The Barbican Announces Its Classical Music Season 2011-2012

The Barbican’s 2011–12 classical season, announced this week, reads like a snapshot of the musical world at full tilt.

At its core are the centre’s long-standing orchestral pillars, the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, but the year is also marked by an influx of heavyweight visitors: the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra all take up their first residencies as International Associates.

Beethoven sits squarely at the heart of the programme. Riccardo Chailly brings the Gewandhaus Orchestra for a complete symphony cycle, each concert paired with a contemporary response, while Sir Colin Davis and Mitsuko Uchida continue their traversal of the piano concertos with the LSO. Elsewhere, the BBC Symphony Orchestra undertakes a full Sibelius cycle, threaded with modern Finnish works – a reminder that the 20th century still casts a long Nordic shadow.

Valery Gergiev presses on with his Tchaikovsky project and turns his attention to Stravinsky, in a series that stretches from The Firebird to The Rite of Spring. Anniversaries are duly marked – Sofia Gubaidulina at 80, Steve Reich at 75 – and there is no shortage of star power, from Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky to Martha Argerich and Joshua Bell.

Contemporary opera has a prominent platform in the Present Voices series, which includes the UK premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream and performances of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach. The Kronos Quartet’s residency, characteristically wide-ranging, promises everything from early music reinventions to reflections on 9/11.

It’s an ambitious, occasionally maximalist season – heavy on cycles, big statements and international names – but one that underlines the Barbican’s determination, even in 2011, to balance the canonical with the new.

Plan Your Visit

Tickets: On sale to Barbican members from Monday 24 January; general sale from Monday 31 January
• Venue: Barbican, London
• Season dates: September 2011 – July 2012
• Full listings: available online at barbican.org.uk

Sign-up for news and booking alerts about these shows and more:

Main photo: The Barbican Announces Its Classical Music Season 2011-2012