BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus 2026-27 Barbican Season Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony

Imagine a symphony of iron and steel: a masterpiece so uncompromising that for decades, no-one dared perform it. In Stalin’s Russia, music as bold as Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony was often banned. Today we can hear it for what it is: a gripping eye-witness account of a dark chapter in modern history, told in music of shattering originality and strength.

For guest conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, it’s a testament to human suffering and resilience - so how to set the scene? His answer is inspired: John Adams’s profoundly tender setting of Walt Whitman’s poetic reflections on the U.S. Civil War. “I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young / Some suffer so much”. Two musical worlds collide, united in their shared humanity.