Sir Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle has chosen to mark his 60th birthday with this major London residency at the Barbican and Southbank Centre. The concerts will focus on the music that means the most to him: a complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies in honour of the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, Mahler's Symphony No.2 and music by Helmut Lachenmann.

Programme to include:

Lachenmann Tableau
Mahler Symphony No 2 (Resurrection)

Kate Royal soprano
Magdalena Koženà mezzo-soprano
London Symphony Chorus
City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus

Composed a century apart, Mahler's 85-minute Symphony No 2, Resurrection, and Helmut Lachenmann’s 15-minute Tableau share an intense engagement with the natural and imagined world. The alluring textures of Lachenmann’s virtuosic musique concrète instrumentale – vaulting brass, cross-hatched strings, darting woodwind and splintered metallic percussion – provide a prelude to the climax of The London Residency: a dramatic symphonic epic with Dies Irae plainchant, pastoral dance, teeming fish, a rose, a nightingale, primal light, off-stage brass, transcendent solo voices and a vast choir.