Composer

Each year, the Festival international de Colmar transforms the city’s most distinguished heritage venues into vibrant stages for world-class soloists and leading ensembles. Since 2023, the festival has been under the artistic direction of Alain Altinoglu.

The La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra at the Colmar Festival

Église Saint-Matthieu de Colmar

Jusqu’ici, il fallait bien croire Hector Berlioz, qui affirmait avoir détruit cette messe composée à 21 ans, jouée pour la première fois à l’église Saint-Roch. Mais en 1992, par le plus grand hasard, un instituteur en retrouva un manuscrit à Anvers. On allait alors découvrir, dans cette partition généreuse, les signes avant-coureurs du révolutionnaire et les traces des futurs Requiem, Symphonie fantastique et autre Benvenuto Cellini. De vingt ans postérieure, la Troisième Symphonie de Louise Farrenc résume un artisanat et une science des proportions qui lui valurent l’admiration de Schumann… et de Berlioz.

Berlioz, Messe solennelle / Dinis Sousa

Maison de la Radio et de la Musique

This stellar festival gala concert will welcome one of the greatest figures on the contemporary opera scene. Bryn Terfel, an operatic legend with the charisma of a world star, will perform a programme that transcends the boundaries of genres and styles. He will be joined by Slovak soprano Slávka Zámečníková. The evening will feature famous opera arias, musical theatre melodies and distinctive Welsh songs, promising an exceptional experience full of emotion and vocal virtuosity.

Opera Gala – Bryn Terfel & Slávka Zámečníková

Litomyšl Castle

The Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra ends its 2025-26 season at Cadogan Hall in style, with an evening of art and romance.

The concert opens with Berlioz’s Hungarian March, a spirited piece derived from a popular folk tune that was originally part of his dramatic legend, The Damnation of Faust.

Pianist Radu-Gabriel Stoica is the soloist for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, an emotional tour-de-force which needs no introduction.

EPSG:4326

Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra

Cadogan Hall 

The programme of works by W. A. Mozart, F. Chopin and H. Berlioz promises a unique artistic experience. Piano virtuoso Martin Kasík will perform Mozart's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 23 in A major, K. 488, followed by Chopin's Variations on Là ci darem la mano for piano and orchestra, Op.  2. In the symphonic poem Harold in Italy by Hector Berlioz, we will hear the mastery of Josef Špaček, who will play the solo viola part. The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Erina Yashima, a German conductor who has performed with prestigious international orchestras in Europe and the USA.

Mozart – Chopin – Berlioz

Rudolfinum

A wonderfully vibrant evening to close the season! Is there a more shimmering, more thrilling piece of exotic music than the Bacchanale from Camille Saint-Saëns' opera "Samson et Dalila"? Hardly. This is followed by
Anna Clyne's "Quarter Days," which premiered only in 2023 and which the new Composer in Focus series describes as a reflection on the passage of time: "both within a minute, a day, the seasons, and even within an entire lifetime." And finally, the then-revolutionary "Symphonie fantastique" by the Frenchman Hector Berlioz, now indestructible as a clever popular hit, is a captivating evening with Nicholas Milton and the Elaia Quartet from Berlin, who know how to shape the profoundly human passage of time into soaring tones!

Fantastic

Stadthalle Göttingen

Both Symphonie fantastique (1830) and Harold in Italy (1842)  trace a musical journey from reverie to wild finale.The initial suggestion to write a work for solo viola came from the great violinist Paganini. Inspired by Byron’s 1812 poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Berlioz created “a series of orchestral scenes” in which the solo viola plays a “melancholic dreamer”.

Symphonie fantastique

Southbank Centre

Berlioz used all the colors in a composer’s paintbox–and created a few new ones all his own–for his Symphonie fantastique, a swirling portrait of an artist’s passion, dreams and ecstasy. We’ll place this alongside the unparalleled elegance of Emanuel Ax at the piano, and brand-new music from our gifted Resident Artistic Partner Allison Loggins-Hull–a finale to cherish!

Season Finale: Symphonie Fantastique

Count Basie Center for the Arts

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

State Theatre New Jersey

Princeton University

Dayner Tafur-Díaz/Orchestra Giovanile Italiana

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre

The concert hall sets the stage for Hector Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette, a ‘symphonie dramatique’ that defies classification as opera or symphony. Inspired by the timeless tale of impossible love, Berlioz reflects on themes of hatred and reconciliation. Director Aïda Gabriëls, known for challenging conventions, builds on Berlioz’s vision, blending art forms in a striking musical-theatrical setting. Under the baton of Dima Slobodeniouk, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra joins forces with the Octopus Symphonic Choir and renowned opera singers for an unforgettable performance – a true feast for the eyes and ears.

Roméo et Juliette

Queen Elisabeth Hall

Concertgebouw Brugge

A recording of the concert Hector Berlioz - Requiem will be made, directed by Stéphane Aubé, produced by the Opéra national de Paris with the support of the Orange Foundation, sponsor of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts, for a live broadcast on Friday 22 May 2026 at 8:00pm on Paris Opera Play, the Paris Opera's streaming website.

Hector Berlioz

Cité de la Musique

Promenade with the Colorado Symphony through the gallery of one of the most celebrated and colorful works in the symphonic catalogue: Ravel’s famous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. From its regal opening to its majestic finale, Mussorgsky’s work is a perennial favorite characterized by immersions into the worlds of its various paintings.

Pictures at an Exhibition with Christopher Dragon

Denver Performing Arts Complex

This program highlights the viola’s deep, expressive voice in Canadian composer Cassandra Miller’s Concerto, a poignant reflection on separation premiered in 2023 by Lawrence Power. Meanwhile, Debussy paints a vivid portrait of the sea with impressionistic colours, immersing listeners in a nostalgic and dreamlike soundscape. Enjoy a musical journey that is both powerful and poetic.

Wagner and Debussy: From Love to the Sea

Place des Arts

«La Damnation de Faust» is one of Hector Berlioz's most revolutionary works, a dramatic journey to hell that is part opera, part oratorio. «I neither tried to translate Goethe’s masterpiece nor to imitate it, but simply let it work on me in an effort to grasp its musical content», the composer stated candidly. His multicolored music is imaginary theater, a journey into Faust’s interior, from which the devil Méphistophélès himself seems to emerge.

The Damnation of Faust

Zurich Opera House

Ari Tujian, countertenor

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Two wartime poets expressed disillusionment; two composers spun their poems into evocative musical scores. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Principal Violist Zhenwei Shi stands in for Childe Harold in Berlioz's picturesque Harold in Italy. Robert Spano presents the "fearless" piano virtuoso Conrad Tao in Bernstein's plaintive and sassy symphony "The Age of Anxiety," inspired by W.H. Auden's Pulitzer Prize-winning poem.

America @ 250: Spano Conducts Bernstein + Berlioz

The Woodruff Arts Center

Mystique and Wonder

Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo

Join us for our closing Masterworks concert of the season with an evening of orchestral splendor featuring harpist Courtney Hershey-Bress. The program includes Berlioz’s spirited Hungarian March, Michael Daugherty’s captivating Harp of the Age, and Mussorgsky’s iconic Pictures at an Exhibition.

Orchestral Brilliance

Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts

Stroke of Genius

Cologne Philharmonie

The Management Symphony – comprised of around 100 executives from the German business world who are passionate about making music at a high level. For their annual rehearsal period culminating in a concert, they invite renowned orchestras to act as coaches and hosts. This season, they are joined by the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) and its chief conductor, Alain Altinoglu. The result of their collaborative work can be experienced in this concert, which presents a symphony that was once a departure into a new world, a romantic and fantastical one. The "Symphonie fantastique" takes an artist's life as its program, and the audience is right there with them. They experience a sonic intoxication unlike anything heard before – so vivid, so powerful, and so dramatic. This artist is captivated by a woman he adores, experiences her in a waltz-filled frenzy at a ball, seeks tranquility on a country outing, has visions of his execution while under the influence of opium – and finally dreams of his burial, accompanied by witches and grotesque faces, by funeral bells and a parodied "Dies irae." The dark Romanticism with all its demons enters the music of its time – this too is a merit that Berlioz deserves with his truly fantastic symphony.

Symphonic Side Step

Hessischer Rundfunk

Dr. Paul Thornock is Director of Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, Georgia, where he conducts the semi-professional Cathedral Choir, the fully professional Choral Scholars, and acts as Artistic Director for the Friends of Cathedral Music concert series.

Symphonie Fantastique!

Lucas Theatre For the Arts

Wolfe was two blocks from the Twin Towers when the planes hit on September 11, 2001. Big Beautiful Dark and Scary is the sound of that aftermath: an ominous, awesome wall of sound. When he wrote his Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky was also recuperating from personal turmoil: after a collapsed marriage and a failed suicide attempt, he escaped to the shores of Lake Geneva. In the company of a violinist muse – Josef Kotek – Tchaikovsky created a concerto of romance, peace and jollity, and a celebrated classic of the repertoire.

Big Beautiful Dark and Scary

The Bridgewater Hall

BBC Philharmonic - Big Beautiful Dark and Scary

The Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casada, principal guest conductor of the Teatro Real in Madrid, will be conducting the Bavarian State Orchestra for the first time and will present Hector Berlioz's orchestral songs Les Nuits d'été, Op. 7. Christian Gerhaher will perform the vocal part in this romantic, wistful song cycle, marked by farewells, which was never performed in its entirety during the composer's lifetime. He last appeared in this context exactly ten years ago, at the 5th Academy Concert in 2016 under the direction of Kirill Petrenko. The concert will then be followed by a work with a twenty-year history of composition: Johannes Brahms began drafts for a symphony as early as 1854, but he wrote doubtfully to Hermann Levi: "You have no idea how we feel when we always hear such a giant (meaning Beethoven) marching behind us." The composer was not satisfied with his own work until he was 43; Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, was premiered in Karlsruhe in 1876 (the same year as Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung in Bayreuth).

5th Academy Concert: Pablo Heras-Casado

Max-Joseph-Platz

Opium, romantic obsession, the guillotine, and a demon orgy – today, this would be a Netflix series. Two hundred years ago, it was a symphony. Take a wild ride through the hyperreal Symphonie fantastique with the Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan. Berlioz's breathless Roman Carnival Overture kicks off the evening with thundering brass and percussion. The "strikingly brilliant," award-winning piano ace Bertrand Chamayou adds panache with Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5.

Jordan Conducts Symphonie fantastique

Our new Principal Guest Conductor, Henrik Schaefer, will lead no less than four special evenings, when Mozart's Requiem from 1791, one of the most moving and dramatic works in music history, is on the program. It is Mozart's last composition but among his most famous works, even though it was only partly written by Mozart himself.

Mozart's Requiem with Schaefer

Alsion Concert Hall

German House

Harmony Cultural Center, Haderslev

Løgumkloster Church

This dynamic program, featuring works by Berlioz, Brahms, and Clarice Assad, blends intensity and expression. Berlioz’s King Lear Overture makes its HSO debut, capturing the play’s power struggles with dramatic orchestration. Assad takes the stage as soloist in her own FLOW, Concerto for Piano, offering a unique composer-performer perspective.

Brahms’ Third

The Bushnell

HSO Masterworks Series: Brahms’ Third

Maxwell M. & Ruth R. Belding Theater

The Hamburg State Orchestra's Philharmonic Concerts become time-plays, transcending the boundaries of the ordinary. This concert features Sally Beamish's compositional exploration of Mozart's rules – the second and third movements of his Sinfonia concertante are replaced by new compositions by her, inspired by the original. Mozart encounters us today as a mirror of the past and, through Beamish, as a part of the here and now. This unabashed musical play opens new perspectives on our musical culture, our thinking and being, and our way of receiving music.

Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra / Konradin Seitzer / Aziz Shokhakimov

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

The Hamburg State Orchestra's Philharmonic Concerts become ZeitSpielen and transcend the boundaries of the ordinary: In this concert, Sally Beamish's compositional exploration of Mozart's rules will be heard - for the second and third movements of his Sinfonia Concertante will be replaced by new compositions from her pen, inspired by the original. We encounter Mozart today as a mirror of the past and at the same time, through Beamish, as part of the here and now! 

7th Philharmonic Concert MOZART / BEAMISH

Elbphilharmonie

From great romance to revolutionary fervour, France doesn’t do things by halves. Passion and flair pulse through every corner of French cultural life, whether in the cool sophistication of its cinema, the rich flavours of its cuisine or the vibrant sounds of its music.

The Hallé: Vive La France!

Royal Concert Hall Nottingham

March 2026 Concert

Comsewogue High School

Renowned for his searching interpretations of French classical music as well as his genre-defying jazz records, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian. The concerto’s nickname didn’t originate with Saint-Saëns; it came about because he composed most of it while on vacation in Luxor. But no single country could contain his restless imagination: the “Egyptian” compiles a world-traveler’s far-flung impressions. Debussy’s dreamy Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun and Berlioz’s hellacious Symphonie fantastique round out this program of French favorites led by Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan.

Symphonie fantastique & Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Davies Symphony Hall

Music for All Ages

Norwalk Concert Hall

Step into the enchanting world of Paris with A Night in Paris!—a captivating concert that will transport you straight to the City of Light. Join us for an unforgettable evening, featuring the sensational guest soloist Rosana Eckert, as we journey through the heart of French music. From Offenbach’s lively Can-Can to the lush melodies of Piaf’s La Vie en Rose and Sous le Ciel de Paris, the night will be filled with passion and beauty. Experience the haunting Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns, the dreamy Clair de Lune by Debussy, and the mesmerizing Daphnis & Chloe, Suite No. 1 by Ravel. With powerful orchestral works like Bizet’s L’Arlésienne and Berlioz’s Le Corsair Overture also on the program, every note will be a celebration of French artistry. Let the music sweep you away on a magical night in Paris you’ll never forget!

A Night In Paris!

Camille Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto is one of the most versatile works in romantic piano literature. With its unusual structure, it begins like an improvised fantasy before building up to a virtuosic and rhythmically striking finale. Bertrand Chamayou, one of the leading pianists of his generation, interprets the work with technical brilliance and musical depth, effectively showcasing the contrasting moods of this concerto. Hector Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" is a milestone in program music, narrating in five movements the passionate and increasingly nightmarish vision of a young artist. The multifaceted instrumentation, ranging from lyrical melodies to dark sounds of the "Witches' Sabbath," makes the work an impressive example of romantic sonic art.

Palace of Culture

Are you in the mood for drama, love, and a little bit of madness? Hector Berlioz invites you on an emotional rollercoaster ride with his "Symphonie fantastique"! This masterpiece is like a movie without a screen – everything happens in your mind. Berlioz tells the story of a young artist who is hopelessly in love. His emotions range in all directions: from romantic infatuation to wild jealousy to dark nightmares. The music is explosive, imaginative, and full of surprises. A highlight: the "Witches' Sabbath", where Berlioz pushes the boundaries of music and stages an eerie sound festival. The orchestra becomes a tool of pure emotion – from delicate harp sounds to thundering drums.

Best of Classics: Berlioz Fantastique

A music that doesn't need any explanation, that one understands all by itself? That's what the French composer Hector Berlioz wanted when he wrote his "Fantastic Symphony." He was heartbroken, and he composed his experiences directly into the music. In fact, while listening, we can imagine how someone falls in love, experiences happiness with the beloved woman, and how love fails. But of course, there are still some open questions – how does Berlioz manage to create so many different timbres? What role do the individual instruments play in this? Malte is on a quest to find answers for you...

Fantastic Symphony

Berlioz, Rimsky-korsakov, Schumann

Imperial Baths

Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang is Konserthuset’s Artist-in-Residence this season and returns to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra several times. This is her third production with the orchestra, each time under the baton of Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft, with whom she has frequently collaborated in recent years.

Bernstein and Berlioz

Stockholm City Hall

For the first time the Prague Symphony welcomes the most important Slovenian conductor of today, Marko Letonja. The first half of the evening will be French in honour of his many years in Strasbourg, the second half will be Fate. One of the world's finest organists, Olivier Latry, will also perform with our orchestra for the first time.

Beethoven – Fate Symphony

Municipal House

Camellia Symphony Orchestra: Folk Spirits and Temperaments

C.K. McClatchy High School

Constantinos Carydis conducts Guiraud, Koukos, Berlioz

Teatro La Fenice

This concert highlights piano mastery and dynamic artistry as husband and wife duo Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung take center stage. Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos sparkles with elegance and virtuosity. Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals delights with humor and imagination, while Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos adds wit and rhythmic energy.

Mozart & More: Concertos for Two Pianos

Jacoby Symphony Hall

Dreams are fleeting, unpredictable and all too prone to turn to nightmare – territory ripe for the imagination of a composer to run riot! This concert starts in the hazy, half-remembered dreams of a slumbering faun in a Mediterranean forest on a sunny afternoon, before Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata takes us to a night where ‘the wine of youth… is fermenting in the veins of God’. That fermentation takes things darker still and we visit the nightmarish world of obsessive desire in Berlioz’s epic, dramatic Symphonie fantastique.

Dreams & Visions

Belfast

Dreams are fleeting, unpredictable and all too prone to turn to nightmare – territory ripe for the imagination of a composer to run riot! This concert starts in the hazy, half-remembered dreams of a slumbering faun in a Mediterranean forest on a sunny afternoon, before Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata takes us to a night where ‘the wine of youth... is fermenting in the veins of God’. That fermentation takes things darker still and we visit the nightmarish world of obsessive desire in Berlioz’s epic, dramatic Symphonie fantastique.

Ulster Orchestra: Dreams & Visions

Ulster Hall

Preview of one of the most exciting partnerships in American orchestral music when the Chicago Symphony returns to Boston with music director designate Klaus Mäkelä. Fresh off his 2024 Series appearance with Orchestre de Paris, the 29-year-old Finnish superstar doesn’t officially take the helm of this legendary orchestra until the 2026/27 season—but this concert offers a thrilling preview of what’s to come.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Boston Symphony Hall

One of the world’s most revered ensembles, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns under the baton of electrifying music director designate Klaus Mäkelä, hailed for his “mesmerizing presence and interpretive depth” (The Guardian). Mäkelä leads a program that pairs two revolutionary masterworks of symphonic form: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, a pulse-quickening triumph of rhythm and vitality that Wagner called “the apotheosis of the dance,” and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, the wildly imaginative, hallucinatory tale of love, obsession, and dreams gone awry. Together, conductor and orchestra promise an unforgettable evening of high drama, orchestral brilliance, and virtuosity.

The Music Center at Strathmore

Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique tells the story of a quintessential Romantic artist, complete with a lovelorn obsession, a pastoral scene in the country, frightful hallucinations, and a wild witches’ sabbath. Emmanuel Pahud, hailed as a “one-in-a-generation flutist” (San Francisco Classical Review) is the soloist in Samy Moussa’s DSO co-commissioned concerto.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Mäkelä made his thrilling UMS debut with Orchestra de Paris in March 2024, just a few weeks before he was appointed to the Chicago post. He conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, a work written in 1812 during the Napoleonic era with Beethoven conducting its premiere at a charity concert for wounded soldiers, and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, a revolutionary work composed just a few years after Beethoven’s death.

University of Michigan

More than 80 musicians take the stage as Symphony Nova Scotia joins forces with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra! Together, the NSYO, alongside their professional mentors from the Symphony, are proud to present an exhilarating performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. This massive, bombastic orchestral phenomenon features two tubas and two sets of timpanis, and it tells the tale of the composer’s struggle with unrequited love. Don’t miss this huge collaboration at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, with $23 tickets for everyone!

Two Orchestras Play Berlioz

Dalhousie University

GRAMMY-winning Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo began performing professionally at the age of 11 and has since appeared in opera, concert, recital, film, and on Broadway. He is the General Director and President of Opera Philadelphia, and the Artistic Director of SongStudio at Carnegie Hall. He has with appeared many of the world’s leading opera companies and orchestras including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Real, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, and NDR at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, among others. He has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Versailles, Madison Square Garden, The Hollywood Bowl, Kabuki-Za Tokyo, The Guggenheim, The Park Avenue Armory, and Little Island. As a producer, he has created projects for The Paris Opera, The New York Philharmonic, The BBC Proms, WQXR, and St. Ann’s Warehouse among others. Costanzo graduated with honors from Princeton University, and Manhattan School of Music, where he is now on the board of trustees along with being on the board of National Black Theater. A winner of the Met Opera Competition and Operalia, Costanzo also has an Honorary Doctorate from Manhattan School of Music, a History Makers Award from the New York Historical, has been a visiting fellow Oxford University, and a distinguished visiting scholar at Harvard. He has been in a Merchant Ivory film and has a forthcoming book for Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Great Artists Series '26: Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor and Bryan Wagorn, piano

560 Music Center

Join WNO Conductor Laureate, Carlo Rizzi, the award-winning mezzo-soprano, Justina Gringytė (La forza del destino, Roberto Devereux) and WNO Orchestra for a concert that will win both hearts and minds.

Carlo Rizzi & Justina Gringytė with WNO Orchestra

Bute Park

Filled with sultry tango melodies, infectious Spanish dance rhythms, and dizzying displays of virtuosity, Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole will sizzle in the hands of Clara-Jumi Kang. Then, buckle up for classical music’s ultimate thrill ride: with its wild story of a lovelorn artist who overdoses on opium, plunges into a hallucinogenic nightmare, and envisions his own funeral in hell, Symphonie fantastique packs an emotional wallop unlike anything else in music.

Symphonie espagnole + Symphonie fantastique

Jones Hall

Feel the swirling dread of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and recoil from the stabbing strings of Psycho. The tension is palpable in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and John Williams’ Jaws, and it explodes in the ghoulish frenzy of Berlioz’s Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath.

Spooky Classics with the Sydney Symphony

Sydney Town Hall

The Orchester der Oper Zürich starts the concert season under a new, old name. After thirteen years as Philharmonia Zurich, the orchestra will return to its original moniker. The Philharmonic Concerts will once again alternate between the Opernhaus and the Tonhalle Zürich.

Jussen & Rustioni

Tonhalle Zürich

This will be a great joy for everyone involved: In keeping with the fifth season (Carnival), under the direction of Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, we will slip into different roles, individually or in groups, for the musical stories of this concert, just like at Carnival or a masquerade – and can thus demonstrate our playing skills on the respective instruments. For Berlioz's soul-searching work set in Italy, our solo violist Wen Xiao Zheng will take on the part of the melancholic dreamer Harold.

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Wen Xiao Zheng

Bamberger Symphoniker

Fantastic Symphony | Frost Symphony Orchestra

University of Miami

The Clock

Empress Theatre

Camellia Symphony Orchestra: Dreams and Delirium

Welcome to a carnivalesque evening full of lively rhythms and magnificent orchestration! Dvořák's lively Carnival Overture kicks things off, followed by two lively overtures by Johann Strauss. Solo violinist Hanan Santos gives Paganini's virtuoso Carnival of Venice a brilliant climax. The program continues with Berlioz' fiery overture to the Roman Carnival, which captures the festive atmosphere of Rome.

Carnival of sounds with J. Strauss and N. Paganini

University of Salzburg Great Hall of the University

Welcome to a carnivalesque evening full of lively rhythms and magnificent orchestration! The concert begins with Dvořák's sparkling Carnival Overture , followed by two lively overtures by Johann Strauss. Solo violinist Hanan Santos brings Paganini's virtuoso Carnival of Venice to a brilliant climax. The concert continues with Berlioz's fiery Roman Carnival Overture , which captures the festive atmosphere of Rome.

Carnival of Sounds with J. Strauss and N. Paganini

Mozart Week Salzburg

Great Festival House

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto was composed just two months before his untimely death. The lyrical second movement, in particular, is one of his most touching musical legacies. Farewell and mourning also find their place in Berlioz's orchestral songs, Les nuits d'été . Both works are the focus of the Vienna Philharmonic's second concert featuring three artists of the first category.

Vienna Philharmonic II: Ticciati / Kožená / Ottensamer

Debussy’s impressionistic symphonic tone poems, La mer and Ibéria, take center stage in this all-French–Iberian-peninsula program. Mezzo-soprano Angela Brower is the soloist for Berlioz’s cantata Cléopâtre, on the first of her two weeks with the TSO, and Maestro Gomez introduces the music of Olivier Messiaen with the grief-stricken Le tombeau resplendissant.

Debussy’s La mer

Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

Despite dying at the age of just 26, French composer Lili Boulanger left behind a wealth of fantastic music. Among the highlights is the buzzing, lively spring morning she evokes in the short tone poem D'un matin de printemps , which she composed just a few months before her death.

Søndergaard & Ravel

DR Koncerthuset

Transport yourself to the heart of Italy with an unforgettable evening of musical storytelling, presented through a vibrant program, brimming with romance and the spirited charm of Italian culture. Experience the dazzling sounds of Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, and Respighi’s Fountains of Rome – each a vivid homage to Italy’s festivals, landscapes, and timeless allure. For this concert, ASO is thrilled to welcome back acclaimed piano virtuoso Sean Chen, who’ll perform Rachmaninoff’s beloved Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – a deeply expressive tour de force, inspired by one of Italy’s greatest violinists.

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Heymann Performing Arts Center

Former Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero returns for a night of musical brilliance and vivid storytelling! Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun opens with sensual, dreamlike melodies that transport you to a world of fantasy. Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 “Paris” sparkles with elegance and youthful energy, leading to the evening’s grand finale—Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, a wild and electrifying journey of love, obsession, and fate. Don’t miss this unforgettable homecoming!

Giancarlo Guerrero Returns • Jan. 15, 2026, 7:30pm

Hult Center for the Performing Arts

A good cliffhanger is the most important thing: Only those who are almost bursting with suspense at the end of a story stay hooked and want to know what happens next as quickly as possible. Directors of soaps and series use this trick, which they may have copied from Scheherazade: A Persian king has married her for one day and one night, after which she is to die. With imagination and cleverly placed cliffhangers, Scheherazade tells the king 1001 Nights of sailors, princesses, murders, miracles and, of course, true love.

1001 Nights

A sparkling tradition to welcome the new year: the Residentie Orkest's New Year's Concert. This edition is all about colour, virtuosity and French flair. Under the baton of the charismatic Mei-Ann Chen, a conductor known for her sheer passion, you'll experience an evening where festive traditions and glorious music come together. Join us in raising a glass to a wonderful new year! 

New Year's Concert 

Amare

“Vivacious, funny, heroic, eloquent, plain-spoken, thoughtful, and wholly irresistible” – this was a critic’s verdict on Anders Hillborg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 after its world premiere in San Francisco in October 2023 with Emanuel Ax and Esa-Pekka Salonen: “You can’t help but love the results.” Now, this 22-minute “fascinating ball of fun,” written specifically for Ax, will be performed again by Ax and Salonen along with the BRSO. The work is flanked by Ravel’s harmonically refined, rhythmically sensuous, and melodically captivating Le Tombeau de Couperin, which is dedicated to the great French Baroque harpsichordist François Couperin, and Hector Berlioz’s aesthetically uncompromising Symphonie fantastique, whose premiere in 1830 led some to suspect that Berlioz had gone mad, while others heralded him as an icon of modern music.

Esa-Pekka Salonen & Emanuel Ax

Munich Residence

Wyatt Underhill plays Bruch

San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center

Hector Berlioz’s second symphonic work takes us to Italy. Accompanying us will be Lord Byron’s romantic hero Harold, whose voice will be Amihai Grosz, the principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic. Upon returning from the musical universe of Witold Lutosławski, we will hear Beethoven’s majestic Eroica, originally dedicated by the composer to Napoleon.

Czech Philharmonic • Simon Rattle

Joyce DiDonato has been described as “an American treasure” (Operawire), “increasingly incomparable” (New Yorker) and “a great, brave and inspiring artist – one of the finest singers of our time” (Gramophone). She brings her voice, described by NPR as “luminous, silken, flexible, full of colours and expressive shadings” to Hector Berlioz’s equally luminous song cycle Les nuits d’été (Summer Nights). Berlioz’s gorgeously intimate orchestrations embody the sound of love, both new and long lost.

Composer

Hector Berlioz

Events

Upcoming events

Aug 11, 2026

For Schools: Open Rehearsal with Fabien Gabel · Sydney Symphony Orchestra

12 - 15 Aug, 2026

Orchestral Dances with Håkan Hardenberger · Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Sep 6, 2026

Chamber Music by Three Great Masters · Det Kongelige Teater

Sep 23, 2026

Perth Concert Series: Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique · Perth Theatre and Concert Hall

23 - 25 Sep, 2026

Berlioz Symphonie fantastique · Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Past events

5 - 6 Jul, 2026

The La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra at the Colmar Festival · La Monnaie / De Munt

Jul 2, 2026

Berlioz, Messe solennelle / Dinis Sousa · Orchestre National de France

About

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