Barbican Presents
Barbican Presents brings some of the greatest international classical artists, orchestras and ensembles to London, in a stimulating and eclectic mix of classical, contemporary, and Baroque music.
Barbican Members enjoy 20% off tickets and pay no booking fees across the Barbican Presents season (subject to availability). Find out more.
Events
Bach: Six Suites, Six Echoes
Bach’s music speaks across time, yet somehow exists outside of any era. Queyras pairs each of the six cello suites with an echo from our own time in a stimulating dialogue of spirit and mind.
Arcangelo: Haydn’s Creation
The Biblical creation story told in music of cosmic grandeur; a journey of uninhibited joy from the dramatic moment the first ray of light hits the waters of the deep.
Scottish Ensemble and Dunedin Consort: Seven Last Words
Scottish Ensemble and Dunedin Consort perform James MacMillan’s astonishing setting of the dying words of Jesus Christ.
Sketches of Spain
Guildhall Jazz Orchestra are joined by Guildhall professor Robbie Robson and Henry Lowther (Gil Evans band member) to give their take on Miles Davis’s ground-breaking concept album Sketches of Spain.
Bach Collegium Japan: St John Passion
There’s no mightier spiritual or artistic challenge than Bach’s St John Passion – and few living performers are better-equipped to tackle it than Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan.
Simon Trpčeski in recital
No pianist combines both delicacy and panache like the Macedonian virtuoso Simon Trpčeski. This is a flamboyantly colourful recital from a pianist with charisma – and virtuosity – to spare.
ECHO Rising Stars: Pablo Ferrández
“Personal vanity is alien to Ferrández” was the verdict of one competition jury – but this fast-rising Spanish cellist is simply passionate about communicating through the music he plays.
Igor Levit plays Beethoven, Bartók and Brahms
Featured Artist Igor Levit gleefully smashes through the bounds of the conventional piano recital, in an absorbing programme placing Beethoven, Brahms and Bartók in electrifying counterpoint.
ECHO Rising Stars: Simon Höfele
Trumpeter Simon Höfele opens this season’s ECHO series – the Barbican’s Europe-wide showcase for rising stars - with a dazzling flourish.
Igor Levit plays Messiaen and Shostakovich
Everything that Igor Levit plays is worth hearing, but this is something out of the ordinary: our Featured Artist performs a revelatory chamber version of Shostakovich’s haunted final symphony.
Lise Davidsen in recital with James Baillieu
The hype surrounding the young Norwegian soprano is nothing short of stratospheric, and the luxurious warmth of her voice will be on full display in an evening of lieder at their most darkly romantic.
Evgeny Kissin plays Beethoven
At the peak of his powers, Kissin finds something timeless and yet new every time he encounters Beethoven. Here he tackles three of the great Piano Sonatas: the Waldstein, Tempest and Pathétique.
Beethoven Weekender: weekend tickets
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Join the ultimate celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven as we explore the man, the music, and his place in our time in a jam-packed festival weekend.
Beethoven Weekender: day tickets
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Join us on the Saturday or Sunday of our ultimate Beethoven celebration as we explore the man, the music, and his place in our time in a jam-packed festival weekend.
Solo Cantatas: Bach and the Divine
Benjamin Appl and the Academy of Ancient Music create an evening that’s both a musical self-portrait of and a deeply moving homage to this most timeless of all composers.
The Art of Fugue: Bach the Craftsman
Bach meant The Art of Fugue to be the pinnacle of his life’s work, and even incomplete, it’s still an unparalleled feat of imagination, intelligence and sheer joy in the act of creation.
Discover
Barbican Sessions: Isata Kenneh-Mason
Isata Kanneh-Mason plays Brahms's Op 118, No 3 'Ballade' in our Fountain Room
Listen: Classical Music on Spotify
Follow our regularly updated Classical Music playlist for a sample of the music you'll hear across our programme.
Barbican Sessions: Satu Vänskä
In an empty Theatre, Satu Vänskä, Principal Violinist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, performs JS Bach's ‘Allemande’ from Partita II in D minor.
Listen: Contemporary Classical on Spotify
Discover music from across the Contemporary Classical spectrum – from Judith Weir and George Benjamin to Nils Frahm and Max Richter.
Barbican Sessions: Jess Gillam
In an empty Level G foyer, Jess Gillam performs her ECHO Rising Stars commission: Edmund Finnis's A Spiral Ascending, Kurt Weill's Je ne t'aime pas and Astor Piazzolla's 'Nightclub 1960' from Histoire du Tango with Leif Kaner-Lidström and Sam Becker.
