Announcing our new 2026-2027 Nottingham Classics Season
World-class talent performing epic masterpieces in an extraordinary acoustic - every Nottingham Classics season is special, and this one is no exception.
Evocative legends of ancient worlds weave throughout the season. The Hallé open with Stravinsky’s magical Firebird Suite on Wednesday 23 September, their Principal Conductor Kahchun Wong welcoming Sir Stephen Hough to amaze us with a performance of Beethoven's Emperor - his Fifth Piano Concerto. The Firebird's undoubtable counterparts are Ravel's rapturous Daphnis and Chloé Suites, showcased by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the adored maestro Vasily Petrenko on Saturday 22 May. They're joined by the eldest of Nottingham's beloved musical siblings, Isata Kanneh-Mason, to perform Mozart's incredibly poignant and final Piano Concerto, No. 27.
Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite tells tales of gallantry in its Nottingham Classics debut on Wednesday 20 January, whilst Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade enchantingly evokes The Arabian Nights on Thursday 29 October, performed by the all-star line up of John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London. Conducting Strauss's electrifying self portrait Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life) on Thursday 22 April is our very own hero, Sir Mark Elder.
There's an abundance of masterpieces featuring Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and Tchaikovsky's Second and Fourth Symphonies. Sinfonia Viva mark the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death with his instantly-recognisable Fifth Symphony whilst the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra perform Mendelssohn's Fifth Symphony alongside his breathtaking vision of Fingal's Cave, his Hebrides Overture. Magnificently concluding the season on Friday 4 June with its biblical proportions is Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.
Two of Rachmaninov's sensational Piano Concertos feature consecutively in October; Nikolai Lugansky performs the First with the NDR Philharmonic Hannover on Wednesday 14 and the extraordinary Benjamin Grosvenor takes charge of the Second alongside the Sinfonia of London on Thursday 29 October. Paul Lewis summons Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto from our stunning Steinway during the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Dvořák-themed concert on 11 March, and Braimah Kanneh-Mason realises the bucolic bliss of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert of British classics on 17 February.
Flying in from across the globe to perform in our acclaimed acoustic are some of the world's finest violinists; Leila Josefowicz, Alena Baeva, Maria Ioudenitch, María Dueñas and Michael Foyle, who'll be performing the concertos of Adès, Sibelius, Prokofiev (No.1), Beethoven and Elgar. Performing Mozart's Fourth Horn Concerto is a star of the 2026 BBC Proms, Benjamin Goldscheider.
A trio of trailblazing conductors make their debuts on the Royal Concert Hall podium; Santtu-Matias Rouvali leads the Philharmonia Orchestra, Nil Venditti directs the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform under the thrilling baton of Tianyi Lu. Elena Schwarz, Andrew Manze, Aziz Shokhakimov, Stanislav Kochanovsky excitedly make their return visits, and Michael Seal conducts twice!
Rapidly becoming a tradition is the BBC Concert Orchestra's annual collaboration with the massed choirs of the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University. Bringing glorious rays of sunshine to this Springtime event is Haydn's joyful story of the world's beginnings, The Creation.
International superstar Vadym Kholodenko is the first of the six Sunday Piano Series virtuosos, featuring both the winner and runner up of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2024, Jaeden Izik-Dzurko and Junyan Chen.
