The London Symphony Orchestra announced the full programme of concerts for the 2025/26 concert season from September 2025 to July 2026.
- Sir Antonio Pappano’s Second Season as LSO Chief Conductor – with concerts of American music by Bernstein and Copland; music from the Golden Age of Hollywood; British music by Britten, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Musgrave and Imogen Host; Russian symphonists Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky; and Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde
- Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor Emeritus, continues his Janáček opera cycle with The Makropulos Affair, and more music with the voice by Bartók, Mahler, Strauss and Wagner
- 4 world premieres, a European and 2 UK premieres – new Laura Bowler song cycle for Barbara Hannigan, Donghoon Shin violin concerto for Seong-Jin Cho, 80th birthday commission for Colin Matthews new Oboe Concerto for Olivier Stankiewicz LSO Principal Oboe; plus new works from Soweto Kinch and by Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Scheme composers Omri Kochavi and Sasha Scott
- Top-flight guest conductors – Thomas Adès, Bar Avni, Ryan Bancroft, Anja Bihlmaier, Alexander Bloch, Dirk Brossé, Elim Chan, Manfred Honeck, Maxime Pascal, Tarmo Peltokoski and Nathalie Stutzmann
- Artist Portraits with pianist Seong-Jin Cho and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Antoine Tamestit as Spotlight Artist
- LSO St Luke’s re-opens with BBC Radio 3 Concert series curated by Sir Antonio Pappano, plus series featuring Seong-Jin Cho, Antoine Tamestit, Simon Crawford-Phillips, and a focus on Vaughan Williams and his contemporaries .
Sir Antonio Pappano, the LSO’s Chief Conductor, opens the 2025/26 LSO Barbican Season on Sunday 14 September with two great, dramatic American symphonies from the 20th century: Bernstein’s Symphony No 3, ‘Kaddish’ in the revised 1977 version and Copland’s Symphony No 3, his monumental final symphony.
‘Kaddish’ originally premiered in 1963 weeks after President Kenndy was assassinated. Bernstein was a supporter and friend of the Kennedys and dedicated ‘Kaddish’ to Kennedy’s memory. For the season opener, former mezzo-soprano Dame Felicity Palmer is the narrator, with Katharina Konradi the guest soprano.
Copland’s Symphony No 3 will be recorded for later broadcast on Marquee TV as part of the third episode of their exclusive documentary series, Antonio Pappano: Behind the Symphony, which launched in 2024.
For the next concert (18 September), following a shorter Half Six Fix performance on 17 September, Sir Antonio introduces the focus of the first 2025/26 Artist Portrait, pianist Seong-Jin Cho, who plays Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 2. Completing this programme are two symphonies of big themes and powerful emotions: Shostakovich’s Symphony No 9 and Beethoven’s Symphony No 5.
The final concert in the opening period (21 September)finds Sir Antonio conducting Britten’s Violin Concerto with longtime collaborator violinist Janine Jansen, paired with Shostakovich’s Symphony No 10.
The December 2025 suite of concerts sees Sir Antonio return to British repertoire, with violist and Spotlight Artist Antoine Tamestit appearing in three evenings (7,10 & 11 December). After Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4 on 7 December, Sir Antonio, Antoine Tamestit and the LSO will perform Vaughan Williams’ Flos Campi suite for Viola and Chorus and his 1936 cantata Dona Nobis Pacem. The concert on 11 December features three British works: Thea Musgrave’s 1997 work Phoenix Rising, Walton’s Viola Concerto, again with Antoine Tamestit, and Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No 2, ‘London’. British music will also form the foundation of Pappano’s recording output on LSO Live, with works by Vaughan Williams, Holst and Bax planned for release during the 2025/26 season.
For his December holiday season concerts in 2025, Sir Antonio conducts two performances dedicated to the music of Hollywood’s Golden Age (17 & 18 December).
For the spring series of symphonic concerts, Sir Antonio revisits Shostakovich, with his Symphony No 5 in a programme including Imogen Holst’s Persephone overture, and Korngold’s Violin Concerto with guest soloist Vilde Frang (16 April, with a Half Six Fix on 15 April). In May he conducts a programme comprising Britten’s Sinfonia da requiem, Bernstein’s Symphony No 2, ‘The Age of Anxiety’ for orchestra and piano with Beatrice Rana and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 6, ‘Pathétique’ (10 May).
In the second half of the season, Sir Antonio also fulfils a long-held ambition to conduct Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (19 & 21 April), with further Elgar in June with the Enigma Variations (10 June, Half Six Fix), paired with Mahler’s Symphony No5 on 11 June.
The LSO’s Chief Conductor brings the season to a close with two concert performances of Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, featuring Clay Hilley and Sara Jakubiak in the title roles.
Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle – Janáček, Wagner
Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle embraces the voice in much of his programming this season, with two concert performances of Janácek’s opera The Makropulos Affair (13 & 15 Jan). His cast is led by Marlis Petersen as Emilia Marty. The LSO’s cycle of Janácek opera recordings with Rattle have drawn wide acclaim, and The Makropulos Affair will also be captured for later release on LSO Live. In May 2026, Sir Simon conducts a programme with two great German masterpieces, Strauss’ Four Last Songs with Lucy Crowe as guest soprano, along with Mahler’s Symphony No 4 (21 May, with a Half Six Fix on 20 May). He completes his contribution to the season with two concerts featuring selections of music by Wagner, including the Siegfreid Idyll, and extracts from Götterdämmerung with leading Wagnerian singers soprano Anja Kampe and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong (24 & 28 May).
His other concerts include Bartók’s Violin Concerto No 2 with Patricia Kopatchinskaja as guest soloist (as part of her Artist Portrait series), plus Bartók’s Five Hungarian Folksongs for Voice and Orchestra with Rinat Shaham as guest mezzo-soprano, and Manuel de Falla’s ballet The Three-Cornered Hat.
Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda
Gianandrea Noseda will be with the LSO during February 2026, with concerts featuring both Artist Portrait soloists. Pianist Seong-Jin Cho is guest soloist for Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 2, which is programmed alongside Stravinsky’s Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss, and Borodin’s Symphony No 2 (12 & 15 Feb). For his other programme, Berg’s Violin Concerto, with Patricia Kopatchinskaja as guest soloist, is programmed with Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No 1 as the focus of a Half Six Fix (25 Feb) and Debussy’s Three Nocturnes No 1: Nuages and No 2 Fêtes. The 2025/26 season will also see Noseda conclude his Shostakovich and Prokofiev recording cycles, with the complete symphonies of both composers release on LSO Live.
Associate Artists André J Thomas and Barbara Hannigan
The hugely popular annual Symphonic Gospel concert with André J Thomas takes place on 9 November. Barbara Hannigan makes her appearance in March 2026 with a Half Six Fix programme and a full concert. Laura Bowler has been commissioned to write a song cycle for Barbara which will receive its UK premiere (4 and 5 March) conducted by Bar Avni making her LSO debut, while Barbara Hannigan continues to conduct the remainder of the 5 March concert featuring Ligeti’s Lontano and Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra.
World and UK premieres, and works new to the LSO
Thomas Adès conducts a new work by composer, jazz trombonist and artist Alex Paxton on 19 October, as the opener to his first concert this season. In addition, the annual LSO Futures concert, conducted by Maxime Pascal on 20 November, features two new works by Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Scheme composers Omri Kochavi and Sasha Scott and the world premiere of Donghoon Shin’s new Piano Concerto for Seong-Jin Cho. Colin Matthews’ 80th birthday is celebrated with the world premiere of his Oboe Concerto, an LSO commission, played by LSO Principal Oboe Olivier Stankiewicz, whilst Gareth Davies, LSO Principal Flute, is guest soloist for the European premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s Flute Concerto No 2. On 13 November the saxophonist, rapper and composer Soweto Kinch joins the LSO for an orchestral performance of Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, the final instalment of a trilogy of works in collaboration with the LSO, which began as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival with The Black Peril in 2019 and White Juju in 2021. Associate Artist Barbara Hannigan sings a specially commissioned song cycle by Laura Bowler as a part of her concert series in March conducted by Bar Avni (4 & 5 March).
Return of conductors Thomas Adès, Alexandre Bloch, Elim Chan, Manfred Honeck, Nathalie Stutzmann, Robert Treviño and saxophonist and composer Soweto Kinch
Thomas Adès returns to the LSO with two full programmes (19 & 23 Oct) exploring his own music, alongside works by Nordic composers. The first evening opens with World Builder, Creature, a new work receiving its UK premiere by Alex Paxton, described as a composer and improvising trombonist, followed by Poul Ruders’ Paganini Variations for Guitar and Orchestra with guest soloist Sean Shibe. After the interval we hear Sibelius Symphony No 3, and Adès’ 2024 work Aquifer. The second concert opens with Sibelius’ Symphony No 4 and Rautavaara’s Deux Sérénades, two movements for violin and orchestra with guest violinist Johan Dalene. During the second half Adès conducts his own 1994 work The Origin of the Harp, which takes its title from a painting in the Manchester City Art Gallery by Daniel Maclise (1806–1870), revised here for a chamber orchestra, with Sibelius Symphony No 6 completing the programme.
Two former winners of the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, Alexandre Bloch and Elim Chan, return to the Barbican with the LSO. Bloch conducts an evening of Debussy and Ravel (27 November), joined by soloist Alice Sara Ott, as well as Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra. Elim Chan conducts Bartók’s Dance Suite, the Colin Matthews Oboe Concerto premiere, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. Manfred Honeck returns to the LSO for the first time since 2020 to conduct Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 2 with guest soloist Imogen Cooper and Brahms’ German Requiem with guests soprano Chen Reiss and bass Gerald Finley.
Nathalie Stutzmann (14 May) conducts Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, Wagner’s Overture: Rienzi and Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier – Suite. Mexican-American conductor Robert Treviño returns to the LSO to conduct the Márton Illés’ Vont-ter for Violin and Orchestra featuring Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No 2 (29 Jan).
LSO Barbican debuts – Bar Avni, Anja Bihlmaier, Ryan Bancroft and Tarmo Peltokowski
The LSO is delighted to welcome a number of new conductors to the Barbican this season, beginning with Californian Ryan Bancroft (29 & 30 Oct), with an all-Russian programme of Sofia Gubaidulina’s 1971 fairytale poem Märchen, Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No 1, featuring soloist Clara-Jumi Kang, and Stravinsky’s The Firebird. 1 March 2026 sees Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokowski makes his LSO debut with fellow Finn Rautavarra’s Piano Concerto No 1, with guest soloist Yuja Wang, coupled with Wagner’s The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure arranged by Dutch percussionist and composer Henk De Vlieger.
German conductor Anja Bihlmaier (25 & 26 March) conducts a Half Six Fix concert of Dvořák’s Symphony No 9, which is repeated the following evening in a full programme with Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Liebermann’s Flute Concerto No 2 with LSO Principal Flute Gareth Davies.
LSO St Luke’s reopens
Scheduled to reopen its doors during this period, a refreshed LSO St Luke’s will host BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts curated by Artist Portrait Seong-Jin Cho during February and April 2026. Similarly, Antoine Tamestit will programme a series of chamber concerts (November 2025), with Sir Antonio Pappano adding to the impressive line-up at the piano in March with three chamber concerts when he is joined by special guests. Pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips curates concerts celebrating the music and legacy of Nadia and Lili Boulanger, of Rebecca Clarke and her contemporaries, and a further concert featuring a selection of Kurtág’s arrangements of JS Bach, and music by Schubert Lutenist Thomas Dunford is joined by guests for a series in December, February and April, and a range of guest artists perform in a series exploring Vaughan Williams and his Circle (January, February and March).
The LSO Chamber Orchestra perform Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto, Horn Concerto No 3 and Sinfonia Concertante, with conductor Jaime Martín, and LSO soloists Benjamin Marquise Gilmore violin, Eivind Ringstad viola, Daniel Jemison bassoon and Timothy Jones horn (28 & 29 March) .
Media Enquiries:
Christopher Millard, Head of Press & External Relations
London Symphony Orchestra
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
D +44 20 7382 2550 | chris.millard@lso.co.uk
M +44 7545 502226
