Proms: See Anthony Roth Costanzo on September 3. Photo: Asdielman

AS the end of the Proms season comes into sight – how could it have gone so fast? – this is the time for which the BBC saves its ammunition, flying in some of the great world orchestras we haven’t seen a lot of since the world stopped travelling. Arguably the greatest of them all, the Berlin Philharmonic, is here for two days, Sept 3 and 4, bringing Mahler’s 7th Symphony under its chief conductor Kirill Petrenko, followed by Bruckner’s 4th under Daniel Harding. If nothing else, a chance to see how Berlin is doing since it parted company with Simon Rattle (expected answer: absolutely fine).

Almost equally big dates for the diary are Sept 8 and 9 when the glamorous Philadelphia Orchestra sweeps in under its diminutive but dynamic conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Yannick seems to be at the forefront of everything musical in America these days (not least the New York Met, where he’s in charge), and he’s bringing over a classic of American repertoire, Samuel Barber’s “lyric rhapsody” Knoxville: Summer of 1915, alongside Beethoven, Saint-Saens and Rachmaninov. I’m not sure where the Philadelphia ranks in the American orchestral league right now, but it’s high – up there with Boston, Chicago, New York and Cleveland – so this visit to London is something not to miss.

But for an edgy alternative on the same day the Berlin are here – Sept 3 – the Proms are laying on an outing to the Printworks, Surrey Quays: a vast industrial space where American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo fronts a multi-media spectacle packaged around music by Handel and Philip Glass. You’re promised singing, theatre, video projections, dance and haute-couture (!) – which presumably means that Costanzo will be clothed this time around (he made his name by baring all for ENO’s Akhnaten).

Details for all Proms at bbc.co.uk/proms, with every event broadcast live on Radio 3 and archived for later listening on BBC Sounds.

• One of this country’s finest vocal groups, The Sixteen, come on tour to St Martin in the Fields on Sept 6 as part of their annual “choral pilgrimage”, which this year is based around music by Hubert Parry and Cecilia McDowall. The Sixteen set the standard for ensemble singing, they’re as good as it gets. So catch them as they pass by. stmartin-in-the-fields.org

• Few pianists play Bach with the poetic intensity of Pavel Kolesnikov, and fewer still play it as he’s doing over two nights, Sept 6 and 7, at Sadlers Wells – because he’s onstage with a dancer. What she’ll add to his account of Bach’s Goldberg Variations I don’t know. But Kolesnikov doesn’t do things without careful thought, so you can trust his judgement on this venture. Either way, it’s different. sadlerswells.com

• Stealing a march (as ever) on ENO, the Royal Opera gets its new season off the ground this coming week with a revival of its Kasper Holten production of Don Giovanni: the one where the stage is dominated by a massive, spinning doll’s-house structure that (as I remember) represents the Don’s mind, ever-turning and inhabited by all the other characters. It’s cumbersome but interesting. And it keeps on coming back – this time with Luca Micheletti in the title role. Runs Sept 8-26. roh.org.uk