Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) have lent their considerable combined weight to the campaign to support the embattled BBC Singers by recruiting the vocal ensemble into a showcase concert at London’s Barbican.

In a recent update to the program, the LSO’s performance of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony on 23 April will now be followed by the BBC Singers performing Francis Poulenc’s Figure humaine, a cantata for double mixed choir of 12 voices composed in 1943.

According to the update: “The BBC Singers will be appearing at the invitation of Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO, in a mark of solidarity with the choir and the broader music community, in response to uncertainty over future funding to the orchestral and choral sector in the UK.”

This comes in the wake of the BBC’s recent decision to rethink its plan to disband the London-based BBC Singers, one that provoked waves of social media comment, an online petition signed by more the 150, 000 people and open letters to the BBC from composers and performers worldwide.

It isn’t difficult to imagine that this performance will conclude with a deafening ovation.