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Best Barbican concerts: the top musical performances of 2020/21

By Claudia Pritchard on 13/3/2020

Booking opens at 10AM on Mon 16 March for a full year of first-class music. Here is our pick of the great orchestras, soloists, programmes and premieres

The Rite of Spring

The exciting conductor Mirga Gražinyté-Tyla (pictured) and her CBSO are joined by Nicola Benedetti in the atmospheric Sibelius Violin Concerto. Ravel’s doomy La Valse opens an unmissable programme that ends with Stravinsky’s dramatic The Rite of Spring, which in 1913 caused a riot and changed music for ever.

WHEN

Mon 21 Sept 2020, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Igor Levit and the Cleveland Orchestra

Part of a year-long 50^th birthday celebration for composer Thomas Adès opens with his new Angel Symphony. Igor Levit (pictured) is the distinguished soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 9. Plus, the astringent Scriabin Symphony No 2.

WHEN

Mon 12 Oct 2020, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

BBC Symphony Orchestra, 90th birthday celebration

In all the talk about the future of the BBC, not much is said about its five orchestras and their non-stop live-performance schedule and broadcasts. The London-based BBC Symphony Orchestra is the backbone of the Proms. Hear it celebrate its 90^th birthday with Bruch’s much-loved Violin Concerto, and music by Mahler, Janáček and others. Dalia Stasevska (pictured) conducts. Soloists are violinist Johna Dalne and baritone Roderick Williams.

WHEN

Thurs 22 Oct 2020, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Isata Kanneh-Mason

The inspiring young pianist (pictured) complements music by Beethoven, Clara Schumann and Chopin with the 20th-century piano works by Poulenc, George Gershwin and Samuel Barber in a very attractive recital played in the small and resonant concert hall. Don’t miss the chance to catch this rising player.

WHEN

Tues 3 Nov 2020, 7:30PM

WHERE

Milton Court Concert Hall
1 Milton Street, EC2Y 9BH

Joyce DiDonato: My Favourite Things

The American mezzo-soprano (pictured) dazzles wherever she performs. Returning to an eager London audience after her Covent Garden triumph in Agrippina, she gives a recital of music both soulful and high-energy by composers including Monteverdi and Handel. She is joined by the scintillating early music specialists Il Pomo d’Oro under Francesco Corti. Unmissible.

WHEN

Sat 5 Dec 2020, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon

As the year that marks 250 years since the birth of Beethoven comes to a close, Sir Simon Rattle (pictured) and the London Symphony Orchestra are joined by the Polish virtuoso Krystian Zimerman in all five of Beethoven’s innovative and entertaining piano concertos. Follow the composer’s 20-year journey, breaking new ground with every work, and marvel at the stamina of a pianist who won Warsaw’s prestigious Chopin Competition at 18...

WHEN

Thurs 17 Dec 2020, 6PM (note early start)

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Handel's Messiah

There will be plenty of performances of Handel’s great oratorio at this time of year, but this one will be exceptional. Richard Egarr directs the Academy of Ancient Music and its choir from the harpsichord. Soloists include soprano Rowan Pierce, counter-tenor Iestyn Davies (pictured) and bass Ashley Riches. Learn more about this musical phenomenon at a free pre-concert talk at 6:30PM.

WHEN

Fri 18 Dec, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Girls of the Golden West

Witness the UK premiere of the acclaimed new opera by American minimalist John Adams (pictured). The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer is joined by the BBC Singers and soloists in a concert performance that is sure to be the talking point of the new year. Exploring racial tension, sexual abuse and the desperation of the 19th-century Californian gold rush, the composer gives voices to the era’s victims and dreamers, his libretto based on writing by Mark Twain.

WHEN

Sun 17 Jan 2021, 6:30PM (note early start)

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Czech Philharmonic

One of the most famous orchestras in the world is conducted by Semyon Bychkov and joined by the phenomenal pianist sisters, Katia and Marielle Labeque (pictured) for Mozart’s Piano Concerto for Two Pianos. Two Czech composers bookend the concerto – Miloslav Kabeláč and Antonin Dvorak, whose Symphony No 9 ‘From the New World’ is one of the most-loved works in the repertoire.

WHEN

Sat 13 Feb 2021, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Evgeny Kissin

The Russian-born piano virtuoso Evgeny Kissin (pictured) plays mostly Chopin in a rare London recital that lets its hair down at the end with Gershwin’s jazzy and bluesy Three Preludes. Marvel at this former child prodigy, now one of the most sought-after artists on the international music scene.

WHEN

Tues 16 March 2021, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason

Brother and sister, the cellist (pictured) and pianist are a musical sensation, both accomplished performers in their own right. They have played together since their childhood in the prodigious musical family. Here they play music by Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, and Britten’s teacher, Frank Bridge.

WHEN

Thurs 25 March 2021, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

St John Passion

A Good Friday performance of Bach’s account of the Easter story, performed by the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner (pictured), with the English Baroque Soloists. Dramatic story-telling, heart-felt arias and chorales build to an exultant ending. Listen out for wonderful instrumental solos too.

WHEN

Fri 2 April 2021, 3PM (note early start)

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Mark Simpson world premiere

The important world premiere of the Violin Concerto by leading modern British composer Mark Simpson is given by Nicola Benedetti (pictured) with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda. Plus: Three Nocturnes by Debussy and the great Symphony No 6, the Pathétique, by Tchaikovsky.

WHEN

Sun 11 April 2021, 7PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Jonas Kaufmann is master of the tenor repertoire. Photo: Gregor Hohenberg

Jonas Kaufmann & Sir Antonio Pappano

A musical partnership like no other, the great German tenor and the conductor with whom he often works at Covent Garden step away from the opera stage and let rip with some of the great arias from the repertoire, with Pappano at the piano. Expect the great composers, including Verdi, and some special guests...

WHEN

Sun 16 May 2021, 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS

The Tempest

British opera royalty give a concert performance of Thomas Ades’s 2004 opera, based on Shakespeare’s play. The composer directs the Britten Sinfonia and Voices, with Nicky Spence (pictured) as Caliban, Marta Fontanals-Simmons as Miranda, Toby Spence, who created the role of the king’s son Ferdinand, now singing the King.

WHEN

Mon 28 June 2021, 7PM (note early start)

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Best Barbican concerts: the top musical performances of 2020/21

Booking opens at 10AM on Mon 16 March for a full year of first-class music. Here is our pick of the great orchestras, soloists, programmes and premieres

The Rite of Spring

Igor Levit and the Cleveland Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra, 90th birthday celebration

Isata Kanneh-Mason

Joyce DiDonato: My Favourite Things

Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon

Handel's Messiah

Girls of the Golden West

Czech Philharmonic

Evgeny Kissin

Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason

St John Passion

Mark Simpson world premiere

Jonas Kaufmann & Sir Antonio Pappano

The Tempest

Barbican

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle

Thomas Adès

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

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