimed organist and music profile Anna Lapwood makes her debut in Gothenburg with an imaginative organ programme from the world of film.

Anna Lapwood: Music of the Stars

Göteborgs Symfoniker

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the death of Benjamin Britten in 1976, we open with arguably his best-loved orchestral work, the “Four Sea Interludes” from his opera Peter Grimes. This will be followed by Richard Strauss’s finest and final vocal composition, his Four Last Songs, performed tonight by one of the world’s greatest Strauss interpreters, British soprano Elizabeth Watts. Elizabeth is a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and is much in demand across the world; we are delighted to welcome her back to the Festival.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

St Nicolas Church

What does musical progress sound like? And what happens when composers consciously look back? Under the motto "BACKWARDS is also FORWARDS," Christopher Lichtenstein explores the complex relationship between past and present in this program.

BACKWARDS is also FORWARDS

Schloss Osnabrück

Britten's Young Apollo and Les Illuminations were written in Canada and America. Here, his setting of Rimbaud’s surrealist poetry is sung by acclaimed UK soprano, Elizabeth Watts. We also hear the sound of 1940s America in the works of Britten’s “very dear friend” and mentor in his bohemian New York circle, Aaron Copland.

Britten In America With Elizabeth Watts And Oleg Shebeta-dragan

The Halls

arc Shopping Centre

Kings Place

Here Gavrylyuk tackles Rachmaninov’s notoriously difficult Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. These 24 variations take you on a wild ride, from stormy to mischievous to tender; but in the 18th, Rachmaninov flips the melody upside down to reveal one of classical music’s biggest and best-loved tunes.

Alexander Gavrylyuk performs Rachmaninov

Sydney Opera House

This program draws inspiration from the ocean: Britten’s Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes present an unforgiving antagonist; Debussy’s La Mer depicts a world of enchantment, and in its Australian premiere Poème by Jeanne Demessieux plumbs the still depths of the sea.

For Schools: Open Rehearsal with Nicholas Carter

Anguished. Tender. Searing. Tchaikovsky juggles beauty and suffering, Britten reflects powerfully on grief and conflict, and Bernstein grapples with the modern world.

Britten, Bernstein and Tchaikovsky

Bach - Britten - Pärt - MacMillan: On the "Day of Liberation" on May 8th, we musically bridge to Great Britain with our Philharmonic Choirs and present a program that illuminates different musical approaches to themes such as peace, remembrance, and spirituality. In his "Sinfonia da Requiem," Benjamin Britten combines liturgical elements with his personal musical language. Created against the backdrop of World War II, the composition stands as a monument and plea for peace and humanity. Arvo Pärt's "Da pacem Domine" combines meditative calmness and a clear, simple aesthetic. Pärt's minimalist musical language elevates the Latin plea for peace into a timeless, universal dimension. However, the musical core of the concert consists of two works by our Composer in Residence, who also conducts. Particularly poignant are his "Cantos Sagrados." "When composing this piece, I wanted to create something that is both timeless and contemporary, both sacred and secular," he says. The result is a moving work for choir and orchestra that is particularly touching under his direction.

MacMillan and Choir

Palace of Culture

In Richard Strauss’ opera Capriccio, characters debate whether art, poetry or music is more important; this exquisite Sextet makes a persuasive argument for the latter.

Cocktail Hour with Euan Harvey

DramaturgMette Borginstructs us in how we can convey music in a much more convincing way with great knowledge and only small means.

Composer

Benjamin Britten

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 2, 2026

War Requiem · Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Nov 2, 2026

Emma Burgess, Gareth Twigg and Benjamin Powell · Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

5 - 6 Nov, 2026

BRSO: Takemitsu / Britten / Rachmaninoff · BRSO

5 - 6 Nov, 2026

Sir Simon Rattle & Julia Hagen · Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Nov 6, 2026

Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello, with Alexandre Tharaud, piano · The Royal Conservatory of Music

Past events

Oct 31 - Nov 1, 2026

Enigma Variations & Britten · Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Oct 31, 2026

Fleur Barron mezzo-soprano; Mauro Peter tenor; Joseph Middleton piano · Wigmore Hall

About

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