Name: Chamber Concert / Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra
Start: 2026-05-10T11:00:00
Location: Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Daniel Cho

Mario Montes

Hibiki Oshima

Petar Kostov

Markus Tollmann

Iris Icellioglu

Felix Heckhausen

Maria  Rallo Muguruza

Clara Grünwald

Kathrin Wipfler

Joanna Kamenarska

Patrick Hollich

José Silva

Jan Polle

Felix von Werder

Camille Lemonnier

Hiroaki  Taewook Ahn

Kostas Malamis

Clara Bellegarde

Jonas Burow

Bettina Rühl

Yitong Guo

Tobias Bloos

Saskia Hirschinger

Christine Hu

Hannes Biermann

Michael Dorner

Rupert Wachter

Bernd Künkele

Jan-Niklas Siebert

Daniel Burmeister

William  Philippe Costa e Sous

Yuri Katsumata - Monegatto

John Martin

Maximilian Or

Elbphilharmonie

This workshop offers a tour through the classical symphony orchestra. From the violin, cello and double bass to the trumpet and flute: participants can try them all out. And there are instruments in different sizes for youngsters and adults alike. To conclude the workshop, a little music-making session where everyone joins in shows that all the instruments harmonise.

Workshop: Klassiko Orchestra Instruments

NDR Chamber Concert

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

The soundscapes of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra's chamber concerts are as diverse as the personalities of the musicians who perform in them. The demands of the orchestra pit are often determined by the scale and diversity of voices. Chamber music, on the other hand, reduces this dimension to smaller ensembles and allows for intimate musical interaction. As in a dialogue, diverse opinions collide, new ideas emerge and develop during performance, thus opening up a creative space for spontaneous development.

Chamber Concert / Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra

The story of the opera begins with an introduction by La Musica, music itself: Claudio Monteverdi opens his version of the ancient love story of Orfeo and Eurydice, the singer whose voice could even melt death, with the prologue. Conductor Leonardo García Alarcón has this epochal work firmly in his repertoire with his Cappella Mediterranea, which specializes in early music, and says: "If life, death, love, and music are the driving forces of humanity, then L'Orfeo is perhaps the opera that best embodies them."

Monteverdi: L'Orfeo / Leonardo García Alarcón

»Illusion« and »Passion« are two basic prerequisites for the creation of music-historical milestones. Introduced by Erkki-Sven Tüür’s movements of the same name, which make excellent use of the string orchestra’s infinite textural potential, the musical arc stretches from Suite No. 3 from Respighi’s »Danze ed Arie antiche« – a combination of historical elements with the colorful splendor of the 20th century – to Haydn’s Symphony in F sharp minor.

Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn / Herbert Schuch / Risto Joost

The great Austrian repertoire, from Strauss and Strauss to Mahler and Berg, is in the best hands with Manfred Honeck, a native of Vorarlberg. And because the 2026 Hamburg International Music Festival is dedicated to the theme of "The End," Honeck will be performing the most monumental vision of the end of the world by an Austrian composer of the 20th century at the opening concert: Franz Schmidt's setting of the apocalypse, "The Book with Seven Seals." Outstanding singers and choirs are a must here.

Franz Schmidt: The Book with the Seven Seals / Manfred Honeck

Following his Elbphilharmonie debut with the Balthasar Neumann Choir and Orchestra, conductor Lionel Sow returns with the choir at the Hamburg International Music Festival. The French conductor will be able to showcase his passion for the German-language choral repertoire and, in keeping with the festival's theme of "The End," has developed a concert program centered around the musical fascination with death and final things.

Balthasar Neumann Choir and Soloists / Lionel Sow

The Crimean Tatars and the Ukrainian people: an unprecedented history of political and cultural solidarity that continues today in times of war. And this also applies musically – with the Trio Yuşan Zillya, two Tatar musicians in exile in Lviv meet a Ukrainian singer.

Yuşan Zillya Ensemble

"Work and structure" were the most important factors that sustained Wolfgang Herrndorf during his three-year cancer illness. In his blog of the same name, the author of the best-selling novel "Tschick" documented and commented on his experiences and thoughts about death. Following a concert stream in 2022, these final words can now be experienced live as a reading with music – at the Hamburg International Music Festival, which, fittingly, will be held under the theme "The End" in 2026.

Ensemble Resonanz / Birgit Minichmayr / Riccardo Minasi

Khatia Buniatishvili is famous for her highly emotional playing and for fully illuminating the inner dramas of the works she interprets. The program of her concert with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields provides the perfect setting for this. Even the opening works by Jean Sibelius, his famous "Valse triste" and the ethereal "Scene with Cranes," are taken from incidental music. Joseph Haydn's Farewell Symphony tells its own unique drama: the resourceful composer supposedly conceived the work specifically to subtly hint to his employer that the orchestra musicians would like to finally take a vacation. And there's no doubt that the solo concerts of the brilliant opera composer Mozart also contain a fair amount of drama.

Khatia Buniatishvili / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Since the 2023/2024 season, Frenchman Pierre Bleuse has been chief conductor of the Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain. As the successor to great musicians such as Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös, he is thus the full-time guardian of modernism. NDR audiences have already experienced the trained violinist at the "Elbphilharmonie Visions" festival in 2025, among others. Now, as part of the Hamburg International Music Festival, Bleuse has compiled a program of 20th-century works whose common denominator is its complexity.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Pierre Bleuse

When Franz Schubert wrote his Octet in 1824, he created a new eight-person ensemble that has endured to this day. The Scharoun Ensemble was founded in 1983 for this work and consists primarily of clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass. The members of the Berlin Philharmonic are among the most exciting chamber music ensembles and are constantly expanding their repertoire with new works—as is the case in this concert, dedicated to the 100th birthday of Hans Werner Henze.