Performances of BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at BBC Music

In Steve Reich’s endlessly tessellating music, shapes emerge, solidify, uncouple, drift away, and begin to emerge anew.

Tonight, our string section takes centre stage. Written in 1939 as Europe teetered on the brink of war, Bartók’s Divertimento fuses Hungarian folk-rhythms with his signature spiky harmonies and driving momentum.

*Laniakea* is Hawaiian for ‘immeasurable celestial paradise’, a term that perfectly describes the music of Camille Pépin.

The irresistible sway of Johann Strauss’s An der schönen blauen Donau has made it arguably the most famous waltz of all time.

Step into a winter wonderland as we bring the magic of Christmas to life with a dazzling evening of festive music.

The RNCM Strings Festival celebrates the versatility, beauty, and brilliance of string music through a weekend of inspiring performances and collaborations.

A full orbit of the sun with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

City Noir is John Adams’s musical tribute to half-lit rooms, venetian blinds, desperate men, dangerous women, secrets, lies, and the City of Angels.

Join us in Nottingham for Bartók’s gripping one-act opera, Bluebeard’s Castle.

Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Bartók sits somewhere between a gothic tale of horror and a psychological dissection of a twisted relationship.

Join us in York alongside presenter Sean Chandler for a magical, interactive performance of The Enormous Turnip, from the CBeebies series Musical Storyland at the National Centre for Early Music.

Join us in York alongside presenter Sean Chandler for a magical, interactive performance of The Enormous Turnip, from the CBeebies series Musical Storyland at the National Centre for Early Music.

Music from the court of Versailles begins and ends this sparkling exploration of the baroque.

Rossini’s exciting William Tell Overture, will be a complete contrast to Elisabeth Brauss’ interpretation of the smouldering passions and rapid fire wit of Ravel’s G Major Piano Concerto.

Adam Hickox makes his Bridgewater Hall debut in this sparkling and generous programme of technicolour musical delights.

Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen is a lament for strings, mourning the destruction of Europe in the World War II and the collapse of the musical civilisation that shaped and inspired him.

Violist Lawrence Power returns to perform Cassandra Miller’s acclaimed Viola Concerto, a piece heralded on its 2022 premiere as an instant classic.

When it comes to symphonies, Beethoven's Third symphony was a real game changer.

Who knew Haydn and hot cross buns might be related?

Rhapsodies on love, death, and lust

Join international storyteller Jan Blake, djembe player Mohamed Gueye and musicians of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for an interactive performance of Ananse and the Monkeys for pre-schoolers.

Puccini first showcased his operatic voice through the orchestra alone with his Capriccio Sinfonico. Marking the start of his signature musical style, it blends the lyrical and dramatic qualities that later came to define his iconic operas.

Grit courses through Julia Wolfe’s *Anthracite Fields*, her Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio for choir and ensemble that serves as a musical memorial to American miners and their struggle. *‘I guess I have a bias towards the grit.'* – Julia Wolfe

One of Debussy’s best loved musical pictures sets the mood as his faun dreams wonderous dreams. There is no better counterpart to this than Dvorak’s ardent and ever popular Cello Concerto.

Join us this Sunday at Eccles Town Hall as we’ll be performing The Gingerbread Man as part of the free 'Get In! To Eccles’ festival.

Influenced by Czech folk and expressionism, Haas’s Study for Strings is an energetic, introspective work now seen as a key piece of 20th-century Czech music.

Joshua Weilerstein makes his triumphant return to the Philharmonic in this musical postcard celebrating the 250th anniversary of American Independence.

Join us in the BBC Philharmonic Studio as we perform Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major, and Schumann's Spring Symphony.

Wolfe was two blocks from the Twin Towers when the planes hit on September 11, 2001. *Big Beautiful Dark and Scary* is the sound of that aftermath: an ominous, awesome wall of sound.

We continue our thrillingly up-close series at the RNCM with a heavyweight artistic collaboration – our Chief Conductor John Storgårds joins the acclaimed pianist Tamara Stefanovich in this exploration of the pure power of the piano.

Cursed by the goddess Hera, Echo may only repeat the last words spoken to her.

Berlioz’ Roman Carnival carries us to beautiful Italy where Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony dances a wild tarantella under the sun!

Angel’s Bone is a Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary opera by Chinese American composer Du Yun and librettist Royce Vavrek.

A stormy opening from the 19th century prolific German composer Emilie Mayer.

In this striking exploration of Nordic soundscapes, Chief Conductor John Storgårds will flex every Finnish musical muscle as he leads the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Aviva Studios for their next groundbreaking collaboration with Factory International. *‘Watching an orchestra in this way is a one of a kind experience.

Musicians of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra perform a live musical re-telling of Three Billy Goats Gruff, as seen on CBeebies.

Musicians of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra perform a live musical re-telling of Three Billy Goats Gruff, as seen on CBeebies.

Mahler’s Resurrection is a colossal work of drama, beauty, and power.

We join RNCM student conductors and International Artist Diploma musicians for an afternoon of extraordinary music making in the BBC Philharmonic Studio.

We join RNCM student conductors and International Artist Diploma musicians for an afternoon of extraordinary music making in the BBC Philharmonic Studio.

We return to Blackpool for the first time in 8 years with an ambitious programme in Blackpool’s historic Opera House.

Join us for an unforgettable concert in the heart of Yorkshire as we take part in Harrogate Music Festival.

Gianandrea Noseda leads massed forces in Beethoven’s monumental ‘Choral’ Symphony. We also hear the UK premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s These Righteous Paths with South African cellist Abel Selaocoe

John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra perform Strauss’s monumental tone-poem alongside Betsy Jolas’s evocative Tales of a Summer Sea. Sueye Park joins them for Sibelius’s Nordic-tinged Violin Concerto

Star mezzo Jamie Barton joins Anja Bihlmaier and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for Mahler’s epic collision of symphony and song. The first half sees the witty musical parting of Haydn’s ‘Farewell’ Symphony and Bushra El-Turk’s meditative Mosaic

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra is joined by performers from the National Youth Music Theatre to celebrate the music of Alan Menken, with sets from his scores to classic Disney films such as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin

Words and music, presented at the Philharmonic Studio as part of the BBC’s much-loved festival of music and speech.

Join us for the opening concert of our 2026/27 season at the Bridgewater Hall – featuring Sibelius Symphony No. 5, Wagner’s Overture to Lohengrin and Gabriella Smith’s organ concerto, Breathing Forests.

Music of death and the divine – Brahms’s German Requiem and Lili Boulanger’s Psalm 24.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, ‘Pathétique’ sits alongside Korngold’s cinematically inspired Violin Concerto.

Leader Zoë Beyers leads the latest instalment in our series at the RNCM – music from William Byrd, Benjamin Britten, Errollyn Wallen, Edmund Finnis, Tom Coult and Michael Tippett.

Visit our recording studio at MediaCityUK and witness the orchestra as we broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 to millions of listeners around the world. These 60-minute afternoon concerts are hosted by a range of star presenters from across the BBC.

Alina Ibragimova is soloist for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, alongside Mahler’s heaven-sent Symphony No. 4 and Cassandra Miller’s Swim.

A landmark collaboration with the V&A East Museum and Friday Night is Music Night, celebrating the impact of Black British music on British culture.

A jazz-inflected programme from Grammy-nominated Miho Hazama, chief conductor of the Danish Radio Big Band, including Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with soloist Makoto Ozone.

Experience Strauss’s Alpine Symphony – a 50-minute, twenty-two-scene depiction of an eleven-hour climb over an Alpine mountain, alongside two contrasting scenes from Robert Schumann with soloist Cédric Tiberghien.

Programme to include music by Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland and William L. Dawson

Hayato Sumino returns to the Philharmonic to perform Bernstein’s epic work for piano and orchestra, his Symphony No. 2, ‘Age of Anxiety’, alongside Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.

Join us for an afternoon of Joceyln Morlock’s Golden, Helen Grime's, Bright Travellers and Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration.

John Storgärds leads the next chapter of his exploration of Shostakovich symphonies – this time with the triumphant Symphony No. 7, ‘Leningrad’. Before this, Shostakovich up close with his Quartet No. 8 performed by the NOVO Quartet.

Beethoven’s era-defining Symphony No. 5, meets Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte and Haydn’s Cello Concerto with soloist Daniel Müller-Schott.

Ephemeral forms open out into a lyrical spring morning in Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps.

Guitarist Sean Shibe collaborates with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra to present an intimate programme at the RNCM examining the pageantry, rites and emotions of funeral music, ancient and modern.

Visit our recording studio at MediaCityUK and witness the orchestra as we broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 to millions of listeners around the world. These 60-minute afternoon concerts are hosted by a range of star presenters from across the BBC.

Walton’s frenzied Symphony No. 1 sits alongside the contrasting landscape of Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis, before the world premiere from Composer in Residence, Cassandra Miller.

Beethoven’s epic, uplifting ‘Choral’ Symphony No. 9 sits alongside Roderick Williams’s Ave Verum Corpus Re-imagined, Pauline Oliveros’s Tuning Meditation and John Adams’s Absolute Jest.

Mozart’s sparkling Horn Concerto No. 4 meets the majesty of Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave and sunshine-drenched world of his ‘Reformation’ Symphony.

Visit our recording studio at MediaCityUK and witness the orchestra as we broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 to millions of listeners around the world. These 60-minute afternoon concerts are hosted by a range of star presenters from across the BBC.

Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov collaborates with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the RNCM for a programme of Mozart, Britten and John Adams.

A special live version of the Essential Classics Playlister, presented by the host of BBC Radio 3’s daily weekday show, Georgia Mann.

Johanna Soller directs from the harpsichord this collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the RNCM, featuring J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto’s Nos. 1 and 2, alongside music from Zelenka, Heinichen and W.F. Bach.