Shanghai classical concerts, September 2026: the top 10

September is where a Shanghai season starts. The month brings 55 events across 78 performances in 15 venues. The ten below are ranked, each with its date, hall, price and ticket status.

1. Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra

22–23 September · Oriental Art Center · ¥280–1680 · on sale

The month's only visiting orchestra of the front rank, with two different programmes: Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto with Bruce Liu and Shostakovich's Fifth on the 22nd, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante K. 364 and Bruckner's Ninth on the 23rd. Pappano is the LSO's chief conductor and this pairing does not come often. Details

2. Shanghai Symphony season opening I: Long Yu and Kavakos

11 September · Symphony Hall · ¥380/180/80 (added seats) · on sale

Shostakovich's First Symphony and First Violin Concerto, in his 120th year. It is also the first of ten concertos Kavakos plays across the season as artist in residence. The original tiers have sold out; what remains are the added seats released on 28 August, which have restricted sightlines. Details

3. Shanghai Symphony season opening II: Shostakovich's Tenth

13 September · Symphony Hall · ¥380/180/80 (added seats) · on sale

Mozart's Third Violin Concerto against the Tenth Symphony. Taken with the 11th it is one event: the first night gives you Shostakovich at nineteen, this one the year Stalin died. Added seats only here too. Details

4. Zhang Guoyong and Kavakos: two concertos in one evening

18 September · Symphony Hall · ¥580/380/180/80 · sold out

Kavakos plays two violin concertos in one evening, Mendelssohn's in E minor and Brahms's in D major, written some thirty years apart and both belonging to Joachim's repertoire. Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream suite opens the night; Zhang Guoyong conducts the Shanghai Symphony. Original tiers and added seats are all gone. Details

5. Augustin Hadelich, violin

22 September · Symphony Hall · ¥780/580/380/180 · fully booked

An entire evening of unaccompanied violin. Hadelich begins with a Telemann fantasia, passes through Ysaÿe's Sonata Op. 27 No. 5, and ends with Bach's Second Partita, BWV 1004; the closing Chaconne runs some fifteen minutes, nearly as long as everything before it put together. Tickets moved to a ballot; registration closed on 29 August and was oversubscribed. Details

6. Queyras: the complete Bach cello suites

27 September, 15:00 · Symphony Hall Chamber · ¥680/480/280/120 · on sale

All six in one afternoon, two hours thirty-five with an interval. Queyras has recorded the cycle twice, sixteen years apart. The chamber hall is much smaller than the main room and is the right one for a solo cello. Details

7. Baráti: Bach sonatas and partitas for solo violin

19 September · Grand Theatre Studio · ¥100–380 · on sale

Four works, including the D minor Partita that ends with the Chaconne. Baráti has recorded the complete set and this is the most settled programme he tours. The Studio seats a few hundred — the smallest of the month's three Chaconnes, and the cheapest. Details

8. Kirill Gerstein, piano

21 September · Shanghai Concert Hall · ¥80–580 · on sale

Liszt's Petrarch Sonnets and the Dante Sonata, then Brahms's Third Sonata in F minor. Gerstein's combination of German training and contemporary taste is a byword, and this programme tests it. Details

9. Nelson Goerner, piano — Chinese debut

12 September, 19:15 · Symphony Hall Chamber · ¥80–480 · on sale

The Argentine pianist's first visit to China, with Shanghai as the tour's opening stop. Bach's C minor Toccata, Schumann's Fantasie in C, and Books III and IV of Albéniz's Iberia. He is among the most underrated pianists working, and the control of colour only registers live. Details

10. Weilerstein: FRAGMENTS 1 and 2

19 September, 15:00 and 19:15 · Symphony Hall Chamber · ¥80–380 · on sale

The first two Bach cello suites taken apart and interleaved with commissions from twenty-seven living composers. No interval, no printed programme; the details are handed out only afterwards. The two sittings are sold separately and either stands alone. Wonder · Tumult

Three Chaconnes in one month

No theatre has advertised this, because it belongs to none of them: the D minor Partita for solo violin, BWV 1004 — the one that ends with the Chaconne — is played three times in eleven days, by three violinists, in three different halls. Lozakovich at the Shanghai Concert Hall on the 11th, Baráti at the Grand Theatre Studio on the 19th, Hadelich at the Symphony Hall on the 22nd. With Weilerstein and Queyras on the cello suites, that is six unaccompanied Bach recitals this month.

An Unaccompanied September — six recitals, night by night

19 September: ten concerts, six starting at once

The most crowded evening of the month, and the one where two of its solo-Bach recitals collide: Baráti at 19:30 in the Grand Theatre's Studio, Weilerstein at 19:15 at the Symphony Hall, on opposite sides of the river. You can only be at one.

All ten concerts on 19 September

• 10:00 Niu Niu, piano, Oriental Art Center Concert Hall
• 14:00 / 19:00 Singapore Festival: Harmonic Echoes, Oriental Art Center Recital Hall
• 14:30 / 19:30 Sword of Coming animation concert, Grand Theatre Main Auditorium
• 15:00 FRAGMENTS 1: Wonder — Weilerstein, Symphony Hall Chamber
• 19:15 FRAGMENTS 2: Tumult — Weilerstein, Symphony Hall Chamber
• 19:30 Baráti plays solo Bach, Grand Theatre Studio
• 19:30 Schönbrunn Amsterdam: Beyond the Masters, Shanghai Concert Hall
• 19:30 Shanghai Chinese Orchestra: New Wave, Symphony Hall Main
• 19:30 Autumn Strings, He Luting Concert Hall
• 19:30 SPO Chamber: Shimmering Europa, Shanghai Philharmonic Recital Hall

Also: four seasons open in nine days

Between 5 and 13 September the Shanghai Opera House, the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony and the Suzhou Symphony all open their seasons. An opening concert is rarely a season's best night, but it is usually its most legible one.

Four Seasons Open in Nine Days — five openings, night by night

See all 55 September 2026 concerts