Live On Air Everywhere
2025/26 SEASON
Welcome to our 2025/26 Season
Roberto Giaccaglia
Photo: Drew Forsyth
About Us
Whether it’s in the concert hall, on air, on television, or somewhere altogether different and surprising, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra creates unforgettable experiences that bring people together.
And it’s never just one kind of experience. It’s the sheer power of hearing 100 musicians on stage for a Mahler symphony at the Bridgewater Hall. It’s the adrenaline of a live broadcast from the Philharmonic Studio; the intensity of an intimate performance at the RNCM; the awe of a massive orchestral show at Aviva Studios; or that special feeling that comes from knowing you are among the millions of people listening to our work on BBC Radio 3. However you encounter us, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra is here for you.
Our Chief Conductor is the Finnish maverick John Storgårds, and Anja Bihlmaier is our Principal Guest Conductor. Together with our musicians, they turn dreams into reality. This year, we’re also working with trailblazing musical storyteller Julia Wolfe as Composer in Residence – the very first notes of our 2025/26 season will be the sound of nine bagpipes taking over the Bridgewater Hall for her work LAD.
Founded in 1922, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest radio orchestra in the world, and the BBC’s orchestra for the North of England. We’re part of the cultural fabric of Greater Manchester and when we’re not in the studio, we can often be found performing in schools or working with children and young people right across the region. In 2023, we wanted to reimagine this work for an even
bigger audience. The result was Musical Storyland, a 10-part television series for CBeebies which brings famous stories from around the world to life using the power of music. To date, Musical Storyland has been streamed over 12 million times.
Lastly, an invitation to get to know us even better. This year, you’ll see pictures of our players in environments that say a little more about who they are off stage. Eli’s a formidable rock-climber, Jonny balances his love of the horn with a passion for heavy metal, and Sarah just can’t get enough of The Traitors. We all contain multitudes – as do each of our listeners.
This is your orchestra. In 2025/26, we want to be the soundtrack to your lives – to nurture whatever it is that moves you.
@bbcphilharmonic
BBC Philharmonic
Photo: Drew Forsyth
Let’s cut to the chase – I’m so excited for you to explore this new season of work. There is something here for everyone. Or to put it another way, each of these projects will be somebody’s favourite show of the year.
From the overwhelming scale of Mahler’s Second Symphony to the return of Rufus Wainwright, the ‘King of Baroque Pop’, we’ve got you covered.
Adrenaline junkie? Visit the world-class Philharmonic Studio at MediaCityUK, and watch as we broadcast live to hundreds of thousands of listeners on BBC Radio 3. Film obsessive? Check out Moving Pictures, and hear award-winning soundtracks from The Brutalist, Atonement, There Will Be Blood, and more. Drama Queen? No problem –explore the gothic horror of Bluebeard’s Castle, the drug-fuelled hallucinations of Symphonie fantastique, or Angel’s Bone, an immersive production at Aviva Studios in collaboration with English National Opera.
The rock and roll energy of Julia Wolfe, our new Composer in Residence, runs through this season. Her music, like our programme, is made of punchy stuff. Pure emotion. Pure storytelling. Pure experience.
Take it all in – and enjoy a great year of extraordinary music.
Adam Szabo Director
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Adam Szabo Photo: Drew Forsyth
Julia Wolfe, Composer in Residence
Julia Wolfe writes music that grabs you by the scruff of the neck; that forces you to confront its coarse edges and brash energy. It’s not for everyone, but its power is undeniable.
Wolfe was a founding member of Bang on a Can, the scrappy, provocative New York music collective founded in the 1980s. Bang believed that contemporary music could, and should, reach a mass audience, and if classical music and popular music overlap frequently today, a lot of the softening of those genre collisions was done by Bang’s legendary eclectic marathon concerts.
Wolfe’s early musical diet was varied: Bach, Debussy, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, and folk music. Wolfe arrived at University of Michigan hoping to pursue social sciences, until a friend persuaded her to take a musicianship class. Then, on a trip to New York, she met Michael Gordon and David Lang; the trio later founded Bang, and set about reframing America’s relationship with contemporary classical music.
Wolfe’s works inject post-minimalist structures with the drive, personality and aesthetics of rock music – groove, amplification, distortion – while drawing on the social engagement historically found in American folk music. Recently Wolfe has created a series of “docutorios” which memorialise American workers in oratorio form: Steel Hammer, on folk hero John Henry, Fire in my mouth, memorialising the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields, on the mining culture of her homeland of Pennsylvania.
Wolfe’s music often feels on a collision course, with listeners, itself, or both. LAD, for nine bagpipes, is like a slow-motion sonic car crash; Fountain of Youth, bold, brassy, and in-your-face; Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, an awesome crescendo in response to the unfathomability of 9/11.
These works embrace the self, which appears direct, opinionated, flawed, honest. They’re also a provocation. I’m bringing my whole self here, Wolfe seems to say. What’s stopping you from doing the same?
Composer in Residence
EXPERIENCE JULIA’S MUSIC THIS SEASON:
Saturday 20 September LAD and Fountain of Youth
Saturday 21 March Anthracite Fields
Saturday 25 April
Big Beautiful Dark and Scary
Composer in Residence Julia Wolfe
Photo: Peter Serling
Fountain of Youth
Grasping pain, embracing fate
SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER, 7.30PM THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Pre-show performance from 7pm
Julia Wolfe LAD
Julia Wolfe Fountain of Youth (UK premiere)
Sergei Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
“My fountain of youth is music.”
— Julia Wolfe
For our season opener, an assembly of composers who, by embracing pain, find solace, redemption, and clarity.
Composer in Residence for the 202526 season, Julia Wolfe’s LAD makes for a spectacular opening: nine bagpipes, processing through the Bridgewater Hall, playing drones that stretch and bend with a thrilling agony. (‘There’s something really destructive and terrible about [LAD],’ the Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe has written, ‘but it also has a redemptive element too.’) Rejuvenation is a clearer aim in her Fountain of Youth, a musical tsunami where blocks of orchestral sound obliterate all in their path.
Sergei Prokofiev approaches the question of rejuvenation from a different perspective: composed just before he ended 17 years of exile from post-revolutionary Russia, his Violin Concerto No. 2 finds a simpler, more precisely expressive style; still, expect ravishing melodies and rustic punch, as superstar violinist Augustin Hadelich brings his incredible artistry to one of Prokofiev’s most celebrated works.
We end with Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, orchestral music’s ultimate embrace of fate. This is maximalist music – huge emotions and passionate melodies, painted on an epic musical canvas.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds conductor Augustin Hadelich violin
Composer in Residence
Augustin Hadelich
Photo Suxiao Yang
The King of baroque pop returns to Manchester
Rufus Wainwright: Want Symphonic Lost Coast
FRIDAY 26 SEPTEMBER, 7.30PM
(Want One)
SATURDAY 27 SEPTEMBER, 7.30PM (Want Two)
O2 APOLLO MANCHESTER
Pop idol Rufus Wainwright brings an epic reimagining of his Want One and Want Two albums to Manchester following a premiere performance at the BBC Proms, and tours across Europe and the US. Brand new arrangements, performed live by Rufus and the full forces of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, celebrate Wainwright’s blend of glossy pop, alt-rock, classical, jazz and French chanson.
Join us for two nights at the O2 Apollo Manchester to experience Wainwright’s signature showmanship in some of his greatest ever work, and lose yourself in an unforgettable night of spectacular symphonic pop.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Lee Mills conductor Rufus Wainwright
SATURDAY 11 OCTOBER, 7.30PM THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Grażyna Bacewicz Overture
Gabriella Smith Lost Coast: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (UK premiere)
Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 2
The rugged coastline of Northern California was the inspiration for this similarly jagged piece for singing cellist and orchestra by American composer Gabriella Smith. A fiveday solo backpacking trip on the Lost Coast Trail found her scrambling up slopes and skipping past huge drops. Smith describes the piece as a ‘raw emotional expression of
the grief, loss, rage, and fear experienced as a result of climate change – as well as the joy, beauty, and wonder I have felt in the world’s last wild places.’ Join us for the UK premiere of this extraordinary, vital work.
Written during the German occupation of Poland, Grażyna Bacewicz’s early, energetic Overture is a piece of blazing beauty. It sits one side of Smith’s cello concerto; on the other, Sibelius’s Second Symphony, an organic unfurling of symphonic ideas in a glowing, golden frame.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Gemma New conductor
Gabriel Cabezas cello
A new golden age of cinema
All the power, all the glory
Moving Pictures Mahler’s ‘Titan’
SATURDAY 25 OCTOBER, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Programme to include music from:
The Brutalist Daniel Blumberg
Pride and Prejudice and Atonement
Dario Marianelli
There Will Be Blood Jonny Greenwood
Interstellar Hans Zimmer
Poor Things Jerskin Fendrix
Arrival Jóhann Jóhannsson and Max Richter
Joker Hildur Guðnadóttir
Moon Clint Mansell
The End We Start From Anna Meredith
These startlingly evocative scores defy easy categorisation. From Daniel Blumberg’s Oscar-winning soundtrack for The Brutalist – performed live for the very first time – to beloved modern classics by Hans Zimmer, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Max Richter, this all-killer, no-filler set list is a testament to a phenomenally successful new avant-garde in film composition.
Some of these audio cues have transcended the films they come from. ‘Cornfield Chase’ from Interstellar. ‘Dawn’ from Pride and Prejudice. ‘Bathroom Dance’ from Joker Join us, and experience the best – the very best – of the 21st century.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Robert Ames conductor
SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Claude Debussy La Mer
Dani Howard Trombone Concerto Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1
You’d be hard-pressed to find a programme that is a greater expression of the titanic power of the symphony orchestra. Tonight, more is most certainly more.
From the crashing waves and rushing winds of Debussy’s ode to the might and the magic of the sea, to one of Mahler’s most perfect symphonies, this pair of works both explore hope and the healing power of nature. Between them, Belfast-born, Manchesterraised Peter Moore performs the RPS Awardwinning trombone concerto by Dani Howard.
Trombone concertos are a rare fixture, but Howard’s virtuosic and ravishing work is appointment listening. Between her lush and minimalist-inflected music, and Moore’s extraordinary artistry (BBC Music Magazine described Peter’s playing as ‘displaying an eloquence and nobility that one might have thought impossible except by the human voice’), this left-of centre work might just be the highlight of this extraordinary concert.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Elena Schwarz conductor
Peter Moore trombone
Grief, rage and manic intensity
Storgårds conducts Shostakovich
SATURDAY 15 NOVEMBER, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Dmitri Shostakovich Festive Overture
Antonín Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 10
This season, we continue our odyssey through Shostakovich’s symphonies with Chief Conductor John Storgårds, who masterfully captures both the tenderness and ferocity of the composer’s music. Tonight’s programme features Symphony No. 10, premiered after Stalin’s death in 1953. Filled with grief, rage, and manic intensity, it feels deeply autobiographical – a feeling reinforced by the
composer’s musical signature, the notes D, S, C, and H, that are furiously seared into the final movements of the work.
In the first half, cellist Anastasia Kobekina performs Dvořák’s Cello Concerto – a heroic, intensely virtuosic work she has made her own.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds conductor
Anastasia Kobekina cello
Out now with John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra on Chandos:
Shostakovich Symphony No. 11
Shostakovich Symphony No. 14
Shostakovich Symphony Nos. 12 & 15
Shostakovich Symphony No. 13
Mesmerising shapes, patterns interlocking
Steve
Reich: The Four Sections
SATURDAY 29 NOVEMBER, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Steve Reich Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards
Laura Bowler New Work (World premiere)
Gabriella Smith f(x)=sin²x-1/x
Steve Reich The Four Sections
In Steve Reich’s endlessly tessellating music, shapes emerge, solidify, uncouple, drift away, and begin to emerge anew. Leading the orchestra through this large-scale minimalist exploration is conductor and percussionist Colin Currie, one of the foremost champions of Steve Reich’s music worldwide, and a close collaborator of this American titan.
The programme features two pivotal works by Reich. Variations for Winds, Strings and
Keyboards (1979) marked his first composition for an ensemble beyond his own, maintaining his signature chattering repetitions amid an unusual musical haze. The Four Sections breaks new ground with one long acceleration – a departure from the usually constant speed of Reich’s music.
Alongside the chance to hear a world premiere by Laura Bowler, the orchestra also performs Gabriella Smith’s f(x)=sin2x-1/x The title of Smith’s piece describes a curve – a shape mirrored by the music itself.
Laura Bowler’s new work is a BBC Philharmonic Orchestra commission.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Colin Currie conductor
John Storgårds
Photo: Phil Sharp
Serenade for Strings
FRIDAY 5 DECEMBER, 8PM
ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Béla Bartók Divertimento
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
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. This is furiously virtuosic music; technically demanding and intense, pulsing with energy.
By contrast, Tchaikovsky offers us lush Romanticism in his Serenade for Strings. Orchestra Leader Zoë Beyers directs this unmistakably Russian work from the violin, all soaring melodies and heartfelt lyricism.
From its noble opening to the dazzling finale, this Serenade is a masterpiece of warmth and beauty.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Zoë Beyers director
BBC PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA AT THE RNCM
This season, we’re proud to launch a brandnew concert series in partnership with the Royal Northern College of Music. It’s a chance for us to showcase our world-class musicians in an intimate, close-up setting that is home to some of the most exciting up-and-coming artists in the UK.
It’s relaxed. There will be drinks. There will be tunes. Bring your friends.
Willmott
Photo: Drew Forsyth
The BBC Philharmonic Christmas Special
Sleighbells at the ready
FRIDAY 19 DECEMBER, 7.30PM THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Step into a winter wonderland as we bring the magic of Christmas to life with a dazzling evening of festive music. From the enchanting world of The Nutcracker to the irresistible swing of Duke Ellington classics, this is a show that will put a smile on the face of even the most stubborn Christmas grinch!
Joined by a special guest presenter and surprise guests, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra will play their way through an unforgettable night of festive fun. Expect sleigh bells, twinkling lights, and joyful surprises – the perfect way to celebrate the season with family and friends.
Experience the wonder of a symphony orchestra in full swing – because Christmas would not be the same without it!
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Leslie Suganandarajah conductor
Strange characters, unanswered questions
Horror by horror, door by door
City Noir
SATURDAY 17 JANUARY, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Charles Ives The Unanswered Question
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
John Adams City Noir
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. A symphony inspired by the iconography of 40s and 50s film noir, it weaves a dark and swaggering jazz sensibility through its three movements.
Adams’s work is cinematic in its scope. In the composer’s own words: ‘The music should have the slightly disorienting effect of a very
crowded boulevard peopled with strange characters, like those of a David Lynch film –the kind who only come out very late on a very hot night.’
In the first half, we are joined by Paul Lewis, who, in his performance of Beethoven’s crystalline Piano Concerto No. 4, might just provide us with an answer to Charles Ives’s opening Unanswered Question.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds conductor Paul Lewis piano
Bluebeard’s Castle
SATURDAY 24 JANUARY, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Lili Boulanger D’un soir triste
Zoltán Kodály Dances of Galánta Béla Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle
Seven doors, and behind each one, a crucial piece of a gruesome puzzle…
Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Bartók sits somewhere between a gothic tale of horror and a psychological dissection of a twisted relationship. Alone in a castle, Judith follows a trail of ever more compelling and grisly clues to unlock the truth about her new husband, horror by horror, door by door.
Bartók’s rich orchestration creates a world of shifting colours – glowing warmth, chilling
darkness, and eerie suspense. His music is hypnotic, drawing the listener into the unfolding mystery with pulsing rhythms and bold harmonies. More than just a horror story, Bluebeard’s Castle is a deeply human drama about love, trust, and the unknowable depths of another’s soul.
Before the drawbridge lowers, a foreshadowing. Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste was one of her last completed works before she died at the age of just 24.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Anja Bihlmaier conductor
Jennifer Johnston Judith Kostas Smoriginas Bluebeard
From Versailles to Leipzig, via Venice
Music of the Sun King
FRIDAY 30 JANUARY, 8PM
ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Johann Sebastian Bach
Selections from The Art of Fugue
Antonio Vivaldi Concerto for Two Trumpets
Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto for Oboe and Violin
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Selections from Les Indes Galantes, Naïs, Hippolyte et Aricie, and Dardanus
Music from the court of Versailles begins and ends this sparkling exploration of the baroque.
Jonathan Cohen leads a slimmed-down BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and shows just how flexible this group of players can be, as they weave their way through a selection of dances, fugues and concertos.
In the hot seat, Principal Oboe Jennifer Galloway joins Orchestra Leader Zoë Beyers for a solo turn in Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin, following fireworks by star brass players
Tom Fountain and Gwyn Owen in Vivaldi’s fiendish Concerto for Two Trumpets.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Jonathan Cohen director
Tom Fountain, Gwyn Owen trumpets
Jennifer Galloway oboe
Zoë Beyers violin
Technicolour dances and celestial legends
Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances
SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY, 7.30PM THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Camille Pépin Les Eaux célestes
Maurice Ravel Piano Concerto in G Sergei Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances
Camille Pépin is making waves. A brilliant new voice in contemporary music, her addictive, luxuriant work sits somewhere between the seemingly opposite worlds of French impressionism and American minimalism.
Tonight, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra performs her work in Manchester for the very first time. Les Eaux célestes tells the musical story of star-crossed lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi, a sky god’s daughter and a celestial cowherd who are drawn together by fate.
Before the interval, pianist Elisabeth Brauß returns with Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, a work bursting with jazz energy and Basque-inspired themes, and featuring one of classical music’s most moving slow movements. The concert concludes with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, music characterised by soaring melodies, lush harmonies, and deep emotional intensity.
Adam Hickox makes his Bridgewater Hall debut in this sparkling and generous programme of technicolour musical delights.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Adam Hickox conductor
Elisabeth Brauß piano
Jonathan Cohen Photo: Marco Borggreve
Elisabeth Brauß
Photo: Felix Bröde
Love exists, but it is a fragile thing
Rhapsodies
on love, death, and lust
Romeo & Juliet Four Last Songs
SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Alban Berg Lulu Suite: I. Rondo
Cassandra Miller I Cannot Love Without Trembling
Sergei Prokofiev Suite from Romeo and Juliet
‘Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.’ – Simone Weil
Violist Lawrence Power returns to perform
Cassandra Miller’s acclaimed Viola Concerto, a piece heralded on its 2022 premiere as an instant classic. Miller weaves her personal attachments into music, creating a work that is delicate, emotionally charged, and deeply human.
Love, in Alban Berg’s Lulu, is a fleeting thing, as the irresistible Lulu moves quickly through a succession of suitors. The Rondo from Berg’s Suite is decadent and luxurious, with a hint of anxiety.
Sergei Prokofiev would find a personal fragility through love, as the promise of a new ballet — what eventually turned out to be the tale of the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet — drew him back to a tumultuous Soviet Russia. In doing so, he created one of ballet’s most beloved scores. (And yes, it’s also the music from The Apprentice.)
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Ludovic Morlot conductor
Lawrence Power viola
SATURDAY 14 MARCH, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Richard Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Edmund Finnis The Landscape Wakes
(UK premiere)
Arnold Bax Tintagel
Richard Strauss Four Last Songs
Nicholas Carter, one of the leading opera conductors of his generation, makes his Bridgewater Hall debut.
Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde explores love and death through unresolved dissonance and ecstatic bliss, showcasing some of his most sumptuous music. Soprano Sarah Wegener joins the orchestra for Strauss’s Four Last Songs, the
composer’s final, heartbreakingly wistful reflection on life, written in 1948 as he anticipated the end. For pure concentrated personal expression, there’s little like it.
Alongside, Tintagel by Arnold Bax, a rhapsodic tone poem inspired by Cornish myths and the mystery of Tintagel Castle. But before that – hear the latest work from Edmund Finnis, a fast-rising British composer of delicate melodies and glistening, sinewy textures.
The Landscape Wakes is a BBC Philharmonic Orchestra commission, in partnership with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Nicholas Carter conductor
Sarah Wegener soprano
Live. On Air. On BBC Radio 3.
It’s an exciting time at Radio 3, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra is central to the station’s success.
In April, we launched the new sound of Radio 3 Breakfast from Salford. Like our afternoon concert programme, Classical Live, Breakfast is now broadcast from the north-west of England each weekday. It’s another compelling reason to showcase the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra to our 2 million listeners – and whether from the Bridgewater Hall stage, at the BBC Proms, live from the Philharmonic Studio at MediaCityUK or on tour across the country, we’re so proud to celebrate this brilliant ensemble on-air every week.
Every BBC Philharmonic Orchestra concert we broadcast is available on BBC Sounds, where there’s a wealth of other exclusively recorded performances to enjoy at your leisure. It’s also the place to discover many Radio 3 programmes, from Composer of the Week to Earlier… with Jools Holland, and Sound of Cinema to Essential Classics.
Finally, thank you for your support of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. I wish you a wonderful season of musical discovery.
Sam Jackson Controller
BBC Radio 3 & BBC Proms
Anthracite Fields
A community toils, rages, and dreams
SATURDAY 21 MARCH, 7.30PM
THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Julia Wolfe Anthracite Fields
‘I guess I have a bias towards the grit.’ – Julia Wolfe
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.
Wolfe grew up in coal-rich Pennsylvania – with vast deposits of anthracite, coal’s purest form – and saw firsthand how intertwined the means of fuelling a nation were with human toil and sacrifice. Through extensive research and oral histories, Wolfe weaves together stories of labour, loss, and resistance – stories that could just as easily come from the Yorkshire pits or the South Lancashire coalfields, where mining was not just a job but a way of life.
We hear testimonies from men risking serious injury, communities remembering the fallen, the fiery words of union leader John M. Lewis, and a few voices daring to hope. Wolfe’s writing is equal parts fluid and direct, drawing from her established sources — chorales, rock music, minimalism — as she looks unsparingly at the past.
Death and danger, community and power, all delivered with Wolfe’s trademark forthrightness.
This symphonic arrangement of Anthracite Fields is a BBC Philharmonic Orchestra commission, in partnership with the Louisville Orchestra.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
BBC Singers
John Storgårds conductor
Composer in Residence
New World Symphony
A dazzling whirlwind of sights and sounds
SATURDAY 18 APRIL, 7.30PM THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Duke Ellington Harlem
Nikolai Kapustin Piano Concerto No. 4
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9
‘From the New World’
Joshua Weilerstein makes his triumphant return to the Philharmonic in this musical postcard celebrating the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Three joyous works each cast a different light on the sights
and sounds of the USA, culminating in a performance of Antonín Dvořák’s love letter to America – his ‘New World’ Symphony. One of the most beloved and enduring works in the orchestral repertoire, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 explores themes of identity, belonging, and the emotional pull of home.
Firebrand pianist Frank Dupree makes his BBC Philharmonic Orchestra debut in Kapustin’s breakneck Piano Concerto No. 4 –a dazzling whirlwind of a piece that marries
jazz improvisation with relentless classical virtuosity. To open: Duke Ellington’s swaggering Harlem captures the energy, pride, and creativity of Harlem’s cultural renaissance. Blending big band swing with classical finesse, it’s a bold celebration of life in the big city.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Joshua Weilerstein conductor Frank Dupree piano
Out of near-death experiences -- life
Big Beautiful Dark and Scary
SATURDAY 25 APRIL, 7.30PM THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Julia Wolfe Big Beautiful Dark and Scary Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Hector Berlioz Symphonie fantastique
‘This is how life feels right now.’ – Julia Wolfe
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. When he wrote his Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky was also recuperating from personal turmoil: after a collapsed marriage and a failed suicide attempt, he escaped to the shores of Lake Geneva. In the company
of a violinist muse – Josef Kotek –Tchaikovsky created a concerto of romance, peace and jollity, and a celebrated classic of the repertoire.
Personal suffering is distant in Tchaikovsky’s concerto, but front-and-centre of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Originally titled ‘Episodes in the Life of an Artist’, this “fantastic symphony in five parts” follows the tribulations of a gifted artist who, out of an unrequited love for a woman, falls into a deep malaise, and travels through opium-addled hallucinations. High drama.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Anja Bihlmaier conductor Bomsori Kim violin
Composer in Residence
Anja Bihlmaier
Photo: Phil Sharp
Biting musical wit and sheer spectacle
We too, can be any of these people
Grand Pianola Music
FRIDAY 1 MAY, 8PM
ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Igor Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
John Adams Grand Pianola Music
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.
Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments is a razor-sharp, neoclassical masterpiece, spare yet dynamic, balancing crisp counterpoint with jazz-inflected rhythms and biting wit. Written in the 1920s, it strips
away Romantic excess in favour of stark brilliance, precision, and energy.
In contrast, John Adams’s Grand Pianola Music revels in excess, transforming minimalist repetition into something grand, surreal, and cinematic. Featuring two pianos, a lush wind ensemble, and ethereal vocal harmonies, Adams conjures an addictive, dream-like sound world that oscillates between nostalgia and sheer spectacle.
Together, these works offer a fascinating study in contrasts – one taut and disciplined, the other expansive and ecstatic – each redefining the piano’s expressive possibilities in brilliantly unexpected ways.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
MAY (RUN DATES TBA)
AVIVA STUDIOS
Angel’s Bone
Du Yun Angel’s Bone (UK premiere)
‘Art does not solve problems. Art, at its best, functions to provoke and suggest. When we choose to have our characters sing, we tackle a phenomenon: we too, can be any of these people — angels or not, middleman or not.’
– Du Yun
Angel’s Bone is a Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary opera by Chinese American composer Du Yun and librettist Royce Vavrek. A dark fable exploring modern-day slavery and human trafficking, it draws inspiration
from a range of musical genres from classical to cabaret and punk. Its UK premiere is the result of a collaboration between English National Opera, Factory International and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, in a new production specifically imagined for the dramatic Warehouse space at Aviva Studios.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
English National Opera
Tickets for Angel’s Bone will go on sale in Autumn 2025.
Du Yun
Photo: Zhen Qin
Strange birds, icy beauty, exhilarating power
Northern Lights
SATURDAY 16 MAY, 7.30PM THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Einojuhani Rautavaara Cantus Arcticus
Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto
Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 5
In this striking exploration of Nordic soundscapes, Chief Conductor John Storgårds will flex every Finnish musical muscle as he leads the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra from the icy beauty of the Arctic to a Danish climax that revels in the raw power of human resilience.
Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus blends cinematic orchestral textures with otherworldly fieldrecordings of birdsong from the far north. The result is an evocative, dreamlike meditation
on nature, where sweeping strings merge with the calls of Arctic birds in an unforgettable soundscape.
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto offers a different kind of wildness – virtuosic, passionate, and deeply expressive. Renowned violinist Simone Lamsma, celebrated for her thrilling performances and sparkling technique, returns to the Orchestra.
Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5 is a gripping musical battle between chaos and order. Pulsing rhythms, fierce percussion, and surging orchestral lines create an intense drama, with a defiant energy that combines beauty, struggle, and exhilarating power.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds conductor Simone Lamsma
A primal force, a dance to the death
Philharmonic Sessions: The Rite of Spring
FRIDAY 22 MAY, 7.30PM AVIVA STUDIOS
‘Watching an orchestra in this way is a one of a kind experience. The classical music comes alive and is able to be appreciated for what it is – a dynamic, expressive medium’. Manchester Evening News
The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Aviva Studios for their next groundbreaking collaboration with Factory International.
Few pieces have shaken the musical world like the primal force that is Stravinsky’s
The Rite of Spring. Conceived as a depiction of a pagan ritual culminating in human sacrifice, its 1913 premiere in Paris famously caused a riot – audiences were shocked by its pulsing
asymmetry, brutal harmonies, and sheer sonic violence. Over a century later, The Rite of Spring remains as ferocious and exhilarating as ever, a testament to music’s power to provoke, shock, and thrill.
Encounter Stravinsky’s masterpiece in a new production powered by Aviva’s immersive d&b Soundscape audio system and a captivating lighting design, and choose how you want to experience the incredible sound of the orchestra – as part of a BBC Proms-style standing arena, or sat in the upper tier of the Aviva Hall.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Ludovic Morlot conductor
Photo: Gaelle Beri
Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, ‘Resurrection’
Music from some other world…
SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 7.30PM THE BRIDGEWATER HALL
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2, ‘Resurrection’
‘The whole thing sounds as though it came to us from some other world. I think there is no one who can resist it. One is battered to the ground and then raised on angel’s wings to the highest heights.’ – Gustav Mahler
Mahler’s Resurrection is a colossal work of drama, beauty, and power. From its gripping opening funeral march to its earth-shaking finale, this is music on the grandest possible scale that demands to be experienced live.
This is a work that redefined the possible, pushing every musical and emotional boundary. The massed forces of a vast orchestra, offstage brass, vocal soloists, and a powerful chorus combine to create a truly overwhelming experience.
130 years after its first performance, Mahler’s Resurrection remains one of the most profound and life-affirming works of art ever created.
John Storgårds conductor
Siobhan Stagg soprano
Stefanie Irányi mezzo soprano
CBSO Chorus
Live from the BBC Philharmonic Studio
This is your chance to peek behind the curtain. Visit our world-class recording studio at MediaCityUK and witness the orchestra as they 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 on-air family.
We’ve listed this season’s confirmed studio broadcasts below, but we’re announcing new dates all the time. Please keep an eye on our website and on our socials for the latest news.
Beethoven Symphony No.7
WEDNESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER
John Storgårds conductor
Haydn & Beethoven
FRIDAY 21 NOVEMBER
Giuseppe Mengoli conductor
Debussy’s ‘La Mer’
TUESDAY 9 DECEMBER
Joshua Weilerstein conductor
The Blue Danube
TUESDAY 16 DECEMBER
Leslie Suganandarajah conductor
Four Seasons in a Day
WEDNESDAY 14 JANUARY
John Storgårds conductor
Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’
WEDNESDAY 25 FEBRUARY
Riccardo Minasi conductor
Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’
WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH
Nicholas Carter conductor
The Cunning Little Vixen
WEDNESDAY 18 MARCH
Clelia Cafiero conductor
Bernstein’s ‘On the Town’
THURSDAY 16 APRIL
Joshua Weilerstein conductor
Spring Symphony
WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL
Anja Bihlmaier conductor
Brahms: Double Concerto
THURSDAY 7 MAY
Daníel Bjarnason conductor
Zoë Beyers violin
Peter Dixon cello
Brahms: Symphony No. 2
WEDNESDAY 13 MAY
Tom Fetherstonhaugh conductor
Tickets for our studio concerts are strictly limited and from this season will be priced at £5 per ticket (including booking fee). To find out more, please visit bbc.co.uk/philharmonic
Photo: Chris Payne
Our Learning Programme
Photo: Bill Lam
From first musical experiences to careerdefining professional development opportunities, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra’s learning programme has become an essential part of the lives of music-lovers all over the UK.
At the heart of this programme is the BBC’s flagship education initiative, BBC Ten Pieces, which opens up the world of classical music to 7–14-year-olds through an incredible library of films, classroom resources, and instrumental arrangements. To date, Ten Pieces has been used in over 10,000 schools around the UK, reaching more than 5 million children.
Co-commissioned with BBC Education, our award-winning hit TV series for CBeebies, Musical Storyland, has now been streamed over 12 million times. This year, Musical Storyland Live! will make its international debut on tour, with premieres in German and Mandarin as the Orchestra performs the show abroad.
Closer to home, the Orchestra collaborates closely with the Royal Northern College of Music on a Professional Experience Scheme, providing invaluable training, mentoring, and side-by-side performance opportunities to the RNCM’s best and brightest. The Orchestra also works in partnership with Manchester’s specialist music school, Chetham’s School of Music, providing live and broadcast side-byside performing opportunities for students hoping to enter the profession.
The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra is the proud partner of the Greater Manchester and Blackburn with Darwen Music Hub, working together to bring live and interactive experiences to children across the region.
BRIDGEWATER HALL
bridgewater-hall.co.uk
0161 907 9000
TICKETS
£40, £32, £25, £18, £12
(incl. £3.25 booking fee)
Under-30s, Students, Claimants
£10
(incl. £3.25 booking fee)
Senior citizen 10% off (excl. booking fee)
How to book
AVIVA STUDIOS
factoryinternational.org
0333 322 8679
PHILHARMONIC SESSIONS TICKETS
£26.50
(incl. £1.50 booking fee)
Concessions
£14
(incl. £1.50 booking fee)
Aviva £10 ticket
£10
Please note, tickets for Angel’s Bone will go on sale in Autumn 2025 and will be priced separately.
O2 APOLLO MANCHESTER
academymusicgroup.com/ o2apollomanchester
TICKETS
£72.60, £63.60, £56.15, £44.90 (incl. fees)
ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC
rncm.ac.uk
0161 907 5555
TICKETS
£22
(incl. £2 booking fee)
Students and Under-26s
£14
(incl. £1 booking fee)
BBC PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA STUDIO CONCERTS
bbc.co.uk/philharmonic
TICKETS
£5 (incl. £1 booking fee)
With thanks to...
Alphabet Studio Drew Forsyth Photography
Aviva Studios
Bridgewater Hall
Dock10
Flight Club Manchester
Hot Bed Press
O2 Apollo
Royal Northern College of Music
Science and Industry Museum
Shrigley Hall Hotel & Spa
Stockport Plaza
The Old Fire Station Bakery
Whalley Range Sports Centre
Zaytoni
All information correct at time of printing. For the most up to date information, please visit bbc.co.uk/philharmonic. The price of tickets may vary, subject to demand.
Cover images: Amy Huang (violin), Jonathan Barrett (horn), Ronan Dunne (double bass), Sarah Greene (viola), Elinor Gow (cello), or Russell Taylor (bass trombone).
Design: Alphabet Studio Photos: Drew Forsyth
Rebecca Levis Photo: Drew Forsyth