1 Le Grand Macabre
Collaborations with director Peter Sellars look set to be a regular feature of Simon Rattle’s years with the London Symphony Orchestra. Their latest project is a semi-staging of György Ligeti’s only opera, an absurdist vision of the end of the world.
Barbican Hall, EC2, Saturday 14 Jan and Sunday 15 Jan
2 The Last Supper
Harrison Birtwistle’s dramatic tableaux, first seen in Berlin in 2000, gets a rare outing. Martyn Brabbins conducts this semi-staging, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and a cast led by Roderick Williams as Christ and Daniel Norman as Judas.
City Halls, Glasgow, Saturday 14 Jan
3 Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Edward Gardner has been the Bergen Philharmonic’s principal conductor since 2015; now they tour the UK together for the first time. There’s music from Grieg, Elgar and Bartók, with Baiba Skride, Truls Mørk and Leonard Elschenbroich sharing duties as concerto soloists.
Saffron Walden, Sunday 15 Jan; Birmingham, Tuesday 17 Jan; Basingstoke, Wednesday 18 Jan; Sheffield, Thursday 19 Jan; London, Friday 20 Jan
4 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Vasily Petrenko adds the rarely played 12th symphony, The Year 1917, to his Liverpool series of Shostakovich symphonies. It is preceded by Emily Howard’s Torus, her concerto for orchestra commissioned for the 175th anniversary of the RLPO.
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, Thursday 19 Jan
5 BBC Symphony Orchestra
Oliver Knussen’s appearances with the BBCSO invariably feature the unexpected. This time, it’s Elgar’s symphonic study Falstaff. The programme begins with Strauss’s Macbeth, and includes the first outing of Philip Cashian’s The Book Of Ingenious Devices.
Barbican Hall, EC2, Friday 20 Jan
