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THE TRUTH ABOUT: Bbcso - The Untold Story

BBCSO/Gaffigan review – all-American evening of sleek grooves and edge-of-seat Barber

The UK premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Concerto for Orchestra was playful and punchy, before elegant Gershwin and noirish Barber

The Guardian - UK · Aug 14

BBCSO/BBC Singers/Brabbins: UnEarth review – Wolfe faces the climate crisis head on

Julia Wolfe’s oratorio, here in its UK premiere, is evocative and striking, but its thudding final movement felt heavy-handed

The Guardian - UK · Jan 25

BBCSO/Adès review – Adès held the orchestra as if under a spell

A Proms programme of the UK premiere of Gabriella Smith’s Breathing Forests, Sibelius, and Adès’s own music (Five Spells from The Tempest) was atmospheric and engaging

The Guardian - UK · Sep 3, 2025

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BBCSO/Lintu review – there’s a good reason these Boulez and Mahler works aren’t often performed

Despite eye-catching percussion and deluxe orchestral playing, these strange, overlong pieces are for die-hards only

The Guardian - UK · Aug 5, 2025

BBCSO/Elder review – like a Klimt painting in sound

The final concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s season brought us Franz Schreker’s sensual and elusive Chamber Symphony and Mahler’s intense Das Lied von der Erde

The Guardian - UK · May 25, 2025

BBCSO/Biss/Hrůša review – radiance, juggernaut power and soulfulness

The conductor put his stamp on the BBCSO programme with lyrical Haas, energising Beethoven, introspective Schubert and Schostakovich that may have been the loudest orchestral music ever heard at the Barbican

The Guardian - UK · Feb 3, 2025

BBCSO/Oramo review – Kaija Saariaho’s final work receives poignant UK premiere

The Finnish composer’s spectral four-movement Hush was the centrepiece of a programme based on themes of death and transcendence – a moving eulogy to her genius

The Guardian - UK · Jan 26, 2025

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M. Butterfly review – Huang Ruo’s cross-cultural opera gets an enthralling UK premiere

Remarkable performances keep us guessing about the intricacies of the east-west relationship at the heart of this BBCSO/Barbican concert staging

The Guardian - UK · Oct 27, 2024

Last Night of the Proms review – pauses stretched patience but warmth and a Mexican wave won out

Pianist Stephen Hough was magical, soprano Angel Blue was on velvet-voiced form and a sporting theme brought inspired silliness

The Guardian - UK · Sep 15, 2024

Proms 53 and 54: BBCSO/Brabbins; Beethoven for Three

The Proms’ tribute to Andrew Davis was crowned by a joyous Steve Reich premiere, while the next day saw three outstanding musicians grapple with awkward acoustics

The Guardian - UK · Sep 1, 2024

Prom 45: BBCSO/Stasevska review – weighty premiere of a penniless composer’s symphony of love

The composer’s only surviving orchestral score feels more preliminary sketch than finished work, but Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony was stirringly delivered

The Guardian - UK · Aug 26, 2024

Prom 38: Gabetta/BBCSO/Lu review – Francisco Coll premiere roams deliriously wide

The composer’s Cello Concerto, written for and performed by Sol Gabetta, was perfectly precise in conductor Tianyi Lu’s hands, despite its dizzying technical demands on soloist and orchestra

The Guardian - UK · Aug 19, 2024

BBCSO/Brabbins review – a Brazilian mass brings a ray of Rio sunshine

Mellower than its European counterparts, Nunes Garcia’s mass flowed easily under Brabbins’ baton – and the four solo singers basked in its floridity

The Guardian - UK · May 12, 2024

BBCSO/Brabbins: Italian Radicals review – politically charged, expressive and technical

Works by Luigi Dallapiccola, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono and Luciano Berio got the BBC Symphony Orchestra Total Immersion treatment

The Guardian - UK · May 8, 2024

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The Guardian - UK · Feb 11, 2024

BBCSO/Kahchun Wong review – hints of musical adventure to come

The Singaporean conductor, soon to head the Hallé, chose a Shostakovich symphony for his London debut, along with two Japanese pieces forming a timely tribute to the late Seiji Ozawa

The Guardian - UK · Dec 10, 2023

BBCSO/Oramo review – the freshness Oramo brought to Sibelius was a joyous revelation

Sakari Oramo presented the Finnish composer’s enigmatic Sixth symphony and the majestic Seventh as a single span in a concert that also included the UK premiere of Tebogo Monnakgotla’s Globe Skimmer Surfing the Somali Jet with violinist Johan Dalene

The Guardian - UK · Nov 2, 2023

Bacewicz: Symphonies 3 & 4 album review – Oramo is a passionate advocate

Sakari Oramo and the BBCSO revel in the expert orchestrations of Grażyna Bacewicz’s music in this first instalment of recordings of the Polish composer’s orchestral works

The Guardian - UK · Oct 8, 2023

BBCSO/Oramo review – a fresh take on Mahler’s Fifth

Sakari Oramo proved once again what a special Mahlerian he is with this outstanding performance, in a programme that also featured an early Ligeti work and the UK premiere of an underwhelming orchestral piece by Dora Pejačević

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The Guardian - UK · Aug 21, 2023

Proms 45 & 46: BBCSO/Oramo; Manchester Collective review – Mahler with martial zeal and shimmering electronic works

Mahler’s Third Symphony is a huge undertaking, impressively played by the BBCSO, followed by a rare late-night excursion into contemporary works

The Guardian - UK · Jun 23, 2023

Colin Bradbury obituary

Principal clarinet of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for more than 30 years and exponent of the instrument’s lesser-known repertory

The Guardian - UK · Apr 22, 2023

The week in classical: Innocence; Sakari Oramo/BBCSO; Explore Ensemble – review

A big week for Finnish music and musicians led by Kaija Saariaho’s powerful opera about a school shooting, and a thrilling Bartok performance

The Guardian - UK · Apr 8, 2023

Classical home listening: Antonio Oyarzabal, Sarah Cahill and the BBCSO’s RVW symphonies 7 & 9

The Spanish pianist’s album of female Latin American composers is full of discoveries, while Martyn Brabbins and co take us out into the cold…

The Guardian - UK · Jan 16, 2023

BBCSO/Karabits review – Ukraine speaks out through its music

The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s guest conductor Kirill Karabits and pianist Anna Fedorova brought music from their homeland to an enthusiastic audience

The Guardian - UK · Oct 10, 2022

Total Immersion: Sibelius the Storyteller review – hair-raising climaxes and soaring operatic intensity

A day of concerts led by Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra explored the Finnish composer’s tone poems and songs, and made for a vivid - and special - experience

The Guardian - UK · Sep 6, 2022

Prom 66: BBCSO/Canellakis review – Jolas puts her tongue in her cheek

Betsy Jolas’s bTunes is a witty ode to our attention-sapping times, while Karina Canellakis commanded Mahler’s First Symphony with an expressive and sharply etched performance

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