Barbican announces programme for spring and summer 2024

The Barbican has today announced its classical music programme for next year’s spring and summer season. From January to July 2024, the London venue will welcome guest soloists, ensembles and orchestras, alongside performances from its resident and associate orchestras and ensembles.

The London venue’s upcoming season will feature events including the first full-scale performance of Freya Waley-Cohen’s Spell Book, presented by Manchester Collective (pictured above) and the return of conductor emeritus Sir Simon Rattle to the Barbican’s resident orchestra London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for an all-American concert. Public booking for the new season opens on 29 September.

Barbican artistic director Will Gompertz said: ‘We are looking forward to welcoming extraordinary soloists, charismatic conductors, and powerful ensembles – both established and emerging – alongside mighty performances by some of the world’s great orchestras. We can’t wait to welcome our audiences to the Barbican Hall and Milton Court for the coming season.’

In keeping with the LSO tradition of focusing on new work during the month of April, Barbican audiences can look forward to premieres including the world premiere of John Adams’ Frenzy, LSO Panufnik commissions by Christian Drew and Stef Conner, and the UK premieres of Donghoon Shin’s Cello Concerto, Jörg Widmann’s Towards Paradise and Thomas Adès Violin Concerto: Air, conducted by the composer himself and performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter.

© Sam Comen

Recent Praemium Imperiale winner Wynton Marsalis will also have his Trumpet Concerto premiered by Alison Balsom and the LSO, while LSO principal guest conductor Gianandrea Noseda, who won a Puccini award in July, will present the UK premiere performance of Sally Beamish’s Distans: Concerto for Violin and Clarinet. Noseda later rounds off the LSO Season with a double bill of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 3 and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

The Barbican’s associate orchestra the BBC Symphony Orchestra will also present a programme including a ‘total immersion day’ focusing on Missy Mazzoli featuring the UK premiere of the composer’s Song from the Uproar, while associate ensemble Academy of Ancient Music brings its 50th anniversary season to a close on 30 June with a performance of Handel’s Orlando, Laurence Cummings’s first Handel opera as music director.

Another associate ensemble, Britten Sinfonia, will work with New York Philharmonic principal clarinettist Anthony McGill as part of his artist residency at the Barbican’s Milton Court as well as with cellist Abel Selaocoe as part of his Artist Spotlight residency. This residency will see Selaocoe perform alongside guest artists including Chesaba and BCUC and as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival 2023 with the LSO and conductor Duncan Ward.

Barbican International Orchestral Partner, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (pictured above) will also make its return, under the leadership of music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel. During the month of June, the orchestra will present a concert of works by John Williams, Gabriela Ortiz and Dvořák as well as a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio with Deaf actors from Deaf West Theatre and the White Hands Choir of El Sistema Venezuela.