From Mozart and Chopin to brand new opera, here are our critic’s picks of the most exciting musical events next month
October is high season for classical concerts and opera. Whether you love Mozart favourites or cutting-edge new creations, the grand piano or an insight into the power of music in the community – or all of the above – there really is something for everyone. Here are six highlights to kickstart your autumn musical adventures.
The Cumnock Tryst
Ayreshire, Scotland, 2-5 October
Once described in The New York Times as “the kind of place where music festivals do not happen”, the former mining town of Cumnock in Ayrshire has proved that judgement wrong. The Cumnock Tryst is the brainchild of local resident Sir James MacMillan, one of Britain’s most renowned composers. Recognising the invaluable contribution of music to regeneration, he brings together the townspeople with leading classical performers and also composers, many of whom hail from the area; this festival is rooted in and co-created with the community. Highlights in its 11th year include baritone Roderick Williams with the Carducci Quartet, Sansara, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and a groundbreaking project between the Hebrides Ensemble and Drake Music Scotland for local young people with additional support needs.
https://www.thecumnocktryst.com/2025-festival
London Piano Festival,
Kings Place, 9-12 October
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this annual festival brings a many-coursed banquet of piano music to Kings Place. Run by the duo of formidable pianists Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva, its offerings encompass celebrity pianists such as Sir Stephen Hough and rising star Mishka Rushdie Momen (who last week won a Critics’ Circle Emerging Artist award), jazz doyen Julian Joseph, composers Cheryl Frances Hoad and Elena Langer, and a guest appearance from Sir Michael Morpurgo, who narrates Poulenc’s setting of The Story of Barbar the Little Elephant plus Stravinsky’s The Firebird. On 11 October there’s a multi-piano extravaganza bringing together eight star performers. Every pianophile in town can be expected to show up.
https://www.londonpianofestival.com
The Magic Flute
Royal Opera House, London, 10 October-3 November
David McVicar’s much-loved production of Mozart’s magical comedy is revived with a very special cast. The American soprano Julia Bullock, who sings Pamina, has a voice that sounds heaven-sent; she won a Grammy for her first solo album, Walking in the Dark, and has been a muse to the composer John Adams, notably in his latest opera Antony and Cleopatra. As the “everyman” bird-catcher Papageno, the thrilling young British baritone Huw Montague Rendall further polishes his Mozartian credentials, fresh from terrific performances at Glyndebourne as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro. Royal Opera House debuts include the tenor Amitai Pati as Tamino and, in the pit, the conductor Marie Jacquot.
https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/the-magic-flute-david-mcvicar-details
Albert Herring
English National Opera: London Coliseum, 13-16 October
The Lowry, Salford, 21-22 October
Billed as “From Boy, to King, to Man”, English National Opera’s new staging of Benjamin Britten’s folksy comedy Albert Herring is also “From Boy, to King, to Manchester”. It opens first in the capital, then goes to the Lowry as the inaugural production in the company’s new northern wing. Directed and designed by Antony McDonald and conducted by Daniel Cohen, it stars Caspar Singh as the innocent greengrocer’s boy undergoing an unorthodox rite of passage, aided and abetted by a magnificent cast including tenor Mark Le Brocq, mezzo-soprano Emma Bell and bass-baritone Sir Willard White.
https://www.eno.org/events/albert-herring/
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
Wigmore Hall, London, 27 October
Wigmore Hall is enjoying a year-long focus on the extraordinary Kanneh-Mason musician siblings. The latest to begin an international career is the pianist Jeneba, 23, younger sister of cellist Sheku and fellow pianist Isata. No pressure, then… Jeneba’s debut recording (on Sony Classical) plunged into the heartland of romanticism with Chopin’s “Funeral March” sonata, and revealed a powerful young artist with an intense feel for the shaping of vivid and atmospheric musical narratives. Her recital includes music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, and Black American composers William Grant Still and Florence Price.
https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202510271930
The Railway Children
Glyndebourne, East Sussex, 30 October-1 November
A brand-new opera of Edith Nesbit’s beloved children’s classic? By an Olivier Award-winning composer? How will they do “Daddy, my Daddy”? Get down to Glyndebourne’s autumn season (no dress code) for the world premiere and find out. The versatile Mark-Anthony Turnage has previously turned his gritty, sophisticated and eminently listenable style to anything from Greek (his breakthrough opera on the Steven Berkoff play) to Anna Nicole (about the former Playboy model) and the Nordic Noir-inspired smash hit Festen, which was premiered last February at the Royal Opera House. The librettist is Rachael Hewer and the production is directed by Stephen Langridge, Glyndebourne’s artistic director, with a cast including Rachael Lloyd as Cathy and Jessica Cale as Bobbie. Also at the Southbank Centre, London, on 8 November.
https://www.glyndebourne.com/events/the-railway-children
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/glyndebourne-x-turnage-the-railway-children
