Yuja Wang joins David Hockney at Lightroom [Geoffroy Schied]

WHEN stars collide it’s either catastrophic or spectacular; and I predict the latter at the new Lightroom gallery space in King’s Cross this coming week when Yuja Wang and David Hockney cross paths (in a manner of speaking). Lightroom is where Hockney’s immersive show Bigger and Closer has been running all year. But from Sept 28-30 it also houses a sequence of short, one-hour piano recitals that somehow respond to the show and feature Wang performing on what the publicity calls “intimate” terms – though it’s hard to know how such a giant keyboard personality can be contained by intimacy. This will be the hottest of hot tickets, so book now – and hope that Wang’s designer-dazzle wardrobe doesn’t totally obscure the artwork. lightroom.uk

• George Benjamin and Martin Crimp make a less obviously rock-star partnership, but the composer and playwright have been responsible for three of the most prominent British operas of the 21st century – Into the Little Hill, Written on Skin and Lessons in Love and Power – and they have a fourth making its UK premiere at the Royal Opera’s Linbury Theatre on Sept 22. Called Picture a Day Like This it’s another mysterious fable, this time about a woman searching for a miracle to restore her dead child to life. A small-scale piece, it runs for just over an hour. Until Oct 10. roh.org.uk
Also opening Sept 22 at the Royal Opera House is a revival of Laurent Pelly’s bucolic staging of L’Elisir d’amore – with Bryn Terfel as the quack doctor whose bogus love potion manages to work against the odds. A fun evening. To Oct 10. roh.org.uk

• Purcell’s King Arthur is as much a masque as an opera: decorative, discursive, rambling, but with music of heartbreaking beauty that includes the touchingly patriotic evocation of Britain, Fairest Isle. Capable of reducing strong men to tears. Strong women too. Done with a promising cast by the Early Opera Company under Christian Curnyn, it plays in concert performances, Sept 27 & 28, at Temple Church, not far from the (long gone) Dorset Garden Theatre where the piece premiered in 1691. templemusic.org

• The Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson has made a name for himself with dreamily intro­spec­tive readings of Bach that trans­port the listener into reverie; and on Sept 22 at the Festival Hall he applies the technique to one of the ultimate Bach keyboard works, the Goldberg Variations. Given the association of the Gold­berg with the late, great Glenn Gould, it should reinforce a grow­ing sense of Olfasson as Gould’s successor: maverick but mesmer­ising. southbankcentre.co.uk
Another Nordic star of magnitude is the young violinist Johan Dalene whose recent recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto attracted worldwide acclaim. On Sept 27 he brings the piece to the Festival Hall in partnership with the LPO. Should be special. southbankcentre.co.uk

• British violinist Madeleine Mitchell has a claim to being special too, and you can hear her in an unequivocally intimate recital, Sept 24, in the Salon Music series that takes place in Highgate Village. Bartok, Bach and Judith Weir are on the menu – as will be a buffet supper that’s included in the ticket price! salonmusic.co.uk