Composer

Veronika Eberle’s exquisite artistry, heartfelt, fearless and immaculate in execution, transcends the demands of virtuosity to reveal the core of the music in her broad repertoire. She and Dénes Várjon form an ideal partnership in three emotionally-diverse works, spanning the exuberance of Schubert’s youthful Sonatina, the Beethovenian gravity of Busoni’s Second Violin Sonata and the passionate, complex three movements of Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1.

EPSG:4326

Veronika Eberle violin; Dénes Várjon piano

Wigmore Hall

Leonidas Kavakos and Kirill Gerstein present a compelling programme of violin sonatas by Mozart, Busoni and Bartók – an exploration of lyricism, intensity and modernist edge, performed by two of today’s most electrifying musical collaborators.

Leonidas Kavakos violin; Kirill Gerstein piano

Following our captivating performance at Halifax Minster in 2025, we are delighted to return to Halifax as part of our ongoing commitment to Culturedale and our work with UNESCO’s Seeds of Hope initiative.

As echoes of The Lark Ascending continue to resonate across the town, we look forward to bringing another vibrant programme of string repertoire to the Victoria Theatre, celebrating the very best of English music alongside inspiring works from around the world. The programme includes Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves, Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, and Grieg’s much-loved Holberg Suite.

We are especially pleased to premiere a new arrangement of Malcolm Arnold’s English Dances and to share the stage with talented young musicians from the Calderdale Music Youth Ensemble. This special concert provides a wonderful opportunity to showcase our award-winning work with schools and community groups across the region before we return to Calderdale again in August.

Close Encounters: Beyond the Lark

Victoria Theatre Halifax

Walls dripping with blood, seven locked doors, darkness everywhere – Duke Bluebeard's castle is an eerie place! But Bluebeard's lover Judith is determined: she wants to follow him into his fortress, to bring light into the eerie darkness with her love. That's why she demands the keys to the seven locked doors. She penetrates ever deeper into the secrets of her lover and his castle, opening door after door – what will she find behind them? In 1911, Béla Bartók and his librettist Béla Balázs used the fairy tale "La barbe bleu" to create an expressionistic psychological drama in which the eponymous castle plays the main role as a symbol of the male psyche. The libretto uses cinematic lighting effects, which is why we are staging the work using film. An important component of this semi-staged "light opera" are video projections by Max Ophüls Prize winners Sascha Vredenburg and Cedric Klaus.

Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Theater Aachen

Folk roots and the joys of virtuosity belong to this delightful programme from Xuefei Yang and Ning Feng. They open with a Paganini rarity, the Sonata concertata, a scintillating showpiece packed with delightful melodies, and voyage into Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, written originally for a bowed guitar. Xuefei Yang’s spellbinding arrangement of a beloved Chinese folk song prepares the way for the sparky rhythms of Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances.

Xuefei Yang guitar; Ning Feng violin

Marie Jacquot is one of the leading conductors of her generation. According to one critic, her interpretations are »more inventive than innovation-driven, they float, they arise autonomously, without the gesture of emancipating oneself from anything.« In Dresde1, the French maestra will present two key works: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, a piece of luminous clarity with a symphonic breadth and formal balance, complemented by Béla Bartók’s »Concerto for Orchestra«, which the composer wrote in 1943 while living as an émigré in America. This is a work of irrepressible energy and subtle irony, combining counterpoint, Hungarian folklore and late Romantic opulence.

Symphony Concert N° 11

Semperoper Dresden

It is dark and cold in the castle to which Bluebeard takes his young wife Judith. With the power of her love, she wants to decipher her husband's mysterious past, bring light into the darkness, and build bridges over abysses. However, she is not allowed to ask any questions; seven locked doors harbor secrets. Judith begins to open them one by one... The depths of the human soul are also dark. Locked away within are urges, fears, dreams, and nightmares. In his only opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Béla Bartók penetrates the chambers of the human subconscious. 

Night

Cologne Philharmonie

The season closes with the irresistible fire and passion of music shaped by Romani traditions, which left an indelible mark on European composers. The romance, longing, and sense of freedom in these melodies found their way into some of the most beloved works of the repertoire. Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 39, with its famous “Gypsy” Rondo, dazzles in Hungarian style, while Brahms unleashes unbridled intensity in the torrential finale of his Piano Quartet No. 1. Ravel (Tzigane), Bartók (Romanian Dances), and Liszt (Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2) add their voices to this vibrant tradition. After the performance, join us for a festive reception—complete with a fortune teller to offer a lighthearted glimpse into your future. Our prediction: a brilliant season finale filled with inspired music and extraordinary performers.

Close Encounters With Music: Romance of the Romani!—Ravel, Bartók, Liszt, Haydn, and Brahms Piano Quartet

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

Violin Concerto No. 2 - Bartók / Symphony No. 4 - Brahms

Palace of Culture

Following the season finale in Frankfurt, the hr Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of chief conductor Alain Altinoglu, will perform at the Dresden Music Festival in June. The program at the Kulturpalast in the Saxon capital will include Brahms's Symphony No. 4 and Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring violinist Vilde Frang.

Dresden Music Festival

A timeless classic and yet a work that never fails to electrify: That is Bartók's 2nd Violin Concerto - especially when it is as energised as it is by Vilde Frang. A powerhouse of a completely different kind: the last symphony by the most classical of the Romantics. With the 4th Symphony, chief conductor Alain Altinoglu continues his Brahms series with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, in which he shows the composer from his transparent, tonally fresh side. The Fourth now: a work like a Rubik's cube, every moment brings new perspectives, everything is constantly changing. This is a clever symphony, and one in which every detail counts. How different Bartók's violin concerto comes across to the listener, especially the finale: intoxicating, wildly dance-like, with bucolic furore, yet so perfectly attuned to the possibilities of the instrument - it is not without reason that it is one of the most frequently performed and most popular violin concertos of the 20th century. (hr-Sinfonieorchester)

hr Symphony Orchestra

Old Opera Frankfurt

Alte Oper

A timeless classic, yet a work that electrifies anew each time: that's Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2 – especially when it's performed with such dynamism as by Vilde Frang. A powerhouse of a completely different kind: the last symphony of the most classical of the Romantics. With the Symphony No. 4, chief conductor Alain Altinoglu continues his Brahms series with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, revealing the composer's transparent, sonically fresh side. The Fourth Symphony: a work like a Rubik's Cube, every moment bringing new perspectives, everything in constant flux. It's a clever symphony, and one where every detail matters. How different, then, is Bartók's Violin Concerto, especially the finale: intoxicating, dance-like and wild, with bucolic fury, yet so perfectly attuned to the instrument's capabilities – it's no wonder it's one of the most frequently performed and most popular violin concertos of the 20th century.

Brahms 4

Bartók / Kodaly / Cage

San Carlo Theatre

The new chief conductor of the MDR Radio Choir charts musical paths through European landscapes in this nocturnal performance. The journey takes us from the cold north to the warm south, through centuries of music history, and across genres and styles. An exciting and colorful concert, with echoes from Josep Vila i Casañas's Catalan homeland.

Reise durch Europa

St. Peter's Church

Two exceptional musicians come together here: Delyana Lazarova, a violinist and a true rising star as a conductor, and Marc-André Hamelin, a world-class pianist who feels a close connection to the Bremen Philharmonic. This is a perfect combination for Beethoven's groundbreaking Fourth Piano Concerto. Soloist and orchestra are more closely interwoven here than ever before. Beethoven proves himself once again to be a bold innovator, ahead of his time – and still relevant today. Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra also turns some conventions on their head: Here, the entire orchestra is the soloist. A challenge? Certainly. But the Bremen Philharmonic are ready for it, each and every one of them. Bartók cedes the stage to them – in a work that takes virtuosity and inventiveness to the extreme.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 | Marc-André Hamelin

The Bell, Bremen

Small ensembles of Minnesota Orchestra musicians perform chamber music on the Orchestra Hall stage.

Poulenc, Bartók and Ravel

Orchestra Hall Minneapolis

In "Elements," Nina Šenk explores the balance between our everyday lives and elemental nature, each embodied by different groups of instruments. Benjamin Britten began work on his Violin Concerto in 1938, bringing the unfinished score with him when he emigrated to New York by ship with his partner, Peter Pears. The shock of two wars, the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, found its way into the work, as did the American popular music that Britten encountered during his stay in the USA. Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra was also written in exile, commissioned by the conductor Sergei Koussevitzky and his Boston Symphony Orchestra. Dietmar Holland described this last major orchestral work by Bartók, who, while seriously ill and almost penniless, had to wrest it from himself as a response to the horrors of the Second World War, as a "utopia of brotherhood between nations."

7th Symphony Concert

Eurogress Aachen

Laura Tillack, violin

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Osborne brings his love of both genres to the fore, performing Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (for piano and trumpet soloists) alongside his favourite jazz standards, arranged specially for this programme. 

We’re also joined by the brilliant trumpeter Aaron Azunda Akugbo, whose playing moves effortlessly from the mellow charm of Gershwin to the raw intensity of Shostakovich. 

Fantasia Orchestra with Steven Osborne

Smith Square Hall

Béla Bartók left his homeland of Hungary and emigrated to the United States in 1940. The war and the political situation in his homeland meant that he could not bring himself to stay in Europe. Nevertheless, he never felt at home in New York, where he settled. In the Third Piano Concerto, one can perhaps also trace a strong homesickness. Bartók's music is in many ways rooted in traditional Hungarian music, even though it has its own very personal musical language. This is also evident in the Third Piano Concerto, which, despite being written when the composer was ill with leukemia, has a bright and dance-like character. The concerto was the last work Bartók wrote, and he never got to experience the premiere in 1946.

Bartok & Bruckner

Louis de Geer konsert & kongress

A clarinet soars upwards – and immediately, you can picture the skyscrapers of jazz-age Manhattan. There’s nothing quite like Rhapsody in Blue, and few living pianists play Gershwin with more flair than our soloist today, Japanese jazz legend Makoto Ozone. And with RPO Conductor-in-Residence Kevin John Edusei is conducting, there are endless pictures to be painted and stories to be told.

High in the mountains of Transylvania, György Ligeti hears a shepherd blow his horn, and gypsy fiddles flash around the campfire.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Makoto Ozone plays Gershwin

Cadogan Hall 

A clarinet soars upwards – and immediately, you can picture the skyscrapers of jazz-age Manhattan. There’s nothing quite like Rhapsody in Blue, and few living pianists play Gershwin with more flair than our soloist today, Japanese jazz legend Makoto Ozone. And with RPO Conductor-in-Residence Kevin John Edusei conducting, there are endless pictures to be painted and stories to be told. High in the mountains of Transylvania, György Ligeti hears a shepherd blow his horn, and gypsy fiddles flash around the campfire. And far from his Hungarian homeland, composed in the USA, Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra sets out to put a great orchestra through its paces and ends up by punching the air with glee. This is music that loves life – and believe us, you can feel it.

Makoto Ozone plays Gershwin

Abono S09 - Delyana Lazarova

Opera House, A Coruña

Season ticket S09 - Delyana Lazarova

Our season ends with two of the most spectacular and orchestrally overwhelming scores from the late romantic period: Richard Strauss’s epic tone-poem Also sprach Zarathustra, inspired by Nietzsche’s account of the deep meditations of the half- mythical Persian hermit-philosopher Zoroaster; and Bartók’s dramatic fantasy Bluebeard’s Castle, based on the ancient fairy-tale about a young woman who marries a mysterious aristocrat and discovers that he has terrible secrets kept behind locked doors.

Also sprach Zarathustra & Bluebeard's Castle

Jacobs Music Center

Ensemble Renard, 2025 CMF Artists, devote themselves to showcasing the breadth of colour the wind quintet is capable of. Their dedication to the genre has taken them to prestigious venues and festivals across the UK and abroad, including return appearances at the Aldeburgh Festival, Folkestone New Music, and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.

Ensemble Renard

Corn Exchange Newbury

Clarinetist Lauri Sallinen is known for breaking down barriers between the arts. The concert, conducted by Izabele Jankauzkaiten, will feature no fewer than six works, including Lotta Wennäkoski's Ele.

Gestures

Espoo Cultural Centre

Tchaikovsky, Bartok

Imperial Baths

As valuable as this treasure is, sometimes the focus on the individual geniuses of Central European music obscures the view of the incredible diversity surrounding it. How many melodies from village and peasant wedding musicians are still to be discovered! In this chamber concert, Angelina Nalbantova from Bulgaria and Nico Gutu from Moldova show us what Eastern Europe, including Romania, as well as Argentina, France, and Spain, have to offer in this broad field. The proximity to improvised jazz is almost always palpable – the focus is on Chick Corea's masterpiece "Spain." Violin and accordion are the flexible instruments, a perfect fit here, as they stand in stark contrast to the large symphony orchestra. Have a good trip out into the wide world!

Worldwide treasures

GDA Göttingen

Reformed Church of Göttingen

Two clarinet works by Bartók, imbued with the richness of Hungarian and Romanian folk music, encounter the exuberant early piano quartet by his Hungarian friend Brahms. Construction, contrast, and surprising hints of jazz meet youthful energy, romantic ambition, and the spirit of the "Hungarian Dances." Bartók's "Contrasts" was the first work with which the Hungarian exile presented himself to the American public in 1940. Commissioned by the legendary Benny Goodman, it was Goodman's jazz background that inspired Bartók to compose the piece. When Brahms once sent his Hungarian friend Joseph Joachim the score of his piano quartet with the "Rondo alla Zingarese," Joachim readily admitted that the Hanseatic composer had surpassed him on his own turf.

Bartók Contrasts

Hessischer Rundfunk

Perhaps the most recognizable piano concerto in the repertoire, Tchaikovsky’s first will come to life in the able hands of the brilliant young pianist, Joyce Yang.  Jean Sibelius’ haunting tone poem about a mythical swan and Bartók’s thrilling Concerto for Orchestra spotlight the virtuoso players of our Harrisburg Symphony.

Joyce Yang plays Tchaikovsky

The Forum Auditorium

Masterworks 9 opens with a new commission from longtime Symphony friend Sydney Guillaume. Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is a virtuosic masterpiece that fuses Russian heritage with American influences. After intermission, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra showcases the orchestra in vivid colors and textures, capturing the resilience and adaptability of a composer who embraced his new world.

Masterworks 9: To America

Martin Woldson Theater

Opera love stories tend to unfold quickly, leaving the composer with the task of supporting a plot with music that speaks volumes. The chord progression at the beginning of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is a textbook example of musical foreshadowing. In Bartók's psychological thriller Bluebeard's Castle, two extraordinary artists portray a doomed couple.

Søndergård Conducts Wagner and Bartók

Coco Lu Mi, Violin

The Juilliard School

Bach’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 are at the heart of this concert of classics. The program also features a pair of captivating masterworks inspired by folk dances, by Hungarian composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály.

Bach and Mozart Piano Classics

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Guest performance in Dortmund | Ruhr Piano Festival

Konzerthaus Dortmund

Embark on an electrifying journey from the vibrant plains of Argentina to the heart of Eastern Europe and beyond with the energetic Four Dances from Estancia by Alberto Ginastera, Bela Bartók's brilliantly folk-infused Dance Suite, and Stravinsky's fiery favorite, Firebird Suite.

The Firebird

Orpheum Theater

Alex Nam, Piano

Following their Caramoor debut in the Fall, the Poiesis Quartet returns with another program that showcases their fresh take on chamber music. Formed at Oberlin in 2022 and now based in Cincinnati, this award-winning ensemble has quickly gained national attention, with honors including the 2023 Fischoff Grand Prize and joining the Concert Artists Guild roster in 2024. Known for their rich, cohesive sound and adventurous programming, the quartet breathes new life into classical masterworks while amplifying bold, contemporary voices. Don’t miss the chance to experience one of today’s most compelling young string quartets.

Poiesis Quartet

The Rosen House at Caramoor

Experience the light and lyrical side of the BSO as Principal Oboe Katherine Needleman delights with Martinü’s rarely performed Oboe Concerto. Mendelssohn’s "Scottish" Symphony captures the charm of Scotland, while Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances brings vibrant folk tunes to life.

Mendelssohn & Needleman

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The Music Center at Strathmore

Five: Made In America

Valdosta State University

Peabody Concert Orchestra & NEXT Ensemble

Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

The Miraculous Mandarin and Music of Bates

Shermerhorn Symphony Center

Conductor Anna-Maria Helsing presents an evening of music sparkling with love’s many facets. Relive one of the greatest love stories ever told through Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet suite inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Named as “simply one of the best classical pianists working today” by The Scotland Herald, Vadym Kholodenko presents Béla Bartók’s radiant Third Piano Concerto. The late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s evocative Lumière et pesanteur (Light and Gravity) scintillates with celestial beauty. Embark on an enchanted quest for love in Prokofiev’s orchestral suite for his comic opera, The Love for Three Oranges.

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet

Orpheum

Beloved by audiences worldwide for her playing that is “fearless…tonally rich and technically immaculate” (The Guardian), violinist Lisa Batiashvili returns to the Series after her acclaimed 2023 performance alongside pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and cellist Gautier Capuçon. Don’t miss your chance to witness an artist who effortlessly blends delicacy with intensity and lyricism with precision in a rare duo recital with Giorgi Gigashvili.

Lisa Batiashvili, violin

New England Conservatory of Music

“With desire and passion,” Tchaikovsky writes on the score of his Fifth Symphony, and he’s as good as his word: It’s a work teeming with brilliant orchestral colors, stormy emotions and a fate motif that haunts each movement. Illinois native Conrad Tao is the soloist in Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto, the composer’s beguiling love letter to his wife and his native Hungary.

Canellakis, Tao & Tchaikovsky 5

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

This concert invites you to listen to the hidden thread: how music evolved from structured dance to soulful improvisation. From the dazzling forms of Bach, through the fiery folk dances of Bartók, into the lush and liberated world of Duke Ellington. This is a story of freedom: not by abandoning the past, but by building upon it.

Structure to Freedom

Jazz, TX

Lutosławski’s fiercely intense Concerto for Orchestra is a modern classic – and one of the most powerful musical experiences imaginable in a concert hall. In this work, the orchestra itself becomes the “soloist,” as different sections are brought to the fore and given their moment to shine. Like his Polish predecessors Chopin and Szymanowski, Lutosławski drew inspiration from traditional Polish folk music – but transformed it into something entirely his own.

Concerto for Orchestra

Stockholm City Hall

Good things sometimes take time - but the wait is worth it! The last time Sir Simon Rattle was a guest at Pro Arte Frankfurt was in 2013. So it's all the better that he will be back with us in 2026. The exceptional musician will be bringing the Chamber Orchestra of Europe to his concert at the Alte Oper Frankfurt - a connection that has existed since 2021 and has thrilled audiences and the press in the past. And the renowned conductor also greatly appreciates working with this orchestra: ‘I've been fallen in love with this orchestra!’ What beautiful words! Together, they embark on a joyful journey of discovery into the soundscapes of a Romantic and modern repertoire: after works by Bartók and Busoni, this concert culminates in Johannes Brahms' Fourth Symphony, a composition that opened the door to the musical future at the time. A great human and compositional maturity speaks from these sounds and is therefore in the best of hands with Sir Simon Rattle and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. (Pro Arte Frankfurt)

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Sir Simon Rattle and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe: Since their first collaboration in 2020, they have been a dream team – the international orchestra has now elevated the star conductor to honorary membership. Their second joint Elbphilharmonie concert puts the orchestra at the center of attention with a rhythmic fireworks performance by Bartók and the sonority of Brahms' Fourth Symphony.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Sir Simon Rattle

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

One of the most accomplished violinists of her generation, Lisa Batiashvili performs works by Beethoven, Bartók, Franck, and fellow Georgian Ioseb Bardanashvili, with her compatriot, pianist Giorgi Gigashvili.

Described by The Times as “the complete musician,” Batiashvili commands her place among the world’s foremost artists with performances of great insight and expressive eloquence. The German-based violinist, named Musical America’s 2015 Instrumentalist of the Year, an accolade reserved for artists of the highest calibre, also stands among the winners of Italy’s prestigious International Accademia Musicale Chigiana Prize.

Lisa Batiashvili, violin, with Giorgi Gigashvili, piano

The Royal Conservatory of Music

"May the day be lost to us on which there was not a single dance!" Friedrich Nietzsche already expressed this sentiment – ​​and so we gladly gather under the choreographic direction of Juraj Valčuha for several playful, melodious dances of joy on our instruments. The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók found much inspiration for this during his beloved "folk song collecting trips." His suite was composed in 1923 for the 50th anniversary of the unification of Buda, Óbuda, and Pest into the new capital, Budapest. This large-scale orchestral work, featuring plenty of percussion, celesta, and piano, contains a whole series of dances – sometimes elegiac, sometimes stamping, sometimes cheerful, and culminating in a triumphant celebration of joie de vivre. 

Juraj Valčuha, Frank Peter Zimmermann

Bamberger Symphoniker

Sir Simon Rattle, much honored!, is one of the truly brilliant musical personalities of our time. This conductor, who always inspires those around him, is characterized by verve, seriousness, and emphasis, as well as his refreshingly unbridled enthusiasm for music.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe | Sir Simon Rattle

Museum Ludwig

Carion Wind Quintet is an award-winning Danish-Latvian ensemble which brings a truly unique and innovative chamber music experience to audiences. Carion fascinates audiences with its carefully choreographed and dramatized performances of classical and modern works, making music on stage visible and adding a new dimension of traditional concert events.

Carion Wind Quintet

Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center

War Memorial and Performing Arts Center

Lesher Center for the Arts

Edward Lee, Viola

Composed during his final illness before death, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is considered his last masterwork, filled with brilliant, virtuosic writing that challenges each section of the orchestra. Debussy’s La mer is an impressionist masterpiece that captures the sea’s shifting moods–from calm to turbulent–with vivid, atmospheric sound. 

Virtuosic Soundscapes

Alice Pratt Brown Hall

Lidiya Yankovskaya returns to conduct Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 5, before the orchestra and Opera Omaha take on a brand-new collaboration: Bartók’s haunting Bluebeard’s Castle. This psychologically intense one-act masterpiece will be performed with the Omaha Symphony on full display, telling the gripping story of Bluebeard and his wife Judith as they uncover dark secrets in his mysterious castle. Michelle DeYoung, renowned for her powerful voice, takes on the role of Judith, while baritone Ryan McKinny, whose voice “drips with gold” (Opera News), makes his Omaha Symphony debut as Bluebeard. This semi-staged concert experience, co-presented with Opera Omaha, offers a unique opportunity to dive into one of opera’s most compelling works.

Applied Underwriters Presents Beethoven’s Fifth & Bluebeard’s Castle

Omaha Performing Arts

Evening Recital N° 3

Repertory Singers & Treble Chorus 2026

University of Rochester

Dancing Home explores themes of heritage, belonging, displacement, and resilience through the lens of dance. At the heart of this program is ḥawwāsh by Kareem Roustom commissioned by Palaver Strings in 2024. Inspired by the ḥawwāsh, or lead dancer of a traditional dabke dance, this piece allows any musician to lead the ensemble at any given moment, sharing fluid leadership through physical and sonic cues. This program also features Palaver’s arrangement of Bartok’s Romanian Dances, original tunes by Maya French and Jamie Oshima, and Kinan Azmeh’s Syrian Dances, commissioned by Palaver in 2022. Dancing Home celebrates social dance as a meeting place for tradition and innovation, and a vehicle for building resilience, joy, and trust.

Dancing Home | Palaver Strings | Artistic Partner

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto is a virtuoso tour de force. Its scale, technical demands and emotional richness are perhaps the ultimate challenge for a pianist to master, but the challenge is worth the prize as the rippling melodies for the soloist are full of melancholy and heart-rending drama. And if Rachmaninoff’s focus is the soloist, then Bartók’s is the orchestra. His concerto ensures that every instrument gets its chance to shine in a piece that embraces vivid colours, gorgeous tunes and ends with a life-affirming, rabble-rousing burst of sheer joy.

A Lifetime for Music

Belfast

Ulster Orchestra: A Lifetime For Music

Ulster Hall

“In wars outside the blood runs red / Here is something far more deadly, ladies and gentlemen”. Duke Bluebeard’s castle has seven doors, and his new wife Judith is determined to open them all. But some questions are best left unanswered, and in Bartók’s gripping psychological thriller even the darkest secrets possess a terrible beauty.

Bartók’s Bluebeard's Castle

Music Hall, Aberdeen

City Halls

Three masterpieces – two centuries – one narrative. There is Schumann's song cycle "Frauenliebe und -leben ," in which the feelings of the nameless protagonist revolve around the needs of a man. There is Duke Bluebeard's Castle , in which two mysterious strangers are magically attracted to each other. And there is the bourgeois, liberal marriage construct of Oscar Wilde's Florentine Tragedy . These raise the question: Do people desire the same throughout all ages?

Women's Love and Death

Hamburg State Opera

5th Symphony Concert

Globe Coburg

Marin Symphony Concertmaster Ani Bukujian returns as soloist in two great pieces for violin, Bartok’s first Violin Concerto and Chausson’s lovely Poeme. The rest of the program is virtuoso orchestral writing at its finest, in works by Mason Bates, Ginastera, and de Falla.

Masterworks 3: Bartok & de Falla

College of Marin

Bard Conservatory Graduate Conductors, together with The Orchestra Now (TŌN) and the Bard Chamber Singers, present a program of old and new works exploring themes of internal and external transformation.

Reflections and Refractions: A Sonic Kaleidoscope

Fisher Center at Bard

6th Chamber Music Concert in the Vienna State Opera

Vienna State Opera

This program’s four stars of Hungarian music, from the ultra-Romantic Franz Liszt to the ground-breaking György Ligeti, reveal the breadth, color, and infectious energy of their country’s music and folk culture. Closing the performance is Ernő Dohnányi’s first published work, composed around age 17, of which Brahms said that he “could not have done it better” himself.

Liszt and Bartók

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

A first prize at the ARD Music Competition has launched many a career – including that of Quatuor Arod, which, after winning in 2016, took off internationally and debuted as a "Rising Star" at the Elbphilharmonie in 2019. Bayerischer Rundfunk writes: "This string quartet plays at a technically outstanding level – in a league with the very best." Could a penchant for Bach chorales contribute to this? The four French musicians have already released 36 videos featuring the short baroque pieces, sometimes as an encore and sometimes as a ritual at the start of rehearsals.

Quatuor Arod

In the dark heart of a continent on the brink of war, a violin catches fire. Three robed priests vent their pain and rage, in molten, tactile paint. And a hut on hen’s legs flies through a fairytale forest. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but music can paint pictures that haven’t even been imagined. Tonight, Edward Gardner is the curator of a sonic picture gallery: presenting powerful 20th-century masterpieces by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Bartók alongside Mussorgsky’s multicoloured, hugely popular Pictures at an Exhibition. Let your ears be your eyes, and hear them come to life.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Southbank Centre

MSM Artists in Residence American String Quartet

Manhattan School of Music

In our season finale, experience the bold brilliance of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra in a dynamic program that also features Sibelius’s stirring Finlandia and Bruch’s lyrical Violin Concerto No. 1.

Brilliant Bartók

California State University, Chico

Cascade Theatre

British violinist Callum Smart returns by popular demand to Lexington Symphony to perform Shostakovich’s evocative Violin Concerto No. 1. Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Serge Koussevitsky in 1943. This popular piece is filled with opportunities for each section of the orchestra to shine as the piece builds to an exuberant conclusion.

Pushing the Limits

Isaac Harris Cary Memorial Building

Bring it with youEnsemble Midweston a musical journey on the iconic train, the Orient Express. We board in Paris and travel through Bavaria, Austria, Hungary and Romania – before arriving in the vibrant world of Istanbul.

Composer

Béla Bartók

Events

Upcoming events

Aug 10, 2026

Gershwin & Bartók · Edinburgh International Festival

Aug 19, 2026

Kleio Quartet, Makoto Ozone & Sheku Kanneh-Mason · Edinburgh International Festival

Aug 21, 2026

Budapest Festival Orchestra | Eva Duda Dance Company | Iván Fischer | Elisabeth Leonskaja · Lucerne Festival

Aug 21, 2026

Tour: Lucerne Festival Leonskaja, Eva Duda Dance Company, Fischer · Budapest Festival Orchestra

Aug 22, 2026

Vilde Frang & Friends · Edinburgh International Festival

Past events

Jul 11, 2026

Veronika Eberle violin; Dénes Várjon piano · Wigmore Hall

Jul 1, 2026

Leonidas Kavakos violin; Kirill Gerstein piano · Wigmore Hall

About

Béla Bartók hasn't added a bio

Composer

Béla Bartók

Events

Upcoming events

Aug 10, 2026

Gershwin & Bartók · Edinburgh International Festival

Aug 19, 2026

Kleio Quartet, Makoto Ozone & Sheku Kanneh-Mason · Edinburgh International Festival

Aug 21, 2026

Budapest Festival Orchestra | Eva Duda Dance Company | Iván Fischer | Elisabeth Leonskaja · Lucerne Festival

Aug 21, 2026

Tour: Lucerne Festival Leonskaja, Eva Duda Dance Company, Fischer · Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

Aug 22, 2026

Vilde Frang & Friends · Edinburgh International Festival

Past events

Jul 11, 2026

Veronika Eberle violin; Dénes Várjon piano · Wigmore Hall

Jul 1, 2026

Leonidas Kavakos violin; Kirill Gerstein piano · Wigmore Hall

About

Béla Bartók hasn't added a bio

Tour: Lucerne Festival Leonskaja, Eva Duda Dance Company, Fischer · Budapest Festival Orchestra