BBC NOW 2026-27 Season Beethoven 9

A bold contemporary voice meets one of the greatest symphonic landmarks in an evening led by Principal Guest Conductor Jaime Martin, marking 200 years since the death of Beethoven. James MacMillan’s Concerto for Orchestra – Ghosts, opens the programme: a continuous, through‑composed work alive with shifting memories, folk echoes and spectral allusions. Chamber groupings surface from the orchestral fabric before resolving in a serene, hymn‑like close. After the interval comes Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 9, a work that redefined the symphony itself. Its revolutionary choral finale unites orchestra, chorus and an outstanding quartet of soloists, Gweneth‑Ann Rand, Anna Stéphany, Ryan Vaughan Davies and Blaise Malaba, all former Cardiff Singer of the World performers, in music of immense power and uplifting joy.