London Symphony Orchestra
Resident Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is built on the belief that extraordinary music should be available to everyone, everywhere. It was established in 1904 and today is among the world’s top orchestras
As Resident Orchestra at the Barbican since the Centre opened, it performs some 50 concerts here every year, under the batons of a family of conductors that includes Chief Conductor Designate Sir Antonio Pappano, Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle, Principal Guest Conductors Gianandrea Noseda and François-Xavier Roth, Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas and Associate Artists Barbara Hannigan and André J Thomas.
Events
London Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Adès: 50th Birthday Concert
In the week that he turns 50, Thomas Adès conducts his dazzling piano concerto In Seven Days alongside Sibelius' Sixth Symphony.
LSO/Mälkki & Christian Tetzlaff
Dancing on the edge of a volcano: Sibelius, Zemlinsky and Shostakovich stared the 20th century in the eye. Violinist Christian Tetzlaff and conductor Susanna Mälkki show us what they saw.
London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle: Haydn, Brahms & Strauss
Not so private passions. Sir Simon Rattle conducts personal favourites from three centuries, by Strauss, Brahms and Haydn.
Half Six Fix: Sibelius Symphony No 5 LSO/Tilson Thomas
If music could sound like a Scandinavian sunrise, it would sound like Sibelius's Fifth Symphony. So skip the rush hour: Michael Tilson-Thomas is serving up refreshment for the spirit.
LSO/Roth: Berlioz & Varèse
Severed heads, demonic orgies and obsessive love. Francois Xavier-Roth pairs Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique with another untamed imagination: the astonishing, experimental music of Edgard Varèse.
Half Six Fix: Shostakovich LSO/Noseda
Beat the rush-hour crowds, and discover one of the landmarks of 20th-century music: Shostakovich’s devastating Thirteenth Symphony, ‘Babi Yar’.
London Symphony Orchestra/Tilson Thomas: Sibelius
Yuja Wang and Michael Tilson Thomas: two names that speak for themselves, in Rachmaninov’s hugely popular Second Piano Concerto.
Half Six Fix: Varèse & Bartók LSO/Roth
Escape the rush hour with the LSO and one of the greatest violinists of our time. Isabelle Faust performs Bartók’s sultry Second Violin Concerto.
Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition Final
Three exceptional young conductors compete for a £15,000 prize and the chance to be LSO Assistant Conductor.
LSO/Rattle: Wozzeck with Christian Gerhaher
Sir Simon Rattle conducts an outstanding cast in a concert performance of Wozzeck: Berg’s shattering tragedy of one man’s struggle with a brutal world.
Discover
Profile: London Symphony Orchestra
Listen to our selection of LSO recordings from across the years in our Spotify playlist.
Barbican Sessions: Peter Moore
London Symphony Orchestra’s young trombonist, Peter Moore, performs 'Doolallynastics – a brief torture for solo trombone’ by Brian Lynn in our latest Barbican Session, filmed in one of our Frobisher Auditoriums.