The final concert before the halting of the season owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in London was Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" (4 March 2020), marking 250 years since the year of Beethoven's birth. In the last review of a BBC Symphony Chorus concert before the lockdown, Paul Driver said in the "Sunday Times", "One was lost in admiration for the BBC Symphony Chorus, trained by Neil Ferris, in the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s account of the magnum opus at the Barbican, conducted by Donald Runnicles."