Arguably the best guided tour you will find of twentieth-century music, Listen explores the forces that have shaped some of the most defining sounds of the era. There’s plenty to ease you into the ride, beginning with the likes of Debussy and Stravinsky in Early Modernism and the Jazz Age. Then, we swing from ironclad restriction to supreme liberalism: artistic freedom, once nearly extinguished under totalitarian regimes in The Age of Fear, resurfaces in fertile experimentation as Post War Directions. Landing in the present, we find ourselves in a new world order with No More Rules.

This evolution is fascinatingly detailed in Alex Ross’ The Rest Is Noise, a book which so intrigued the folks at London’s Southbank Centre that they decided to turn it into a year-long festival. Buoyed by the success of their venture, they will now raise the stakes by distilling it into four concerts at the SOTA Concert Hall.

They’ve flown in specialists from every arena - the elite contemporary music ensemble London Sinfonietta who will be joined by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra, professors of musicology and political history from the University of Oxford, BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Southbank’s Head of Classical Music herself Gillian Moore.

Here are the events you shouldn’t miss:

Post War Directions (An epic 3-Part Concert)

6 September, 6-9pm

SOTA Concert Hall

Pre-Concert Talk: No More Rules

with Jonathan Cross and Gillian Moore, chaired by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

7 September, 1.30pm

SOTA Studio Theatre

This article was first published on The Muse.