Tenebrae choir standing in all black in a church, they are surrounded by candles

A journey through 400 years of music: our 2026 classical programme

Classical Music

This year, Brighton Festival celebrates its 60th edition with a classical music programme which reflects the past 60 years and the many extraordinary names who have performed in Brighton as well as looking to the next 60 years and the new generation of musicians. From the drama of Bach to the cinematic power of Shostakovich, experience an extraordinary breadth of music from timeless masterpieces, bold interpretations and extraordinary performers.

Two groups of four people, with a field in the background
Chiaroscuro Quartet and Consone Quartet

A showstopping collaboration

Opening the classical programme, two leading string groups, Chiaroscuro Quartet and Consone Quartet, unite for a one-off performance at Glyndebourne Opera House on 3 May. The quartets present masterpieces Haydn and Mozart individually, before combining forces in the teenage Mendelssohn’s miraculously mature yet evergreen Octet. 

An impressionist artwork of a man with his arms outstretched, looking up to a bright light
St John Passion

Vibrant, fearless and modern

On 4 May, Brighton Dome’s magnificent Concert Hall hosts a striking staging of Bach’s St John Passion on 4 May. Combined with the artistry of the Britten Sinfonia and an international cast of young international soloists from William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants and Le Jardin des Voix, the magnificent Brighton Festival Chorus and Youth Choir will sing from memory while moving through the auditorium to dissolve boundaries between performers and audience. This timeless story of life, death and resurrection is a Brighton Festival Exclusive.

An orchestra plays in front of a large screen, which is showing a film about the Soviet Union
Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo by Fernando Manoso.

Music meets moving image

On 17 May, Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra joins forces with filmmaker William Kentridge for a Brighton Festival Exclusive screening of his “dazzling, subversive” (New York Times) animated film Oh To Believe in Another World, which he will introduce live from the stage. To accompany the screening, the Orchestra will perform Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10, written in response to Stalin’s regime in Russia and inspiration for Kentridge’s film.  Using collage, puppets and masked actors, Oh To Believe in Another World depicts the decades from the 1917 Russian revolution to 1953, the year of Stalin’s death.

Tenebrae. Photo by Sim Canetty-Clarke

World-class performances

London Symphony Orchestra returns to Brighton Festival on 8 May under Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, joined by prize-winning pianist Denis Kozhukhin. Performing in Brighton Dome Concert Hall, the Orchestra presents works from Beethoven’s seminal ​Piano ​Concerto No.​ ​3 and Tchaikovsky’s poignantly personal Symphony No.​ ​6. Meanwhile, countertenor Iestyn Davies MBE and harpist Oliver Wass join forces for an unforgettable evening in the Royal Pavilion Music Room (20 May).  The internationally acclaimed and award-winning artists traverse 400 years of music and song, encompassing composers from Monteverdi, Purcell and Handel to Amy Beach, Nico Muhly and Anna Meredith, by way of Schubert, Ravel, Poulenc and Britten. On 23 May, acclaimed chamber choir Tenebrae return to Brighton Festival. Their haunting A Celestial Gift surveys five centuries of sacred choral music in Latin, English and Russian, with highlights including Allegri’s Miserere, Holst’s Nunc dimittis and Rachmaninov’s Cherubic Hymn.

Images of Sophie Bevan, Miranda Richardson and Christopher Glynn's faces are superimposed onto a blue background. Around them are illustrations of roses and people in Elizabethan dress
Sophie Bevan, Miranda Richardson and Christopher Glynn.

Shakespeare’s Sisters

On 10 May, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award-winning star of stage and screen Miranda Richardson reads from Dame Harriet Walter’s new book She Speaks. Written in Shakespearean verse, the book imagines what some of the Bard’s most intriguing female characters would have said, if only they’d been given more lines to say. Interspersing Miranda’s readings, leading operatic soprano Sophie Bevan and Grammy Award-winning pianist Christopher Glynn explore how these characters have inspired countless composers down the ages, from Purcell and Haydn through Schubert, Berlioz and Verdi to Bernstein and Madeleine Dring.

Discover new, young and emerging artists

On 11 May, International Piano Competition winner Curtis Phill Hsu joins Brighton and East Sussex Youth Orchestra in Brighton Dome Concert Hall. The Orchestra will perform Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, famously featured in the film Brief Encounter, alongside other orchestral works from the Romantic period to the present day.

Throughout the Festival, our Lunchtime concerts series (5–20 May) showcases international ensembles and emerging UK talent in Brighton Dome Studio Theatre and Concert Hall. Tickets are just £10, with featured artists including the Delphine Trio, pianist Sherri Lun and the Jerwood Glyndebourne Young Singers.

 

 

See the full programme, and book tickets for classical music events Here 

Brighton & East Sussex Youth Orchestra forms a key part of Create Music’s offer to young musicians, providing high-quality ensemble experiences and public performance opportunities as part of its commitment to musical progression across Brighton and East Sussex.

Chiaroscuro and Consone Quartets are supported by Margaret Polmear. Create Music is supported by Mayo Wynne Baxter. London Symphony Orchestra is supported by Professor David Gann CBE FREng.

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