For centuries, even the most gifted composers have found themselves persecuted or marginalised simply because of who they were. As a gay man in Tsarist Russia, Tchaikovsky knew what it was to be an outsider, and he poured all his emotions into his Fourth Symphony: a no-holds-barred emotional autobiography, pulsing with melody and torn by raw and dangerous passions. ‘Petrenko’s Fourth is a white-knuckle ride’ wrote Gramophone magazine, and he certainly won’t hold back tonight. There’s no shortage of great melodies in the first half of the concert, too, as Petrenko champions Dorothy Howell’s Lamia – a wildly romantic tale of forbidden love – and the lovely piano concerto by the African-American composer Florence Price. Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, making her Royal Philharmonic Orchestra debut, is the soloist in music that was side-lined for decades and is only now receiving its due.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.4

Royal Festival Hall

Join us for an unforgettable evening at the LSO Discovery Showcase, presented by the London Symphony Orchestra. This special event is set to take place at the Barbican on Thursday, 26 June 2025, starting at 7:30 pm. 

Curated by LSO animateur Rachel Leach, the showcase promises to be a unique blend of talent, featuring performances by the Orchestra alongside participants from the extensive range of LSO Discovery's programs. This event is a celebration of music-making, learning, and community engagement, highlighting the incredible work done through the LSO Discovery program.

The evening's program is yet to be announced, ensuring anticipation remains high. The concert will conclude at approximately 8:45 pm, including a 20-minute interval, though timings are subject to change.

Tickets are available at various price points (£16, £12, £10) with a £4 booking fee applicable per online or phone transaction. Special discounts are available, including Wildcards for guaranteed entry with seat allocation on the day, Multibuy Discounts saving up to 40%, and special rates for groups, students, and 18s-and-under. 

Booking your tickets is easy and can be done online at lso.co.uk or barbican.org.uk, by phone, or in person at the Barbican Centre with no booking fee. For any changes, the Box Office accommodates refunds and exchanges with a per-ticket administration fee, ensuring flexibility for your plans.

Don't miss this opportunity to witness the synergy of the London Symphony Orchestra and the vibrant community it supports through its educational and outreach programs. Mark your calendars for an evening of exceptional music and discovery.

EPSG:4326

LSO Discovery Showcase

Barbican Centre

Proms at St Jude’s often takes place during Pride Month, and tonight − nearly 55 years to the day since the first Pride marches in June 1970, following the 1969 Stonewall Uprising − we celebrate three LGBTQ+ composers and the immense contribution they have made in the history of classical music. Caroline Shaw is the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music and described Entr’acte as ‘like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further; [it] suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition’. American Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings is one of the most recognisable pieces of classical music in the world – it was used at Franklin Roosevelt’s funeral and after JFK’s assassination − and Tchaikovsky’s heartfelt Serenade for Strings is considered to be one of the late Romantic era’s definitive compositions.

Classical Pride at St. Jude’s

St Jude's Church, Hampstead

Returning to the festival by popular demand, the brilliant brass players of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra present a glittering programme of music inspired by 'Eternal Light'.

Shining Brass: Bach and Bruckner to Walton and Wagner

St Giles Cripplegate

On a magical island, a young hero makes sweet music with a beautiful sorceress. In old Vienna, a veteran composer encounters a fabulous new instrument – and finds he’s young again. And Ludwig van Beethoven hears the thunder of Fate itself, in a symphony that echoes down the centuries.

Sounds extraordinary? Well, that’s the thing with AAM: we’re all about the adventure; taking you to times and places where the sounds are elegant but the emotions run wild. A sparkling trumpet concerto, the world’s most famous symphony and a woman of genius from 18th-century Denmark: we’ll meet them all. Expect tenderness, rage and unbridled joy.

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

Quentin Blake’s glorious, multicoloured Box of Treasures bursts open as the BBC Symphony Orchestra accompanies two wonderfully animated adventures live: Angel Pavement and Loveykins.

Quentin Blake’s Box of Treasures with the BBC Symphony Orchestra

### Event Description: Berlioz, Rachmaninov, and Shostakovich at Cadogan Hall

**Date and Time:**  
Monday, 30 June 2025, 7:30 PM

**Venue:**  
Cadogan Hall

**Event Overview:**  
The Kensington Symphony Orchestra (KSO) returns to Cadogan Hall for an enchanting evening featuring the works of Berlioz, Rachmaninov, and Shostakovich. This concert promises to be a captivating experience, showcasing the exceptional talent of one of the UK's finest non-professional orchestras.

**Programme:**  
- **Berlioz:** *Le carnaval romain*  
- **Rachmaninov:** *Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini*  
- **Shostakovich:** *Symphony No.1*  

**Conductor:**  
Russell Keable

**Soloist:**  
Firoze Madon, piano

**About KSO:**  
Formed in 1956, the Kensington Symphony Orchestra has built an enviable reputation for its high-level performances. Recognized as one of the best amateur groups in the country, KSO is celebrated for its professional sound and dedication to musical excellence.

Join us for an unforgettable night of classical music at Cadogan Hall, where the timeless compositions of Berlioz, Rachmaninov, and Shostakovich will come to life under the baton of Russell Keable.

Berlioz, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich at Cadogan Hall

Cadogan Hall 

Jonathon Heyward conducts a pair of distinct musical portraits. German composer Christian Jost’s 'The Woman in the Gardens of Suzhou' depicts the gardens of Suzhou which defined and perfected the imagery of the Chinese Garden. Meanwhile Mieczysław Weinberg’s Third Symphony, written between 1949-1950, flits between pastoral images and Russian folk melodies.

Jonathon Heyward conducts Jost and Weinberg

BBC Maida Vale Studios

Experience the sounds of Baroque in a concert featuring Handel’s lively Water Music and the grand Music from the Royal Fireworks performed by the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. Pachelbel’s timeless Canon brings serene beauty, while Telemann’s Tafelmusik delights with its charming elegance. This captivating programme transports you to the grandeur of 18th century courtly celebrations with music that is both majestic and inspiring. Enjoy a journey through Baroque splendour, where every piece evokes joy, celebration, and refinement.

Fire and Water, By Candlelight

St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London

The story of Salome has fascinated artists, writer and painters for centuries. Richard Strauss’s version of this anti-heroine comes from a drama by Oscar Wilde. Both play and opera scandalised society, and even today the opera has a visceral power with its combination of lust, religion and disturbingly gory ‘love-song’, and its sensuous, shocking music.

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano

In these free public workshops, witness a pivotal point in the process of writing a new three-minute orchestral piece, as the LSO play works by the latest cohort of Panufnik composers.

LSO Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Composers' Scheme Workshops

Blackheath Halls

Join the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra for an enchanting evening of Baroque brilliance, featuring three iconic works that highlight the era's expressive beauty. Albinoni’s haunting Adagio sets a reflective tone with its rich, emotional depth. Marcello’s Oboe Concerto showcases the instrument's lyrical elegance, performed with virtuosity and grace. The concert concludes with a unique spin on Vivaldi’s celebrated Four Seasons, where two movements will be performed on the Erhu by the exceptional Zíyang Huang. A captivating journey through Baroque music awaits!

Vivaldi’s Venice

The Sheldonian Theatre

All swagger, originality and ‘orgiastic power’, one of the great 20th-century symphonies, Walton’s Symphony No. 1, put the composer on the map – as the heir to both Elgar and Sibelius. Ravel’s jazz-infused, darkly atmospheric Piano Concerto for the Left Hand also breaks new ground: only one hand plays, though the ear hears all the richness of two. Nicholas McCarthy – the world’s only professional one-handed concert pianist – makes his Proms debut. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra opens its first Prom under new Chief Conductor Mark Wigglesworth with Shostakovich’s jovial Suite for Variety Orchestra, packed with tunes from the composer’s music for ballet, theatre and cinema.

BBC Proms Ravel with Nicholas McCarthy

Royal Albert Hall

Night-time darkness and blazing musical sunlight collide in Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 – a musical epic that packs the whole world into five contrasting movements. Vast orchestral forces – including mandolin, cowbells and guitar – conjure a shifting landscape of waltzes, serenades, fanfares, marches and mysterious ‘night-wandering’ – by turns romantic and humorous, sardonic and sincere. To open, John Storgårds conducts the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and tenor Allan Clayton in the world premiere of award-winning composer Tom Coult’s Monologues for the Curious, inspired by the ghost stories of M. R. James.

Mahler’s Seventh

A concert of larger-than-life sounds, stories and characters has Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique at its heart. Heady, opium-fuelled visions create a kaleidoscopic sequence: a swirling ballroom, a march to the scaffold and a witches’ sabbath, all set to the obsessive pulse of unrequited love. Sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick inspires Mark Simpson’s ZEBRA, a new concerto for maverick guitarist and former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Sean Shibe. The concert opens with Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration – no less than a musical struggle between life and death, climaxing in a promise of eternal peace.

Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie fantastique’

Mischievous tricksters and magical fairy tales meet in a fantastical programme from Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Incorrigible troublemaker Till Eulenspiegel is up to no good in the witty, light-footed antics of Strauss’s tone-poem. A clever monkey faces off against a lion in the UK premiere of American composer Anthony Davis’s Tales (Tails) of the Signifying Monkey and a nightingale must charm Death to spare the Emperor of China in Stravinsky’s The Song of the Nightingale. At the heart of the programme is one of the great Romantic violin concertos: Augustin Hadelich is the soloist in Mendelssohn’s vivacious, melody-filled masterpiece.

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto

A melody heard in a dream, a tribute to a dying genius, a vision of cosmic beauty: Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 is the composer’s musical memorial to Richard Wagner. It’s a homage that elevated the Austrian composer to new heights, a musical walk around a magnificent cathedral. A contemporary tribute opens tonight’s Prom: Ryan Wigglesworth’s for Laura, after Bach, dedicated to the memory of former BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Leader Laura Samuel and inspired by her recording of a Bach Partita, played at her funeral. Mozart’s stormy Piano Concerto No. 20 completes the programme, with Georgian pianist and former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Mariam Batsashvili as the soloist.

Mozart and Bruckner

Harrison Birtwistle’s monumental Earth Dances returns to the Proms for the first time this century. This contemporary orchestral masterpiece boasts tectonic shifts that surge and fissure with inexorable, elemental force. Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra pair it with the mould-breaking orchestral pinnacle of another age. Grander than anything that came before, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, the ‘Eroica’, ushers in Romanticism, revolutionising both the form itself and expectations of what a symphony can – and should – be.

Beethoven and Birtwistle

A Romantic classic meets two 20th-century masterworks in a concert of widescreen orchestral drama. From its thunderous opening chords to its heartbreaking slow movement, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is an emotional tour de force. Ukraine-born Vadym Kholodenko joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Conductor Laureate Tadaaki Otaka. Framing the concerto are two orchestral showpieces: Bacewicz’s vibrant Concerto for String Orchestra – whose motoric outer movements contrast with a sublime Andante – and the daring invention of Lutosławski’s folk-inspired Concerto for Orchestra.

Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto

The thrum of urban America – jazz clubs and bustling sidewalks, pulsing Latin rhythms and night-time lights – runs through this Prom given by Joshua Weilerstein and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Rachmaninov’s enigmatic final masterpiece, the Symphonic Dances, blends Russian soul with bold colours from the composer’s adopted homeland. Copland’s Clarinet Concerto draws on the virtuoso skills of jazz legend Benny Goodman, while bandleader Artie Shaw wrote his Clarinet Concerto for his own considerable skills as a player. Elsa Barraine’s tautly lyrical Symphony No. 2 opens the programme.

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