BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus 2025-26 Barbican Season

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.

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.

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.

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

A magical bird, a dream of England, and the sheer magic of pianist Yeol Eum Son, as Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra bring a blaze of colour to the Barbican.

Sakari Oramo pairs flair with idyllic cheer in this dual outing of Romantic masterpieces: Saint-Saëns’ fifth piano concerto and Brahms’s Second Symphony.

Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, and a UK premiere from Julia Adolphe. Big emotions and natural wonders from Kristiina Poska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

BBC Radio 3’s Tom Service talks to Andrew Mellor about the music and composers featured in today’s first concert.

BBC Radio 3’s Tom Service hosts and talks to composers Bara G, Valgeir S and Icelandic music expert Andrew Mellor.