Name: Classic Open Air 2026
Start: 2026-08-08T20:00:00
Location: Luitpoldhain

Jonathan Darlington

Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra

The Black Pirate (USA 1926) – eight decades before Captain Jack Sparrow sailed through southern climes, Douglas Fairbanks portrayed an adventurous and daring privateer in The Black Pirate (German: Der Seeräuber ) – already familiar to some from the Robin Hood film, which the Symphony Orchestra presented in January 2022. This time, Fairbanks invites you to a true gem of early cinema – with buried treasure, exploding sailing ships, a romance with a beautiful girl, extraordinary stunts, and the capture of greedy treasure robbers! What more could you want? The Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the centenary of The Black Pirate with the European premiere of both the restored film version (Museum of Modern Art, 2023) and the new film score by Robert Israel (2023), who wrote a melodic swashbuckler score à la Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner and John Williams especially for this film, which is in no way inferior to Fairbanks' artistic triumph on screen.

THE BLACK PIRATE Silent film with live orchestra

Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds

Music to dream of faraway places! Our program takes you into the vibrant, richly colored, and unfathomable world of the Orient, as great composers of the past have timelessly captured it musically – as a magical, exotic realm full of beauty and irresistible temptations. Right in the overture to his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart trumps it with a blaring "Alla Turca." Abduction? Seduction! Rimsky-Korsakov's Symphonic Suite Scheherazade , named after the beautiful princess and seductive narrator of the oriental tales from One Thousand and One Nights , is enchantingly magical . And the Orient also resonates in Rachmaninoff's hit Piano Concerto in C minor – in a theme that evidently fascinated Miklos Rózsa while he was working on his film score for Ben-Hur . The soloist is Russian pianist Dmitry Masleev, who thrilled the symphony audience in October 2023. Eduard Topchyan, conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, will conduct.

Rachmaninov And Scheherazade

Meistersinger Hall

No Rhythm, No Music, No Fun! is a truly cool show lasting roughly an hour! On various percussion instruments—marimba, vibraphone, drum set, pipe drum, cajon, cowbells, surdo, castanets, and many more—the Drum Twins play well-known melodies from classical, pop, and film. They explain the importance of rhythm in music, how to recognize time signatures, the role of tempo and instrument choice in composers, and how to clap along properly! And the audience gets involved, introducing the individual pieces, learning simple rhythms as body percussion, and (hopefully) laughing along a lot. The Drum Twins are both professional orchestral percussionists and regularly perform on the world's major stages. With this concert, they want to share their enthusiasm for music and, above all, for rhythm.

No Rhythm, No Music, No Fun!

. He is an internationally celebrated grand seigneur of the conductor's baton, a universally respected veteran conductor: Thomas Sanderling, born in 1942 in Novosibirsk. In 2017, he became head of the city's symphony orchestra, but resigned in 2022 in protest against Putin's invasion of Ukraine. In our Russian program, he conducts the overture to Borodin's national opera Prince Igor , the rarely heard Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 – with the Chinese-Canadian star pianist Sheng Cai as soloist – and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9, with whom Sanderling was friends. The work is a bold, even cheeky surprise package. After the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War in 1945, the officials in the USSR, especially Stalin, were expecting a monumental socialist "Super-Ninth"—with soloists, choir, and large orchestra modeled on Beethoven's "Ninth." But instead, Shostakovich composed a witty, sparkling neoclassical symphony, imbued with the spirit of Haydn and simply declaring: "Hurrah, the war is over!"

Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich

It was perhaps the first oratorio concert and also the first classical open-air concert in post-war Germany. Almost a year before their official founding, on July 29, 1945, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, under the name Konzertgesellschaft, performed Haydn's oratorio The Creation with the Nuremberg Teachers' Choir (LGV) in the ruins of St. Sebaldus Church, which was missing its roof and spires. The vocal soloists came from the opera house, and the conductor was Karl Demmer, then head of the LGV. It was like a dawn from darkness into light. In commemoration of this legendary event, The Creation is on the program of our double concert in March 2026. Also performing: a top-class solo ensemble and the Nuremberg Concert Choirs. Chief Conductor Jonathan Darlington will be conducting.

80 Years Of Nsym: Haydn's Creation

A musical journey full of memories: The overture from The Magic Flute opens festively and energetically, followed by the passionate first movement of Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor – with Chiaya Kakutani at the piano. The famous Adagio from Mozart's C major Concerto touches with its timeless beauty and inner peace. The Nutcracker Suite evokes childhood and Christmas, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel bridges the gap to the world of fairy tales, before the rousing potpourri from the musical Im weißen Rössl (The White Horse Inn) sets a cheerful mood. Susanne Hoch, with Leonhard Kreutzmann conducting the program with heart and sensitivity.

Concert For People With Dementia, Relatives And Everyone

Small Meistersinger Hall

Hans Sachs Choir Nuremberg

Finnish world music, fiery Finnish tangos, light-footed swing sounds, spirited jenkkas, and much more—that's Uusikuu. They serve up a vibrant mix of musical delights under the Northern Lights and, together with the symphony orchestra, celebrate a feast of rousing rhythms, deep emotions, romance, and drama. Far from the genre's melancholic roots, their Vintage Sounds of Finland pays tribute to the country's dance music from the 1930s to the 1960s, with occasional nods to the 70s and 80s. And as die-hard Eurovision fans, they can't resist weaving in humorous references to the legendary competition! Come join Uusikuu's musical picnic, where happiness is served in bite-sized melodies, and everyone is invited to sing along!

UUSIKUU Vintage Sounds of Finland

Guest In The Meistersingerhalle Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

Perhaps one day you'll proudly tell your children: "Back then, in the spring of 2026, I heard him with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra! He was still very young, just at the beginning of his career!" Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, born in 1999, is a Canadian pianist with European roots—to some, he's the new Lang Lang. In recent years, he's collected first prizes in piano competitions like other people collect postage stamps, most recently at the prestigious Leeds International Competition. He's celebrated everywhere—for his outstanding technique, for his charisma, for the depth of his interpretations. Simply incredible! Here, he'll play Liszt's strikingly virtuosic First Piano Concerto, flanked by Tchaikovsky's Pathétique and the Silk Road Fantasy by contemporary Chinese composer Jiping Zhao, famous for his many film scores. Guoyong Zhang, Music Director of the Shanghai Opera and Chief Conductor of the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, conducts.

Liszt Piano Concerto And The Pathétique

John Williams's score for Star Wars is universally known, especially the main title. However, not many are aware that this soundtrack has a model, indeed, that it would be almost unthinkable without it. John Williams drew heavily on it. It is Gustav Holst's suite " The Planets ," the most colossal space music of all time, which we supplement with original space images from NASA and ETA. In our program, it is evocatively paired with a symphony by the German-British contemporary of Haydn, William Herschel, who, in addition to being a hobby composer, was one of the most important astronomers of his time: in 1781, he discovered the planet Uranus , and in 1789, he constructed a telescope of previously unknown dimensions. The concert highlight between the symphonic planetariums: the sparkling percussion concerto by the American composer and multi-percussionist Andy Akiho. The soloist is Jacob Nissly, principal timpanist and percussionist of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. At the podium is fellow American Tito Munoz, chief conductor of the Phoenix Symphony.

Holsts Planets And Drum Concert

Do you love Brahms? Ever since the film of the same name starring Ingrid Bergmann, Yves Montand, and Anthony Perkins first flickered across screens in the 1960s, the world melts away when the Poco Allegretto from Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 3 sounds. It is music of truly agonizing beauty and intensity—made of pure love and longing, melancholy and renunciation. José Carreras sang the words " Close to me" to it , and in a semi-symphonic, light music arrangement, it became the Symphony of Love . For Clara Schumann, the wife of Robert Schumann—Brahms's great mentor and friend, but also their rival in the struggle for Clara's love—this music was like "a gray pearl, surrounded by a tear of melancholy." Schumann's profound, only violin concerto dates from this difficult, final period in his life. It's rarely heard, and few have it in their repertoire. Our soloist does: Baiba Skride, Latvian star violinist, who has toured the world with the elite conductors and orchestras for years and first appeared with us in 2004.

Schumann And Brahms

For your 2026 calendar: The 2026 Klassik Open Air with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Jonathan Darlington!