MULTITUDES Festival to Return to Southbank Centre with Orchestral Music
Philharmonia Orchestra's epic show Forged in Sound: Heavy Metal Orchestrated, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs Messiaen's ecstatic Turangalîla-Symphonie and more.
Four weeks remain until Multitudes, the Southbank Centre's electrifying multi-arts festival powered by orchestral music. Launched in 2025 to critical acclaim – and winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Series – the festival returns this April as part of the Southbank Centre's 75th anniversary year.
Having attracted 59% new bookers to the Southbank Centre's classical music programme in its debut year, Multitudes looks to the future of classical music through bold, interdisciplinary work and new commissions that expand the possibilities of the orchestral experience while celebrating its scale, power and emotional depth.
The festival brings together the Southbank Centre's six Resident Orchestras with internationally renowned artists from across dance, circus, film, fashion, poetry and visual art. Highlights include:
- Orchestral music and heavy metal collide in the Philharmonia Orchestra's epic show Forged in Sound: Heavy Metal Orchestrated (Wed 22 Apr).
- The London Contemporary Orchestra reimagine the music that shaped Lee Alexander McQueen's legendary runway shows in a large-scale multi-arts performance (Wed 29 & Thu 30 Apr).
- Berg's devastating opera, Wozzeck, is reimagined through a modern lens in a semi-staged production from the London Philharmonic Orchestra and director Ilya Shagalov. (Sat 25 Apr).
- A super-sized Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs Messiaen's ecstatic Turangalîla-Symphonie, combining live orchestral performance with stop-motion animation and psychedelic visuals from visual theatre company 1927 in Turangalîla: Infinite Love (Thu 23 Apr).
- In Echoes of Hill and Horizon, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment uses the Queen Elizabeth Hall's Concrete Voids spatial sound system to create an all-encompassing orchestral experience, with immersive visuals from light-art pioneers Squidsoup (Wed 22 Apr).
The Rite by Heart | CLASSICAL MUSIC | THEATRICAL STAGING
Aurora Orchestra
Thu 16 Apr, 7.30pm, Royal Festival Hall.
Aurora Orchestra performs Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring entirely from memory, in a theatrical presentation exploring the radical creation of one of the 20th century's most explosive scores.
Repertoire
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring (performed from memory)
Forged in Sound: Heavy Metal Orchestrated | CLASSICAL MUSIC | ROCK | METAL
Philharmonia Orchestra
Wed 22 Apr, 7.30pm, Royal Festival Hall.
Philharmonia Orchestra and Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali – a former rock drummer – bring orchestral force to music inspired by rock and heavy metal, from Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries to symphonic metal energy.
Repertoire Includes
Lordi: Hard Rock Hallelujah
The Kills: Doing It to Death
Suzi Quatro: Can the Can
Holst: Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets
Daniel Nelson: Steampunk Blizzard
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10, II. Allegro
Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3, II. Maestoso–Allegro
Echoes of Hill and Horizon | CLASSICAL MUSIC | IMMERSIVE SOUND INSTALLATION | LIGHT INSTALLATION
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Squidsoup
Wed 22 Apr, 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment transforms Queen Elizabeth Hall into a three-dimensional instrument, using the Southbank Centre's Concrete Voids spatial sound system to evoke the echoes of cathedral acoustics, with stunning visuals from light-art pioneers Squidsoup.
Repertoire
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Peter Warlock: Capriol Suite
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves
Elgar: Serenade for Strings
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Turangalîla: Infinite Love | CLASSICAL MUSIC | FILM | VISUAL ART
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & 1927
Thu 23 Apr, 7.30pm, Royal Festival Hall.
A super-sized Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs Messiaen's ecstatic symphony in collaboration with visual theatre company 1927, combining live orchestral performance with stop-motion animation and psychedelic visuals.
Repertoire
Messiaen: Turangalîla-symphonie
Art of Fugue | CLASSICAL MUSIC | CIRCUS
Circa & Australian Brandenburg Orchestra
Fri 24 Apr – Sat 25 Apr, Fri: 7.45pm, Sat: 3pm & 7.45pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra meets internationally acclaimed circus company Circa in a thrilling live performance of Bach's The Art of Fugue, combining virtuosic musicianship with gravity-defying contemporary circus.
Repertoire
Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
Wozzeck – Wretches Like Us | OPERA | FILM
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sat 25 Apr, 7.30pm, Royal Festival Hall.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra presents Berg's devastating opera in a semi-staged production with film by director Ilya Shagalov, reframing the story through the modern lens of migrant labour and social precarity.
Repertoire
Berg: Wozzeck – opera in 3 acts (semi-staged)
An Evening with an Immigrant | ORCHESTRAL MUSIC | POETRY
Inua Ellams, Laura Mvula, Fuel & Chineke! Orchestra
Sun 26 Apr, 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Poet and playwright Inua Ellams revisits his acclaimed autobiographical show in a new version featuring a new orchestral score by Laura Mvula performed live by Chineke! Orchestra.
Repertoire
Laura Mvula: Original score (World premiere)
Inferno | CLASSICAL MUSIC | FILM | VISUAL ART
BBC Concert Orchestra, Fiona Brice, TaliaBle & Mat Collishaw
Wed 29 Apr, 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall.
BBC Concert Orchestra perform Liszt's Dante Symphony alongside a striking film installation by visual artist Mat Collishaw. The programme also features a new collaborative work from composer Fiona Brice and rapper TaliaBle, exploring the climate crisis through the imagery of apocalypse.
Repertoire
Liszt: Dante Symphony, S.109
Un-natural Harmony: Sounds of Lee Alexander McQueen | CLASSICAL MUSIC | DANCE | CONTEMPORARY MUSIC | FILM
London Contemporary Orchestra, Holly Blakey, Michael Clark, John Gosling
Wed 29 & Thu 30 Apr, 7.30pm, Royal Festival Hall.
The London Contemporary Orchestra reimagine the canonical music that shaped Lee Alexander McQueen's legendary runway shows in a large-scale live performance. Directed by Elayce Ismail, the concert blends orchestral music with new choreography by Holly Blakey, a film by Douglas Hart and Eddie Whelan including choreography by Michael Clark, and an evening's repertoire spanning Purcell to Lady Gaga.
Repertoire Includes
Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (selections, incl. Purcell arias)
Philip Glass: Morning Passages (The Hours)
George Frideric Handel: Sarabande, HWV 437
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K488: II. Adagio
Lady Gaga: Bad Romance
The Rolling Stones: Paint It Black, arr. Phillip Shepard
Nirvana vs. Adam Freeland: Smells Like Teen Spirit
Sympoesia | ORCHESTRAL MUSIC | POETRY | CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
London Sinfonietta & Out-Spoken
Thu 30 Apr, 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall.
London Sinfonietta join leading poets from Out-Spoken, including Joelle Taylor and Anthony Anaxagorou, for a night of newly commissioned poetry and contemporary music responding to the state of the world.
Papillons | CLASSICAL MUSIC | DANCE | ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Manchester Collective, Thick & Tight & CHAINES
Thu 30 Apr, 7.45pm, Purcell Room.
Manchester Collective collaborates with queer dance-theatre company Thick & Tight and electronic artist CHAINES, presenting a tableau of three artistic responses to Kaija Saariaho's Sept Papillons through dance, electronic music and cello performance.
Repertoire
Saariaho: 7 Papillons for cello
CHAINES: New work (World premiere)
Videos