BBC Symphony Orchestra
Associate Orchestra
The backbone of the BBC Proms and one of the UK's finest orchestras, the BBC SO performs a thrilling, distinctive range of music, from works at the heart of classical music to contemporary premieres.
Events
Oramo conducts Mahler's Tenth and The Lark Ascending
An evening-long meditation on life and the hereafter, devised by Sakari Oramo and featuring the UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s astonishing final masterpiece Hush.
Hrůša conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich
The Year 1905: Shostakovich’s monumental symphony meets Beethoven at his brightest. Unchained energy from conductor Jakub Hrůša, pianist Jonathan Biss and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Paul Huang plays Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto
Grand passions and big tunes from Mendelssohn, Korngold and Augusta Holmès, as conductor Marie Jacquot makes her debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Hindoyan conducts Barber's Violin Concerto
Big skies and new worlds: Domingo Hindoyan conducts three musical salutes to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, including Barber’s glorious Violin Concerto.
Symphonic Electronics: Iridescence
The UK premiere of Juste Janulyte’s Iridescence by the BBC Singers opens a portal into the expanding musical universe of symphonic electronics – 'symphonic' in the ancient Greek meaning 'harmonious'.
Symphonic Electronics: Continents, Computers and Electronic
Continents, computers and electric dreams: Tristan Murail’s non-electronic orchestral classic Gondwana charts a course to new worlds with electronics sound from Steven Daverson and Misato Mochizuki.
Symphonic Electronics: Shiva Feshareki and Stockhausen
Vintage Stockhausen plus a new adventure from British-Iranian composer and sonic explorer Shiva Feshareki – the world premiere of her Barbican commission for the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Chan conducts Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony
Conductor Elim Chan and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor: a dream-team joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich, Britten and the UK premiere of Elizabeth Ogonek’s ravishing Moondog.
BBC Symphony Orchestra: Stasevska conducts Ravel
For sheer sonic splendour, it’s hard to top Janáček’s Sinfonietta – but when Dalia Stasevska and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet perform Bartók and Ravel with the BBC SO, they’ll give it their best shot.
Pierre Boulez - The Man and the Music
Musicologist Professor Jonathan Cross talks to former members of the BBC SO as well as former Radio 3 Controller Sir Nicholas Kenyon – about their personal experience of working with Pierre Boulez.
Pierre Boulez – The Second Piano Sonata
Boulez’s shattering Second Piano Sonata, and two extraordinary works for solo clarinet, performed by the talented musicians of the Guildhall School and introduced by BBC Radio 3’s Kate Molleson.
Pierre Boulez – Pli selon pli
An evening-long tribute to the limitless creative mind of Pierre Boulez, culminating in a rare performance of his five-movement epic masterpiece Pli selon Pli.
Wigglesworth conducts Debussy and Berg
Poetry unlocks the imagination, as Ryan Wigglesworth and soprano Sophie Bevan plunge into the wild, wondrous sonic universe of Claude Debussy and Alban Berg.
BBC Symphony Orchestra: Oramo conducts Vaughan Williams
England’s dreaming: Sakari Oramo rediscovers rare and wonderful British masterpieces by Vaughan Williams, Doreen Carwithen and Malcolm Arnold.
Oramo conducts Mahler's Fourth Symphony
Sakari Oramo conducts Mahler’s playful Fourth Symphony – and plays the violin too, as Kurt Weill retells the myth of Orpheus in his own, utterly original style.
BBC Symphony Orchestra: Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius
A tribute to Sir Andrew Davis: Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius.
Yeol Eum Son plays Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto
Respighi’s Roman spectacular and a new American classic frame Prokofiev’s most thrilling piano concerto in this BBC Symphony Orchestra debut for pianist Yeol Eum Son.
Haydn and Strauss: Nelson Mass and A Hero’s Life
Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), Haydn’s Nelson Mass and pure sonic wonder from Samy Moussa. Hannu Lintu conducts a concert of outsize emotions and truly spectacular sounds.
Oramo conducts Strauss and Wagner
Glowing colours and grand passions: Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra join violinist Ilya Gringolts in Szymanowski’s gorgeous concerto – plus music by Wagner, Strauss and Dora Pejačević.
Gerstein plays Busoni’s Piano Concerto
Expect epic visions and piano playing that’s out of this world when Kirill Gerstein and Sakari Oramo champion Ferruccio Busoni’s stupendous Piano Concerto, as well as music by Grazyna Bacewicz.
Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly
A smash-hit Broadway play turned movie, David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly metamorphoses into music theatre as the UK premiere of Huang Ruo’s operatic reworking takes wing.
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sousa
Channel waves, folk rhythms and the heartbeat of the cosmos, as conductor Dinis Souza, pianist Bertrand Chamayou and the BBC Symphony Orchestra play Debussy, Bartók and Unsuk Chin.
BBC Singers Centenary Concert
The BBC Singers celebrate their 100th birthday and look forward to the future with a host of star artists and special guests including Eric Whitacre, Anna Lapwood, and Abel Selaocoe.
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oramo: A Sea Symphony
Full sail for new shores: Sakari Oramo conducts Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, Britten’s Double Concerto and an enchanting, newly uncovered late work by Oliver Knussen.
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Rakitina: Rachmaninov's Rhapsody
Three composers, three dramatic meditations on Fate and the Day of Judgement. Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony maps a journey from darkness to light, reflecting the crisis of his collapsed marriage.
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Brabbins: Old Pictures, New Worlds
Martyn Brabbins takes the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on an adventure that spans oceans – from a majestic choral masterwork from 19th century Brazil to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
BBC SO Total Immersion: Sinfonia... and more
Martyn Brabbins, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers launch an evening-long odyssey through the music of Dallapiccola, Maderna, Nono and Berio.
BBC SO Total Immersion: Italian Radicals
Miniatures by Berio, Maderna, Nono and Dallapiccola, introduced and performed live by virtuoso instrumentalists and singers from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Kate Atkinson and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
The author of Life After Life, Case Histories and Behind the Scenes at the Museum, joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra to read from her own work, and share the music that has moved and inspired her.
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Bignamini: Fantastic Symphony
Severed heads, demonic orgies and obsessive love. Jader Bignamini pairs Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique with the equally colourful imaginations of Poulenc and Camile Pépin.
Discover
Composer Focus – Episode 5: Jean Sibelius with Sakari Oramo
In the final episode, host Edward Seckerson is joined by BBC Symphony Orchestra conductor Sakari Oramo to discuss his fellow countryman Jean Sibelius, and the themes of nature and Finnish national identity woven throughout his music.
