Seong-Jin Cho [Christoph Koestlin]

BIG symphonic works are sometimes called cathedrals of sound, but turning a cathedral into music is a different sort of challenge – taken on by the composer Richard Blackford in his new Sagrada Familia Symphony, which is a response in sound to the molten facades of Gaudi’s landmark building in Barcelona.

Already recorded on the Lyrita label, it gets its concert premiere from the Philharmonia Orchestra and Bach Choir at the Festival Hall, May 8. And it should prove a sumptuous companion piece to the magnificence of William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast: a cantata so brazenly over-the-top in its treatment of the Bible story of the Writing on the Wall that it was long thought inappropriate for performance in English cathedrals. southbankcentre.co.uk

• When Thomas Adès turned Luis Buñuel’s classic film The Exterminating Angel into an opera a few years ago, it wasn’t widely acknowledged that Stephen Sondheim was doing much the same, turning it into one of his operatic musicals. But Sondheim’s version took a long while to reach the stage: it was work in progress from 2012 to 2023 when it premiered in New York.

Now the piece has finally made it to London, already previewing but with an official opening night May 8 at the National Theatre. Called Here We Are, it’s a surrealist satire about a group of rich people searching for a sit-down dinner before getting stuck in one while the end of the world takes place outside. And as the last of Sondheim’s stageworks – an incomparable output whose seriousness of address transcends the boundaries between musical theatre and opera – it’s a must-see. At the National’s Lyttelton auditorium until June 28. nationaltheatre.org.uk

• A more conventionally operatic satire on the folly of the bourgeoisie, Janáček’s Adventures of Mr Broucek features a boorish landlord who drunkenly imagines himself transported to the moon. Simon Rattle and the LSO give concert performances, May 4 & 6, at the Barbican that have must-see potential. barbican.org.uk

• Two of Handel’s Old Testament oratorios surface this week. On a smaller scale there’s Saul, done by the excellent Hampstead Collective at St John’s Hampstead, May 5: hampsteadparishchurch.org.uk While on starrier terms there’s Jephtha at the Barbican, May 7, done by the period-performance group Il Pomo d’oro with soloists Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres: barbican.org.uk

• Instrumental concerts include the Danel Quartet at Wigmore Hall playing Shostakovich paired with music by his lesser-known Soviet contemporary Mieczyslaw Weinberg, May 6 (also broadcast on the Wigmore website): wigmore-hall.org.uk

Violinist Harriet Mackenzie plays Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending with the ensemble Surround Sound, May 3, St Mary’s Islington: ticketsource/surround-sound

And pianist Rustem Hayroudinoff launches his new Onyx Classics album Bach & Sons at the intimate Razumovsky Academy in Kensal Green, May 8: razumovsky.co.uk

But for lovers of Ravel in this important anniversary year – his 150th – there’s a marathon recital of his keyboard music at the Barbican, May 2, given by the young Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho whose recent Ravel recordings have had critics swooning. To my ear, there’s no more alluring keyboard music ever written. And if people tell you it’s cold-blooded elegance, ignore them. Underneath the skin it screams with pain and stifled passion that can break hearts. barbican.co.uk