Just in: London’s Barbican reopens to minimal audiences

The city’s second arts centre will readmit audiences from October 4. (The Southbank Centre remains shut to the public).

Only a handful of people will be admitted to the performances. Tickets are £20 for those present and £12.50 for watching the stream.

Here are the highlights:

– Celebrated bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel and Britten Sinfonia in an intimate evening of music close to his heart (4 Oct 2020)
Scottish multi-instrumentalist and contemporary composer Erland Cooper and ensemble will perform special arrangements interspersed with spoken word and visuals (10 Oct 2020)
– Revered chamber pop group The Divine Comedy present a selection of songs from across their career, performed by a six-piece band (14 Oct 2020)
– Singer-songwriter Emmy the Great presents material from her upcoming album April / 月音 (17 Oct 2020)
The seven brothers and sisters of the Kanneh-Mason family perform their first public concert in London (22 Oct 2020)

– Celebrated Northumbrian songsmith Richard Dawson presents a special solo set (25 Oct 2020)
Award-winning tenor saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia performing material from her new album SOURCE (29 Oct 2020)
– Sir Antonio Pappano will be joined by friends and long-time collaborators tenor Ian Bostridge, soprano Dame Sarah Conolly, and the Carducci Quartet (1 Nov 2020)
– BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo and soprano Anu Komsi give the world premiere of the chamber orchestra version of Magnus Lindberg’s Accused (6 Nov 2020)
– Cassie Kinoshi and SEED Ensemble will mark the 80th birthday of spiritual jazz icon Pharoah Sanders. Part of EFG London Jazz Festival 2020 (14 Nov 2020)
– Saxophonist, clarinettist, composer and band leader, Shabaka Hutchings performs alongside Britten Sinfonia a programme featuring Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. Part of EFG London Jazz Festival 2020 (18 Nov 2020)
– Physicist Professor Brian Cox joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska to explore the questions raised by music and the Cosmos (13 Dec 2020)

UPDATE: The London Symphony have followed up with 11 concerts at the Barbican in November-December:

Sir Simon Rattle conducts all the concerts which feature the five Beethoven piano concertos with guest soloist Krystian Zimerman. Each programme is performed twice in one day at 3.30pm and 6.30pm with socially distanced audiences and recorded for future broadcast. For the final LSO concert of 2020 on December 17 Krystian Zimerman will play all five Beethoven piano concertos in one extended programme with intervals.

This series marks the return to and the conclusion of the LSO’s celebration of Beethoven 250 at the Barbican which began with performances of Beethoven Symphony No 7 and his oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives which was performed on Sunday 19 January.

The Beethoven concertos are paired with works by Stravinsky for every concert. Audiences will be able to hear Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète, composed for the Ballet Russes, Four Norwegian Moods, his Octet for Wind Instruments, Suite Nos 1 & 2 for small orchestra, Concerto in D for Strings, Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and his ballet music composed for New York City Ballet Orpheus and Agon.

For the final LSO concert of 2020 on December 17 Krystian Zimerman will play all five Beethoven piano concertos in one extended programme with intervals.