Einstein on the Beach, Cassandra Miller in residence, Gabriella Smith's Breathing Forests: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra's 2026/27 season

BBC Philharmonic & John Storgårds at Bridgewater Hall in 2024 (Photo: Chris Payne)

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra's recently announced 2026/27 season spans from large-scale symphonic concerts at The Bridgewater Hall to more intimate performances at the RNCM, alongside ambitious large-scale collaborations at Aviva Studios and innovative live experiences at the orchestra’s home in MediaCityUK.

Cassandra Miller is composer in residence for 2026/27, and works to be performed include Swim, inspired by two chords by Robert Schumann and the writings of Anne Carson, and Chanter (with soloist Sean Shibe) which draws on Scottish folk music and the work of smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul [see my review of the premiere with Sean Shibe in 2024]. The residency concludes with the UK premiere of Dad Goes to the Mountain, informed by Peruvian banda music and themes of memory and perception. 

Chief conductor John Storgårds opens the season with Gabriella Smith's Breathing Forests, with organ soloist James Vinnie [see my review of the UK premiere at the 2025 BBC Proms] alongside Sibelius' Symphony No. 5. Other new music at Bridgewater Hall includes a new orchestration of Miho Hazama's Dawn in Retiro, and music by Jennifer Higdon, Gabriela Ortiz and Caroline Shaw. In the series of concerts at the RNCM, contemporary composers include Errollyn Warren, Edmund Finnis, Tom Coult, Julia Wolfe and Alex Paxton.

Large scale works include the relative rarity, Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 ‘The Age of Anxiety’  and Strauss's Alpine Symphony. Principal guest conductor Anja Bihlmaier conducts Brahms' German Requiem, with soloists Julia Grüter and Joshua Hopkins, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 marking the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death with soloists Hera Hyesang Park, Jess Dandy, Robin Tritschler, Paul Grant.

Following the UK premiere of Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone, the orchestra continues its collaboration with English National Opera and Factory International with a new staging of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s iconic 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach, directed by Phelim McDermott. This completes ENO and Improbable’s Glass Portrait Trilogy, following the success of Satyagraha and Akhnaten. The production premieres in Manchester at Aviva Studios in June 2027 

Full details from the BBC Philharmonic's website. 

A remarkable combination of headlong energy with care & attention: Igor Levit & Leonkoro Quartet in Schumann's Piano Quintet at Wigmore Hall's 125 Anniversary Festival

Igor Levit & the Leonkoro Quartet in Heidelberg in 2024 (Photo: Studio Visuell)

Henriëtte Bosmans: String Quartet, Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet; Igor Levit, Leonkoro Quartet; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 31 May 2026

A completely absorbing performance of the Schumann bringing a real sense of urgency to the music and refreshingly lacking romantic self-indulgence. The Quartet's performance of Bosmans' piece made you wonder why it was not better known 

Wigmore Hall's 125th Anniversary Festival continues apace. On Sunday 31 May 2026, pianist Igor Levit joined the Leonkoro Quartet - Jonathan Schwarz and Emiri Kakiuchi (violin), Mayu Konoe (viola), Lukas Schwarz (cello) - for the second of two collaborations. Having performed Brahms's Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34 together on Saturday evening, Sunday morning saw them performing Schumann's Piano Quintet. The quartet began the concert with Henriëtte Bosmans' String Quartet.

BBC Proms: Tony Cooper makes his personal selection of events from the 2026 edition of the world’s largest classical-music festival

The BBC Proms, the world’s largest classical-music festival, salutes the USA in this year’s edition marking 250 years since the signing of the US Declaration of Independence. 

A feast of music like no other, the BBC Proms (running from Friday 17th July to Saturday 12th September) illuminates London’s famous Royal Albert Hall for eight action-packed weeks offering music lovers the sheer joy of getting to see and hear some of the world’s greatest orchestras and soloists playing some of the world’s greatest music in one of London’s most iconic venues that rock guitarist, Eric Clapton, fondly dubs ‘The Albert’. Pint of twos, please!  

So closely associated with Sir Henry Wood - lovingly known as ‘Old Timber’ who, incidentally, was no stranger to Norwich as he was artistic director/conductor of the Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival from 1908 to 1930 - this year’s Prom series features UK premières of major new works co-commissioned by the BBC from American composers Wynton Marsalis and Jessie Montgomery with appearances coming from prime conductors and star soloists as Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, Angel Blue and Joyce DiDonato.  

Interestingly, there are so many associations with conductors and composers linked to Norwich and the Proms. For instance, the N&N Triennial commissioned Scottish-born composer, Thea Musgrave to write ‘The Five Ages of Man’, a masterful choral/orchestral work based on Hesiod’s ‘Works and Days’ - the scenario depicting the Greek myth of the decline and fall of humanity through five distinct ages: gold, silver, bronze, heroes and iron - premièred in St Andrew’s Hall on 6th June 1964 conducted by Charles Mackerras.  

Now 97 years old, Musgrave - who lived in Norfolk, Virginia (twinned, by the way, with Norfolk, England) for over a quarter of a century with her husband, Peter Mark, general music director of Virginia Opera from 1975 to 2010 - has come up with a new work for this year’s Prom series (a BBC commission) offering a bassoon concerto entitled ‘Out of the Darkness’ performed by Amy Harman (matinee show: 23 August) who has had works written for her by Olav Berg, Heloïse Werner, Brian Elias, Roxanna Panufnik, Robin Holloway and Simon Holt. A pretty good tally!