Composer

Celebrate the beginning of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2026/2027 Season with an Opening Night unlike anything you’ve experienced before. Featuring not one, but three extraordinary pianists, this concert blends classical masterworks, jazz-inspired brilliance, and theatrical elements into one concert.

The program begins with Stravinsky’s Petrushka, a dazzling ballet score that shocked audiences with its rhythmic energy and vivid orchestral colors. From there, Duke Ellington’s visionary New World A-Comin’ brings the spirit of jazz and hope-filled American artistry to the stage, followed by the elegance and sparkle of Ravel’s Piano Concerto — a work deeply inspired by the sounds of jazz clubs.

Then, experience Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue like never before. This work is one of America’s most beloved musical masterpieces, fusing classical music with the energy of New York City jazz. Enhanced with dancers and dynamic lighting, this performance transforms the concert experience into a vibrant season-opening event.

EPSG:4326

Opening Night: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Igor Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat is a unique work: not an opera, but a play “to be read, to be played and to be danced”. Matthias Bundschuh’s staging of the music theatre can now be seen at this year’s Musikfest Berlin, following its much-lauded premiere at the 2025 Salzburg Festival in cooperation with the Salzburg Marionette Theatre. The marionettes for the production were designed by Georg Baselitz: Central to the painter, sculptor and graphic artist’s thinking was the idea that the marionettes should be created by the simplest means and reduced to their very essence. The distinguished artistic team is completed by the actor Dominique Horwitz as the speaker and a top-quality miniature orchestra that includes the violinist Isabelle Faust and her friends.

Salzburger Marionettentheater

Berliner Festspiele

Marking their third successful season, the award-winning London City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, return this autumn with a unique offering of heritage works all danced in the UK for the very first time.

For the performances at York Theatre Royal, we are thrilled to be joined by celebrated guest ballerina Alina Cojocaru.

In this centenary year of American choreographer Glen Tetley, we celebrate and pay homage by reviving his gothic retelling of the FIREBIRD. Originally made for the Royal Danish Ballet, this fresh take illustrates a young woman breaking free from the constraints of a controlling family – a pioneer flying the nest, embracing her differences and liberating her peers.

London City Ballet: Firebird – a Mixed Bill

York Theatre Royal

Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy’s duo debut album combined works by Schubert with the spellbinding Schubert-inspired Trompe-l’œil, which they commissioned from Ukrainian composer Leonid Desyatnikov for the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival and brought to Wigmore Hall soon after. They are joined by the acclaimed Ukrainian-born tenor Bogdan Volkov, Opernwelt’s Singer of the Year 2025, and cellist Adrian Brendel, in a programme that celebrates the creative vision of a composer feted not least for his opera The Children of Rosenthal, scintillating cinema scores and Dichterliebe und -leben, a cycle of songs to the absurdist author Daniil Kharms and avantgarde poet and playwright Nikolay Oleynikov.

Pavel Kolesnikov piano; Samson Tsoy piano; Bogdan Volkov tenor; Adrian Brendel cello

Wigmore Hall

From Stravinsky’s esoteric neo-Classicism to Strauss’ Romantic lyricism, Shostakovich’s profound grief and Silvestrov’s luminous reflections, this programme explores the 20th century through dialogue.

Fractured Light: Joel Munday and Julian Trevelyan

LSO St Luke's

Royal Northern Sinfonia, Artistic Partner Maria Włoszczowska and pianist Jeremy Denk reunite for the second of three concerts exploring Mozart’s piano concertos at Lammermuir Festival. 

Jeremy Denk Plays Mozart Piano Concertos II

St Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington

Gothenburg’s own violin star Ava Bahari is back, presenting a heartfelt and engaging programme together with pianist Nathanaël Gouin. Among other works, we hear Beethoven’s challenging Kreutzer Sonata.

Beethoven with Ava Bahari

Stenhammarsalen

It’s not often you get to hear music written for two pianos – or rarer still, four hands playing the same piano. You need two musicians totally in synch, so deeply connected that they know each other’s every thought and gesture.

Lucas & Arthur Jussen in Recital

Sydney Opera House

Over their first six months as Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows, these aspiring musicians have experienced everything from vast symphonies to more intimate chamber concerts, all while getting to know each other’s playing styles.

Fellows Choice

St James' Church, Sydney

Celebrate the season with a symphonic feast of rhythm, color, and energy. The dynamic pulse of Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances lead to vivid, sun-drenched landscapes and shimmering Spanish textures in Claude Debussy’s Iberia. LAMF’s season finale then culminates in Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka, a kaleidoscopic ballet score that animates a mischievous puppet, a dazzling Russian fairground, and an irresistible surge of rhythmic brilliance.

Dances of Passion

Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts

Stars of the Symphony is an evening like no other, showcasing the extraordinary talent of the FWSO musicians in virtuosic roles. This performance is a rare opportunity to witness members of the orchestra taking the spotlight and performing some of the most beautiful and challenging symphonic repertoire. This evening will feature, FWSO’s Principal Violin II Adriana Voirin DeCosta, Assistant Principal Trumpet Cody McClarty, Assistant Principal Clarinet & Eb Clarinet Ivan Petruzziello, and Assistant Principal Oboe & English Horn Tamer Edlebi. It’s a chance to cheer on the hometown team and experience the magic of live music at its finest!

Stars of the Symphony

Sundance Square

When the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra comes to Gustav Adolfs Torg, an evening of music awaits, spanning different eras and worlds. The programme ranges from Gershwin’s Summertime and Piazzolla’s Buenos Aires to Hugo Alfvén’s The Herdmaiden’s Dance. The evening continues with Stravinsky’s The Firebird and concludes with Ravel’s Boléro, as the music gradually builds to a powerful crescendo. The concert also marks Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s first appearance as Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Trumpeter Ellinor Bengtson performs as soloist.

From the Firebird to Boléro

Gustav Adolfs torg

For his debut as this summer’s “artiste étoile,” Augustin Hadelich brings along a work from his adopted American homeland that he especially loves: the irresistibly beautiful Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber. He finds Barber’s musical language “highly emotional” and notes that the intensely expressive slow movement can send chills up and down your spine. But the virtuoso in Hadelich is challenged here too — above all in the finale: “It’s like a perpetual-motion machine — you have to let go and still keep everything under control.” 

Lucerne Festival Orchestra | Klaus Mäkelä | Augustin Hadelich

KKL Luzern Concert Hall

For one afternoon only, the graduating and incoming Young Artists of Opera Australia come together for a compelling performance of music spanning Claudio Monteverdi to Gian Carlo Menotti.

Young Artists in Concert

Light and dark battle it out in Schumann’s Second Symphony, composed during a time of great personal crisis but still bubbling with humor and good spirits. Conductor Kazuki Yamada pairs this with Stravinsky’s stunningly imaginative settings of biblical Psalms, sung by the Blossom Festival Chorus. Inspired by Aboriginal myths, Takemitsu’s Dreamtime opens the program on a reflective note perfect for a summer evening.

Schumann’s Second Symphony

Blossom Music Center

The Danish String Quartet made its debut at the Copenhagen Summer Festival in 2002. The group is known for its performances of classical music as well as its own renditions of traditional Nordic folk music. The quartet has also worked with an extensive range of contemporary Scandinavian composers.

Danish String Quartet

Maverick Concert Hall

The Festival’s interactive Summer Young People’s Concert is a great way to get kids excited about music. This summer, join conductor and arts educator Oliver Prezant for fun and friendly explorations of Stravinsky’s Suite italienne, with excerpts performed and demonstrated by Festival musicians Jennifer Gilbert and Anna Polonsky.

Young People’s Concert

New Mexico Museum of Art

This powerhouse program begins with an intimate violin-and-piano performance of music from Stravinsky’s enduring ballet Pulcinella, moves to a beloved early composition by Beethoven—the Piano and Winds Quintet, whose instrumentation Beethoven took from Mozart’s 1784 quintet—and culminates in Mendelssohn’s genre-defining Octet, a work of staggering genius and beauty that the composer wrote when he was only 16 years old.

Beethoven & Mendelssohn

This fascinating program begins with Julian Bliss (whose performances have been called “immaculate” by The Guardian) making his Festival debut in one of the best-known works for solo clarinet. After that, it dives into two delightful, lesser-known pieces: Prague-born Erwin Schulhoff’s early-20th-century Concertino for Flute, Viola, and Double Bass—which draws inspiration from an eclectic range of influences, including Czech folk music—and 19th-century Swedish composer Franz Berwald’s charming and stirringly Romantic Septet in B-flat Major.

Berwald Septet

L’histoire du soldat shows off Stravinsky’s familiarity with a wide range of musical styles: pasodoble, tango, waltz, ragtime, klezmer, and even Luther’s Ein Feste Burg. Concerto in E-flat (“Dumbarton Oaks”) is one of Stravinsky’s two chamber concertos. Stravinsky’s Octet for Wind Instruments is scored for an unusual combination of woodwind and brass. Completed in 1923, it is generally regarded as the beginning of his neoclassicism. Renard, or The Fox, is an opera-ballet that tells the story of the fox who deceives the cock, the cat, and the goat, but who is caught in the end.

Stravinsky: Chamber Music for the Concert Hall

Mendocino Music Festival

Violinist Leonidas Kavakos—hailed as “astoundingly virtuosic” by The Guardian and “among the greatest instrumentalists of our time” by The Seattle Times—joins forces with pianist Enrico Pace—whose playing has been called “lithe, characterful, and sensitive” by BBC Music Magazine—for the Festival’s one-night-only, pre-season Gala Recital, which features a stunning selection of violin-and-piano showpieces.

Leonidas Kavakos & Enrico Pace Recital

Chaos, whistles, angry heckles, and even physical altercations: When Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris in 1913, the audience was outraged by a real scandal. What music, pounding, orgiastic, of almost obscene sensuality! And then there was the subject matter: a pagan ritual celebrating spring and fertility, including the sacrifice of a virgin. Shocking! Often, however, it is precisely the most heated waves that calm down particularly quickly. 

Scandal

Cologne Philharmonie

The Snowdon Ensemble/Ensemble Yr Wyddfa - named after Wales's highest peak - makes its debut with the first concert in the TIR series, an exploration of time and place through music. CANRIF//CENTURY · PARIS looks at the music that defined a century, from the vantage point of now, featuring a new commission by RWCMD composer Harry Woodman.

Snowdon Ensemble presents: CANRIF//CENTURY • Paris

Bute Park

The  Gala de la Terre  of the Orchestre de l’Agora invites the public to take an interest in initiatives aimed at protecting fragile ecosystems here in Quebec. Since 2020, the event has enabled $513,000 to be donated to environmental causes.

Gala de la Terre: Nicolas Ellis conducts the Rite of Spring

Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay

Dvořák Henze Strawinsky

Gasteig HP8

4th Youth Concert

“Folklore and Fable” invites audiences into a world where storytelling and symphonic color intertwine, revealing how legends, fairy tales, and frontier myths continue to shape our musical imagination. Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite shimmers with delicate textures and pastel hues, each movement unfolding like a storybook illustration brought gently to life. Copland’s Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes shifts the scene to the American West, brimming with rustic charm, open-air vitality, and the unmistakable snap of “Hoe-Down.” Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite crowns the evening with elemental force, rising from shadowy enchantment to blazing triumph, its brilliant orchestration conjuring magic, menace, and redemption in a vivid, unforgettable sound. 

Folklore & Fable

Riverwalk Center

Conductor Laureate Carlos Kalmar returns to the Festival with the technically brilliant pianist Olga Kern for Rachmaninov’s highly virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 3. The program also features Stravinsky’s mischievously charming ballet Game of Cards and Elgar’s sunny In the South.

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3

Millennium Park

Sonata-Trio-Suite

Bochumer Symphoniker

Since its inception, the RCM Junior Department has offered advanced training at the highest level to young musicians aged 8–18, nurturing its students with individually tailored programmes of one-to-one instrumental, voice and composition lessons, supported by chamber music, orchestral, choral and musicianship classes.

Many former RCMJD students are now leading and influential figures in the music industry.

RCM Junior Dept Chamber & Symphony Orchestras

Cadogan Hall

In 1913, one of the greatest scandals in music history rocked the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris: the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet music, The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. Stravinsky painted his musical pictures with archaic-sounding rhythms and unbridled energy, provoking storms of outrage from the opening night audience. Today, the work is a classic and established as one of the seminal compositions of the 20th century, both on the ballet stage and in the concert hall. Similarly energetic to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is the Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra. 

The Rite of Spring

Casino Bern

These public dress rehearsals are a separate event and always take place on a Thursday morning: The conductor welcomes the audience, followed by a performance of the main work from the evening concert. Subscriptions are also available. 

Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

This year’s Free Family & Kids Concert stomps into the spotlight with a dinosaur theme, kicking off with an hour of free, hands-on dinosaur crafts courtesy of Frosted Flamingo. Young concertgoers can create their own prehistoric masterpieces before the music begins, setting the stage for a morning of imagination and discovery. Conductor Jason Seber returns to lead this lively and engaging program, guiding audiences of all ages through an entertaining musical adventure designed especially for families. Filled with energy, storytelling, and plenty of fun, this free community concert invites everyone to explore a Jurassic-sized celebration of music.

Free Family and Kids Concert

Music of the time #HOTPINK

Museum Ludwig

The soap opera of Greek gods, heroes and heroines has been a rich source of inspiration for writers, painters and musicians for centuries. In this concert we hear tales of men and women behaving very badly indeed, set to extraordinary music.

Aldeburgh Festival Ii: Phaedra

Snape Maltings

Camellia Symphony Orchestra: Fire and Legends

C.K. McClatchy High School

Based on Slavic folklore, this music evokes a world of enchanted princesses, wicked sorcerers and a mythical creature whose flight brings the story to a spellbinding close. It’s no wonder this music catapulted Stravinsky to global fame.

Stravinsky’s The Firebird

The chamber music ensembles of the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre

Čajkovskij & Rachmaninov

Our 40th Season concludes with the 1946 revision of Stravinsky's ballet suite Petrushka. A second performance this season featuring soloists from the ranks of the orchestra will be Assistant Concertmaster Viet Block and oboist Lauren Nebel's performance of Bach's Concerto for Violin and Oboe. Oregon composer (and occasional OES contra-bassoonist) Nicole Buetti's Odyssey Overture will round out the program.

OES Summer Concert 2026

Vert Auditorium

Burning Bright

Congregation Beth Israel

Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, written and performed during the 1918 flu epidemic, is a satirical examination of the pursuit of happiness. We pair this iconic tale with a new work for the same jazz-inspired forces, in which Arna Bontemps’ novel Black Thunder clashes with contemporary social crises. Omari Tau brings his theatrical brilliance to both works.

A Soldier’s Tale & Interrogations

Bayview Opera House (BVOH)

Join us for a season finale of bold contrasts and artistic innovation at Dvorák & Firebird, a celebration of sound and emotion that transcends time and culture. The program opens with Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, a profound depiction of life’s final journey. We welcome back Curtis Stewart, the 2025/2026 Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence, presenting a juxtaposition of his work The Famous People with Dvorák ‘s Slavonic Dances. Experience a unique interplay as the orchestra performs three original movements from Slavonic Dances, each followed by Stewart’s imaginative recompositions, creating a dynamic dialogue between Dvorák’s timeless melodies and Stewart’s contemporary interpretations. Marvel at Stewart’s virtuosic artistry as he performs Sarasate’s dazzling violin showpiece Zigeunerweisen.

Dvorák & Firebird

The Bushnell

A season finale of bold contrasts and artistic innovation, The Rite of Spring On-Screen brings music, film, and dance together in a dynamic conclusion. The program opens with Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration, a profound depiction of life’s final journey. We welcome back Curtis Stewart, the 2025\2026 Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence to perform The Famous People, his reimagination of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances through African American musical traditions, creating a bold fusion of styles.

HSO Masterworks Series: The Rite of Spring On-Screen

Maxwell M. & Ruth R. Belding Theater

Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft takes to the podium for his final concert in the title role as we draw our 2025-26 Season to a close, starting with Stravinsky's symphonic poem Song of the Nightingale. Based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale, we hear the story of an emperor in his ornate Chinese palace and the glorious singing of nightingales that accompanies his life.

BBC NOW - Symphonic Dances

Brangwyn Hall

During our guest performances in Würzburg, we will present several highly musical works under the direction of Dinis Sousa and accompanied by violinist Tianwa Yang. Stravinsky's piece was composed in 1946 for the 20th anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra. On the surface, it resembles the Baroque concerto grosso, but is ingeniously interwoven with sonic elements of the 20th century. When asked about its content, the composer replied in his typically laconic manner: "That the work is for string orchestra – you will see immediately; that it has three movements – you will read that in the program; that it is anything but atonal! – Won't you let the audience have the pleasure of discovering it for themselves?

Guest at the Mozart Festival Würzburg

Würzburg Residence

No other work occupied Igor Stravinsky for as long a period as his "choreographic scenes from Russia," which premiered in Paris in 1923 under the title "Les Noces" (The Weddings). Initial ideas for a choral work depicting a peasant wedding date back to 1913. The composer initially searched through old folk song collections for original texts for his libretto. In a convoluted creative process, he ultimately created their musical setting with an exceptional ensemble of choir, soloists, four pianos, and percussion. "My aim was not to recreate the customs of a rural wedding," Stravinsky later explained. "Rather, I wanted to invent a kind of scenic ceremony myself..."

8th  Symphony Concert

Music and Congress Hall Lübeck

Symphonic Psalms and Myths

Travis Park United Methodist Church

Mussorgsky’s Dawn on the Moscow River was intended as the prelude to his final opera, Khovanshchina, and is a prime example of Mussorgsky’s Russian Folk style. The orchestration was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1886. 

Prokofieff’s Queen of Spades was written as the score for a film by Mikhail Romm, intended for the 100th anniversary of Pushkin’s death, but never completed. English Composer Michael Berkely created a ballet – RUSHES – from Prokofieff’s music for the Royal ballet in 2008, and subsequently published the Orchestral suite played in this concert. 

Stravinsky’s Firebird

Smith Square Hall

Jader Bignamini, Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducts a suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird; the music of this fairytale ballet, including its scintillating “Infernal Dance,” still feels fresh and wild. Stravinsky learned a great deal from his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov; here the MSO explores the latter’s Spanish-accented Capriccio espagnol, from its first alborada (morning song) to its final fandango. Witness a rising star as Giuseppe Gibboni, winner of the Paganini Violin Competition, performs an intoxicating violin concerto by Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz legend Wynton Marsalis.

Warner Grand Theater

A daring fusion of two powerful and poignant masterpieces, the work combines Stravinsky’s Petrouchka with Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning album DAMN. As the puppets of Stravinsky’s ballet are made human and begin to experience emotions, we encounter the corresponding songs of Kendrick’s album: ‘LOVE.’, ‘FEAR.’, ‘XXX.’, ‘FEEL.’, ‘LOYALTY.’, ‘HUMBLE.’ and more.

Igor DAMN Stravinsky

Phoenix Convention Center

We warmly welcome back the phenomenal violinist Johan Dalene, who has already taken the classical music world by storm through competition wins and acclaimed recordings. Here, he performs Brahms’ magnificent Violin Concerto – a work overflowing with melody and rich in harmonic adventures that venture far off the beaten path. It’s stunningly beautiful music – at times euphoric and even dance-like in its joy.

Brahms Violin Concerto

Stockholm City Hall

Stravinsky’s extravagant Song of the Nightingale is based on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. John Adams’s work was inspired by the colors, shapes, and sounds of Stravinsky’s piece. Stories of fanciful birds continue with music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and DSO Principal Cello Wei Yu performs Shostakovich’s moving concerto.

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Other Tales

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Aviva Studios for their next groundbreaking collaboration with Factory International.

Philharmonic Sessions: The Rite of Spring

Aviva Studios

In this interactive performance, students will discover how composers use rhythm, texture, instrumentation and movement to create vivid musical worlds.

For Schools: The Sydney Symphony Performs Music That Moves You

Lazenby Hall

Glasshouse Arts, conference and Entertainment Centre

The theme of the 2025/26 Orchestra Unwrapped concerts is centered around the history of the Philharmonia Orchestra, which was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge and celebrates its 80th birthday in 2025. Legge worked for a company called EMI, who was responsible for making recordings of classical music. 

The pieces you’ll hear take us on a journey through time linking to the exciting history of the Philharmonia, from 1945 to today – a history you are all part of by being part of Orchestra Unwrapped in its 80th year!

Bedford: Orchestra Unwrapped

Bedford Corn Exchange

Conductor in Residence Benjamin Northey leads the Orchestra in this program featuring captivating works by Debussy, Stravinsky, Kodály and Sydney’s own Holly Harrison.

The Sydney Symphony Performs Music That Moves You

Canberra Grammar School

Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre

Hear the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in your city on our 2026 Regional Tour, as we travel to Port Macquarie, Armidale, Nowra and Canberra with a concert of music for – and inspired by – dance.

Igor Stravinsky's musical theater piece, written for a traveling theater, premiered in Lausanne in September 1918—six weeks before the end of the First World War. The fairy tale of the soldier who sells himself to the devil tells of the uprooting of an entire wartime generation. This groundbreaking work, in musical theater terms, will be combined in our performance with one of the most impressive cantatas of the 17th century: "How desolate lies the city." Written by the Hamburg organist Matthias Weckmann in 1663 under the impression of a devastating plague epidemic, the piece paints a vivid picture of human despair in the face of senseless destruction. The combination of the two pieces creates a hauntingly timeless evening that lies somewhere between musical theater and spatial installation.

Story of the Soldier

German Theatre, Göttingen

Since 2010, chamber music ensembles of the Staatskapelle have been performing at the Bode Museum, a jewel of Berlin's museum landscape. Matinee concerts lasting just over an hour in the Gobelin Hall, with diverse programs that include music from the Baroque and Classical periods as well as works from the Romantic and Modern periods, can easily lead into further hours in the museum—for example, with a guided tour of the exhibition and the "Artwork of the Day," a private tour, or a culinary finale in the stylish museum café.

Museum Concert VIII

UNESCO Weltkulturerbe Museumsinsel

What does musical progress sound like? And what happens when composers consciously look back? Under the motto "BACKWARDS is also FORWARDS," Christopher Lichtenstein explores the complex relationship between past and present in this program.

BACKWARDS is also FORWARDS

Schloss Osnabrück

The past meets the future in bold, unexpected ways. Stravinsky’s Pulcinella transforms the elegance of Baroque music into something sharp, witty, and rhythmically alive, a playful homage viewed through a modern lens. Then, experience the grandeur of Schubert’s Great C Major Symphony, a sweeping, lyrical masterpiece that bridges the Classical and Romantic worlds. Together, these works celebrate tradition not by preserving it, but by reinventing it. Two composers, a century apart, united in their fearless reinvention of tradition.

Reimaginings

Belfast

Ulster Orchestra: Reimaginings

Ulster Hall

“Is there a string quartet on this planet that I like more?” Víkingur Ólafsson rhetorically asks. The answer, of course, is no. Formed 25 years ago at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, the Danish String Quartet has achieved cult status, with a shelf full of awards to match. Most recently, the four “Vikings,” as they jokingly call themselves on account of their bearded looks, received the prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize. Their hallmarks include electrifying arrangements of Nordic folk music, yet they are equally at home in the classical and contemporary repertoire. Their Festival debut begins, fittingly for Víkingur’s programming vision, with Bach. Stravinsky’s neoclassical Suite italienne, heard here in the quartet’s own arrangement, also draws on Baroque models. But the title of the concert comes from Beethoven, who inscribed the finale of his last string quartet with a question: “Muss es sein?” (“Must it be?”) — and gave his own reply in the lively main section: “It must be!” Just like this concert.

Scotland’s best-loved classical violinist, Nicola Benedetti, joins Scotland’s National Orchestra for Elgar’s lyrical Violin Concerto. Her performance is the big, passionate heart of a concert that begins with a garland of musical fairy tales from Azerbaijan (a special favourite of conductor Kirill Karabits) and ends amid the dark magic and glittering romance of Stravinsky’s great ballet The Firebird. Music doesn’t get more colourful.

Nicola Benedetti Plays Elgar

Usher Hall

Each musician – and each instrument – stands out, their artistry shining bright.

The Sydney Symphony Fellows in Concert

With his ballet music The Firebird, the young Igor Stravinsky revolutionized the dance theatre – through an unusual fusion of Russian folk music with shimmering timbres and powerful rhythms. Klaus Mäkelä, the incoming Chief Conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, pairs Stravinsky’s work with Andrew Norman’s Symphony Play. In this piece, the American composer explores our attention span in the digital age and the rules of complex video games. He does so with a musical language that oscillates between wit and aggressive sharpness.

Klaus Mäkelä conducts Stravinsky’s “The Firebird”

Berliner Philharmoniker

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Caird Hall

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Colors Ignited

Whitman College

Sir Simon Rattle | Touring Concerts Nuremberg, Vienna & Prague Spring Festival

Meistersingerhalle

Municipal House

Musikverein Wien

Dance!

MassBay Community College

Two clever rascals with pointy hats and cheerful grins tiptoe inquisitively onto the stage. They are the Pulcinelli! They rub their eyes and blink into the dark morning; today the sun simply refuses to rise. But the Pulcinelli are inventive. Together with the audience and the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Kirill Petrenko, they set off in search of the sun and will let nothing hold them back. The music of Igor Stravinsky leaves everyone in awe: cheeky violins, impish trumpets, and melodies that at first sound ancient, only to suddenly turn a somersault. A concert full of surprises and youthful exuberance - music that invites young and old alike to join in.

Family Concert “Pulcinella”

Hallé award-winning conductor Euan Shields is joined by Imogen Cooper to perform Mozart’s final piano concerto. Written in striking contrast to his other concertos, Mozart's 27th Piano Concerto, full of richness and lyricism, is scored for a relatively small orchestra. Nevertheless, it is still packed with the charm and beauty so characteristic of the composer’s other works.

Sheffield International Concert Season 2025/26 - The Hallé

Sheffield City Hall

Glitter and glamour, scandals and minor scandals, the avant-garde and the traditions of different nations: all this awaited the audience that flocked to the Parisian performances of the legendary Ballets Russes, arguably the best ballet company in the world, shortly after the beginning of the 20th century. The important composers, the renowned set designers, the wonderful stories created productions that sometimes still have an impact today. One of the most famous Russian ballets was Stravinsky's Petrushka , and the most exciting evening with a Spanish background was Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat - an entertaining story about a miller and his clever wife who have to fend off the inappropriate advances of a civil servant...

Aranjuez

Beethoven Hall

Take a musical journey with the Calgary Phil to beautiful Italy with conductor Cosette Justo Valdés as your guide — from Stravinsky's take on Pulcinella, a traditional character of the Neapolitan stage, to Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, inspired by impressions of the country's scenery and architecture. Respighi's evocation of three celebrated paintings by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli rounds off the tour.

Composer

Igor Stravinsky

Events

Upcoming events

19 - 20 Sep, 2026

Opening Night: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue · Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra

Sep 20 - Nov 28, 2026

Bluebeard’s Castle + Oedipus Rex Bartok + Stravinsky · Welsh National Opera

Sep 23, 2026

Clare Hammond piano · Wigmore Hall

23 - 24 Sep, 2026

Alessandro Carbonare, Francesca Dego and Alessandro Taverna · Teatro La Fenice

Sep 24 - Oct 3, 2026

Rhythm Riot · English National Ballet

Past events

19 - 20 Sep, 2026

Opening Night: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue · Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra

Sep 19, 2026

Salzburger Marionettentheater · Berliner Philharmoniker

About

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