Name: Opening
Start: 2026-03-22T11:00:00
Location: Wallraf-Richartz Museum

The Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne is set to present an eclectic lineup of ten events from February to May 2026, showcasing chamber music, choral, and orchestral marvels. Featuring compositions from musical luminaries like Beethoven, Brahms, and Holst, as well as contemporary works by Ligeti and Adès, this series promises an auditory feast. With performances held in iconic venues like the Cologne Philharmonie and Wallraf-Richartz Museum, audiences will be treated to exceptional artistry by a roster of talented musicians and conductors.

Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne's 2026 Lineup: A Sonic Journey Through Time and Space

Valentin Ungureanu

Katharina Apel-Hülshoff

Pavel Hudec

Evgenia Sverdlova

Rica Schultes

Megumi Hashiba

Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne

There's someone standing on the edge of the abyss, seeing catastrophe approaching: a composer who works with his ears for his ears knows he's going deaf. And he's already in his early 30s. "I want to seize fate by the jaws, it certainly shall not bend me down completely." So said Ludwig van Beethoven in 1801.

On the pulse

Cologne Philharmonie

" My Father Explains Our Night Sky to Me Every Saturday " ... how poor the world would be without mnemonics ! This one , about the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus , and Neptune, also belongs in our educational luggage. The celestial body Pluto is no longer on our mnemonic list; a few years ago it was deemed too small and therefore rigorously banished from the planetary sky.

Galactic

To put it bluntly, one could rightly describe Johannes Brahms's German Requiem as a misnomer. This work is not a requiem, a Catholic requiem mass in Latin, but one that is entirely devoted to the living. It is not about the deceased themselves, their journey before the throne of God, the horrors of the Last Judgement, or the anxious plea for mercy in the afterlife. Rather, it addresses all those left behind on earth, "those who suffer" and who, in their despair, need consolation.

Confidence

Opening

Wallraf-Richartz Museum

The tragedy begins with the first note. Above a pounding bass and restlessly driving strings, oboes and flutes spiral upward in painful dissonances. It is music as if a tormented soul were writhing in its agony. When the choir joins in at the climax of this monumental build-up, it sounds like a scream that is both suffering and redemption. Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion: a stroke of genius whose harsh drama still thrills and moves us today.

St. John Passion

Path means movement. And movement can take many different directions: straight ahead, of course, but also circularly, as a spiral ever closer towards a center – or conversely ever further outwards towards infinity. Paths can be traveled quickly or slowly, alone or by several people at once. When different speeds occur synchronously, then things get really exciting. As in the violin concerto by the all-round British compositional genius Thomas Adès, who can be heard several times with the Gürzenich Orchestra this season.

Fabulous

Stroke of Genius

Titanium

Bergischer Brahms

Souvenir of Florence

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

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. 

Opening

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