Join the MDR Symphony Orchestra on a celestial journey through sound and stars with their captivating series of concerts. From orchestral grandeur to choral explorations, these events showcase the creative brilliance of esteemed composers and performers. Experience Gustav Holst's 'The Planets', embark on a voyage with Philip Glass, and immerse yourself in the cinematic realms of 'Star Wars' and 'Star Trek'. With performances spanning Leipzig to Bad Lauchstädt, this musical odyssey promises a transformative experience that transcends both time and space.

A Cosmic Symphony: Exploring Space and Time Through Music

The MDR Symphony Orchestra's upcoming concert series is set to captivate audiences with an array of musical events showcasing diverse genres and cultural influences. From innovative reinterpretations of classical compositions to the vibrant sounds of American and South American music, these performances promise to be a feast for the senses. Highlighting the talents of renowned conductors, performers, and composers, each event offers a unique journey through the world of music. Join us as we explore the dynamic lineup that awaits music enthusiasts in 2025's concert series.

A Symphony of Cultures: Highlights from MDR Symphony Orchestra's Diverse Concert Series

In 2026, Saxony gears up for a significant cultural milestone - the 'Year of Jewish Culture.' This celebration commemorates the centennial of the first Saxon state association of Jewish communities. With a melange of concerts and performances, the MDR-Sinfonieorchester orchestrates a diverse musical journey across time and genres. From exploring the rich history of Jewish music to celebrating classical compositions by renowned artists, these events promise to engage and educate audiences about Saxony’s vibrant cultural tapestry.

Exploring Saxony's Vibrant Jewish Culture and Musical Heritage in 2026

In 2026, Saxony will host a 'Year of Jewish Culture,' an event that celebrates the state's rich Jewish history through various artistic expressions. From chamber concerts to orchestral galas, this initiative brings to light contributions from a wide range of talented artists and fosters a deeper appreciation for cultural heritage. Highlights include captivating performances by the MDR-Sinfonieorchester, featuring works by luminaries such as Ravel, Brahms, and Mozart, and unique themes like silent film scores and wind ensemble compositions, making this series an enriching cultural journey.

A Symphony of Culture: Saxony's Year of Jewish Culture and Beyond

It was his involvement with musical theater, music education, and his turn to historical music that led Carl Orff to his "archaic" compositional style. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he looked back and led the audience of Carmina Burana into a world of medieval songs from the 11th to 13th centuries, in which people were not afraid to attack the church and society and to praise sensual and depraved life. The evocative power of the rhythm in the music, the extraordinary use of instruments, and the declamatory vocal style have lost none of their gripping urgency to this day.

Carmina burana

Gewandhaus

This concert combines diverse approaches to compositions for wind ensembles to create an ambitious sound experience. Franz Danzi's primary intention was to establish a love for the genre among music lovers of his time. Beethoven's Septet (as a chamber music solitaire), despite its status as an occasional composition, had an unintentional influence on subsequent generations. And in Maurice Ravel's Autobiographical Sketch, he notes that the Homage des Tombeau is "directed less to Couperin alone than to French music of the 18th century."

Windspiel

Augustusplatz

Musical essays are unusual, yet the connection between music and rhetoric already exists in works of earlier centuries. Barber brings the American essay genre into a one-movement orchestral form that, while not programmatic, is nevertheless rooted in a non-musical idea. Brahms's symphonic debut, which only saw the light of day in 1876 after decades of preparation and subtly represents a reaction to the national unification of Germany, appears to have a very similar structure.

EPSG:4326

Variations

Congress Centrum Suhl

Silent films of the 1920s sought great material, and Faust offers everything a great cinema needs: a pact with the devil for eternal youth, a love story, forces of good and evil, seduction, social ostracism, and ultimately, redemption through love. Murnau's expressionistic style gave the story an impressive presentation, supported by a musical accompaniment originally composed by Werner Richard Heymann using motifs from Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Bernd Schultheis wrote a new score for the film – the score was created in 1999 and has been performed repeatedly with great success ever since.

Faust

Oper Leipzig

Gastkonzert: Herr der Ringe

Arena Leipzig

Three generations: Smetana, the father of the Czech national style, laid the foundation with the cycle "My Fatherland" in 1879. With full originality, he incorporated his folk music inspirations into it, and with sensitive instrumentation, he translated the poetry and power of his models into music. Leoš Janáček, primarily an opera composer, composed little for the concert hall—no wonder, then, that suites emerged from his popular stage works. Vitēzlav Novák, a student of Dvořák, followed in Smetana's footsteps with his symphonic poem, creating a voluptuous tonal painting of his beloved mountains.

Mein Vaterland

George Frideric Handel composed his Messiah, which tells the Christian story of salvation in three parts, between 1741 and 1742. Mozart's version was written for a performance in Vienna in 1789; he adapted Handel's composition to suit contemporary audiences' tastes, ensuring its greater success. He replaced the English text with a German translation and altered the instrumentation to better reflect contemporary sound ideals. He incorporated the latest developments in playing technique and instrument making, and employed the newly invented clarinets. Mozart left the composition untouched—a sign of his respect for the master from Halle/Saale.

Mozarts Messias

Theater Erfurt

Explaining his orchestral arrangement of Brahms's First Piano Quartet, Arnold Schoenberg told a music critic: "1. I love the piece. 2. It is rarely played. 3. It is always played very poorly because the better the pianist, the louder he plays, and you can't hear anything from the strings." In the end, Schoenberg created a new soundscape that develops a completely unique appeal without denying its origins. Complemented by Brahms's own arrangement of the Liebeslieder Waltzes and Richard Strauss's setting of Goethe's Op. 14, this program is conducted by Giuseppe Mengoli, one of the most versatile young conductors of our time.

Lieben Sie Brahms?

Ravel's Piano Concerto was written for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the First World War. The paradoxical sonic power with which the soloist performs in this virtuoso concerto is all the more remarkable – with exaggeration, parody, and the constant impression of two hands on the keyboard. Almost ten years earlier, La Valse portrayed the glorious collapse of society dancing to its doom. Pēteris Vasks depicts the opposite path: his response to the loud, garish, and chaotic is silence, to which he ultimately returns – his premonition of eternity.

With Left

Gastkonzert Wernigerode

Konzerthaus Liebfrauen Wernigerode

In 2026, the Free State of Saxony will celebrate a statewide "Year of Jewish Culture" – 100 years after the founding of the first Saxon state association of Jewish communities. Under the title "Tacheles," projects, events, and exhibitions will make Saxony's rich Jewish culture and history, past, present, and future, as well as irretrievable losses, visible and audible for a year. Our chamber concert also addresses this theme, featuring well-known and lesser-known compositions from a wide variety of genres spanning approximately one hundred years of Jewish musical creation.

Tacheles

Like the MDR Symphony Orchestra, our chamber music series focuses on Joseph Haydn—particularly on the compositions he composed during his two stays in England in 1791/92 and 1794/95. This includes a selection of folk song arrangements from Scottish and Welsh sources, as well as two of the four so-called London Trios for two flutes and cello. The program is complemented by the incredibly charming Harmoniemusik from Mozart's Don Giovanni, arranged by Joseph Triebensee around 1810. Incidentally, the Bohemian composer and oboist himself participated in the premiere of The Magic Flute under Mozart's direction.

Wiener Klassik

What would a New Year's Eve be without the immortal melodies of Johann Strauss? Our New Year's concert program doesn't stop there, but focuses on the significant role of the waltz in music history. Under the expert baton of Florian Ludwig, the musical champagne will certainly bubble over in a program that conveys joie de vivre and entertainment in equal measure. Actor, singer, and avowed operetta fan Max Müller will lead the audience through the colorful program with a wink, offering numerous samples of his artistic diversity. Here's to a Happy New Year 2026!

Alles Walzer!

What would a New Year's Eve be without the immortal melodies of Johann Strauss, especially at the end of the anniversary year of his 200th birthday? Our New Year's Eve program doesn't stop there, but focuses on the significant role of the waltz in music history. Under the expert baton of Florian Ludwig, the musical champagne will certainly bubble over in a program that conveys joie de vivre and entertainment in equal measure. Actor, singer, and avowed operetta fan Max Müller will lead the audience through the colorful program with a wink, offering numerous samples of his artistic diversity. Here's to a Happy New Year 2026!

New Year's Eve Concert

Josep Vila i Casañas, the new chief conductor of the MDR Radio Choir, captures the spirit of Christmas with music from various regions of Spain. The main work of the concert is "Nit de Nadal" (Christmas Eve), an oratorio by one of Catalonia's most important composers and musicians, Joan Lamote de Grignon. He composed it at the turn of the 20th century based on poems by the Catalan composer Francesc Casas i Amigó, combining folk music elements with a post-Wagnerian style to create a moving, musically late-Romantic narrative about the events of Christmas Eve.

¡Navidad!

When the first candle burns on the Advent wreath and bright strings of lights begin to glow in the windows, when the calendar doors are gradually opened and the kitchen smells of cinnamon stars, gingerbread, and almond cookies – then it's Advent. And, of course, familiar Christmas melodies also put us in the mood for the festive season. That's why the MDR Children's Choir is touring with concerts, especially in the run-up to Christmas. For many years, it has been a tradition for the MDR Children's Choir to awaken anticipation of Christmas in its broadcast area with cheerful, contemplative songs.

A Thousand Stars

Kaisersaal

The world comes together in this atmospheric choral concert and celebrates an international Christmas together. The MDR Children's Choir takes you far beyond Germany's borders and, with Christmas compositions from around the world, explores the festive customs of other nations. Wherever Christmas is celebrated, this special festival has its own unique sound. And everywhere, it has left its mark on all stylistic levels: The elaborate choral setting is as much a part of the Christmas repertoire as the simple folk song. Thus, the global concert presents the good news in a multilingual and colorful way, allowing Christmas carols to resonate in a new guise.

Sind die Lichter angezündet

King Albert Theater Bad Elster

A Christmas classic: Tchaikovsky's music for the ballet "The Nutcracker." E.T.A. Hoffmann's story of a memorable Christmas Eve, where dream and reality merge, isn't danced, but narrated. When the toy soldiers march, the Sugar Plum Fairy begins to dance, the battle against the Mouse King rages, and Marie travels with the Nutcracker through the Sugar Plum Fairy's kingdom, the music begins and enchants the audience, not least thanks to the great linguistic artistry of the actor Wanja Mues, who is also well-known in Central Germany.

Nutcracker

Festhalle

Dreieinigkeitskirche Zeulenroda

The MDR Radio Choir brings together singers from 13 different countries on four continents. Each country naturally has its own musical Christmas traditions, and so the idea arose to combine selections from this international repertoire in a chamber concert. Look forward to a colorful program, the first part of which opens with a musical setting of the Grimm fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel," which is closely associated with the Christmas season in Germany.

Hänsel & Gretel

In 1852, Robert Schumann composed the Missa sacra for church services – a work that expresses not a denominational but a universal religious sentiment. The motet "Do Not Despair," initially described by Schumann as a "religious hymn," was first performed on July 4, 1850, for a secular occasion – the 25th anniversary of the St. Pauli University Choir in Leipzig. Haydn's Fifth London Symphony demonstrates the composer's independence from courtly taste and circumstances: He presents this work with pathos, earnestness, passion – and, unusually, in a minor key – thus forging a programmatic link back to Schumann.

Verzweifle nicht!

Beethoven's "Symphony of Destiny" breathes the spirit of revolution, both artistic and political, and has become a musical symbol of humanity's liberation from darkness into light. Isang Yun's fanfare resounds like a warning cry, followed in the memorial by memories and visions of the future. In this composition, Yun also creates a symbiosis of Western European and Korean musical traditions, which is what makes his work unique. Karl Amadeus Hartmann composed a warning with his Concerto funèbre, written after the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1939: He sensed that even darker times lay ahead.

Fate

Almost 100 years ago, Fritz Lang's Metropolis confronted moviegoers with a dystopian glimpse into an imaginary future: In a futuristic city, people live in two strictly segregated classes: the workers and the rich. They are held in check by a totalitarian power structure, robots are replacing humans, and machines threaten their very existence – themes that have not lost their significance. The new score for the film was written by American composer Jeff Beal, author of numerous soundtracks, including those for House of Cards and Monk, whose rich musical experience as a jazz musician, classical musician, and composer was incorporated into the film.

Metropolis

Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Halle

A colorful French accent permeates this program by Italian conductor Riccardo Minasi: Maurice Ravel's famous "Tombeau de Couperin" is a reminiscence of the composer's 150th birthday, and Claude Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" – originally a piece for Vaslav Nijinsky's scandalous ballet of the same name – is considered a milestone of musical impressionism. Before that, however, Riccardo Minarsi and the MDR Symphony Orchestra delve into the sound world of Joseph Haydn, whose imaginative musical thinking ventured into new compositional realms in the genre of opera, but especially in symphonic music.

Distraction

Guest Concert in Bad Lauchstädt

Goethe Theatre Bad Lauchstädt

This chamber concert is entirely dedicated to French music, ranging stylistically from the romantic sound language of Camille Saint-Saëns to the colorful creations of the Impressionists Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel to the haunting yet contemplative prayer settings of St. Francis of Assisi by Francis Poulenc. Members of the MDR ensembles showcase their versatility and artistic range in this program – a listening pleasure à la française!

À la française

His era's enthusiasm for the oratorio genre also inspired Antonín Dvořák, who significantly advanced the national tone poem in this genre. The plot of The Ghost Bride is taken from a popular ballad by the Czech poet Karel Jaromír Erben: A pious girl longs to be reunited with her lover, who was lost in the war. Having fallen in battle, the latter seeks her out as an undead bridegroom and attempts to lead the bride to eternal damnation. Seemingly on her way to him, she is gradually forced to discard all signs of her faith. But in the end, her faith prevails and saves her from the realm of the dead.

Love & Damnation

Never has the creation of the world been captured in music in a more vivid and exciting way: Joseph Haydn's entire compositional artistry, skill, and innovative power flowed into his creation. It reflects the ideas of the Enlightenment, whose focus is no longer God, but rather humanity as a mature being. While influences from Handel are evident musically, Haydn's orchestral treatment already reaches into 19th-century realms. With this concert, Josep Vila i Casañas assumes his position as the new Chief Conductor of the MDR Radio Choir.

Creation

Music by Johann Sebastian Bach and his second-eldest son forms the focus of this concert program. In the second half of the 18th century, Carl Philipp Emanuel's compositions were on everyone's lips, whereas his father's now-famous works had largely been forgotten. Although the relationship has since reversed, the music of Bach's son, with its lightness and profound charm, exudes the magic of its era—and, not least, represents a significant contribution to the development of the symphony up to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

Bach & Sohn 2

The diverse chamber music activities of the musicians of the MDR Symphony Orchestra provide a charming complement to the numerous major symphony concerts. In both smaller and larger ensembles, this repeatedly results in programs of great charisma and appeal. In this concert, the program centers on Antonín Dvořák's Wind Serenade – a work with which the Bohemian grandmaster Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart successfully paid homage.

Serenade

Kurhaus Bad Schmiedeberg

This program features the award-winning violinist Cosima Soulez Larivière in the atmospheric ambience of the Weißensee Church. The young French violinist has received several prestigious scholarships (including from the German National Academic Foundation and the Young Artists Foundation) for her exceptional talent and will enchant her audience with two solo concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach & Sohn 1

Kulturkirche Weißensee

Playing in a piano trio is one of the most demanding chamber music challenges, because the ability to listen and to rein in one's own ego are, even more so than in larger ensembles, the basic prerequisites for a successful interpretation. TaSte-Re (the name is formed from the initials of the participating musicians) has dedicated itself to this artistic balancing act for many years. And even the most important composers have always been tempted to prove themselves in this difficult genre. Joseph Haydn, with more than 30 works, pioneered the genre. The German and French Romantics added further milestones: Mendelssohn's C minor Trio is among the most popular of all time, and Chausson's composition achieved a beautiful synthesis of Romantic tradition and dazzling Impressionism.

Klassik im Trio

Goldener Löwe

This concert features members of the MDR Symphony Orchestra together with the Stiehle-Lucaciu duo, performing arrangements by Andres Reukauf and Peter Lawrence. The duo, Sascha Stiehler (piano/presentation) and Antonio Lucaciu (saxophone/vocals/presentation), represents a unique fusion of classical, pop, and jazz. The musicians tell the stories of everyday life, lying on the sidewalk, waiting to be discovered – more with their instruments than with their voices. As renowned musicians on the German music scene, the two Leipzig natives have already performed with music greats such as Clueso, Daniel Hope, Max Prosa, Günther "Baby" Sommer, Elif, and Sarah Lesch, and have appeared on numerous TV shows.

New flights: Duo Stiehler/Lucaciu

Konzert- und Ballhaus Neue Welt

The Wartburg Castle's ballroom, with its romantic decor and unique acoustics, is the perfect setting for this piano evening. With Franz Liszt's paraphrase of "Tannhäuser," the French-Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin makes direct reference to Wagner's opera, which is performed here several times a year at the authentic venue. Alongside other works by the Romantic composer, who lived for a long time in nearby Weimar, the program includes Franz Schubert's penultimate piano sonata, one of the most important works of the genre—it places enormous demands on the soloist's creative power and virtuosity. Experience the perfect symbiosis of music and space on this evening.

Legendary: Marc-André Hamelin

Wartburg

The MDR Symphony Orchestra and organist Denny Wilke form a delightful sonic alliance in this program: Both perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, including the famous Passacaglia in C minor and the equally famous Orchestral Suite in B minor. The program is complemented by Franz Schreker's atmospheric Intermezzo and Edvard Grieg's Suite, Op. 40, a stylistically charming return to the Baroque period, which the composer intended as a homage to the Danish-Norwegian poet Ludvig Holberg.

Bach plus

Stadtkirche St. Wenzel

Twenty years ago, Kolsimcha began playing traditional klezmer music at Jewish weddings, and even then, they developed the concept of "Contemporary Klezmer," combining Eastern European musical traditions with jazz and classical elements. Flute, clarinet, piano, double bass, and percussion create stylistically open, distinctive soundscapes beyond all common klezmer clichés. Together with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, they explore diverse musical traditions around the world.

Klezmer jetzt! - Kolsimcha

Congress Centrum Neue Weimarhalle

When the 100-year-old MDR Symphony Orchestra teams up with a young, yet already distinguished, conductor and a young, enchanting soprano, the best entertainment is guaranteed! Vilmantas Kaliunas and Leonor Amaral are among the rising stars of the international classical music scene. The versatile Portuguese soprano and the Lithuanian conductor delight with a cheerful program full of classical hits – a truly stimulating mix!

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Stadthalle Stern Riesa

Franz Schubert was considered by his friends and contemporaries primarily a gifted composer of piano and lieder, yet from the very beginning he strove for the grand form of the symphony. Several unfinished attempts testify to the difficulties he encountered along this path of development. In a letter to his friend Leopold Kupelwieser in 1824, he declared that he intended to "pave the way to the symphony" with the help of instrumental chamber music works, including the octet. By adding a second violin to Beethoven's septet, he achieved an almost orchestral richness of sound, which, together with the work's structure reminiscent of Mozart's divertimenti, exerts an incomparable appeal on listeners.

Brahms & Schubert 2

Schloss Köthen

Two treasures from 19th-century literature promise a feast for chamber music lovers at this concert in the Pößneck Schützenhaus, performed by members of the venerable MDR Symphony Orchestra. Initially viewed with suspicion by publishers, Brahms' String Sextet quickly proved to be a true bestseller and paved the way for its creator to achieve compositional fame. This remained eluded to Franz Schubert during his lifetime. Thus, his Octet, in its special scoring for clarinet, horn, bassoon, and strings, had to wait until 1872 before it was first publicly performed in its original form.

Brahms & Schubert 1

Schützenhaus Pößneck

Works by Astor Piazzolla, Edvard Grieg, Johan Halvorsen and Omar Massa as well as Norwegian folk songs in arrangements for Hardanger fiddle and bandoneon.

Nord & Süd

Fürst Pückler Park

The MDR Music Summer opens its 34th concert series in the European Capital of Culture 2025 with a brilliant opening. In collaboration with the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Chemnitz, soprano Fatma Said, and Omar Massa on the bandoneon, the MDR Symphony Orchestra presents a colorful program characterized by South American sounds, in which the bandoneon, whose origins lie in 19th-century Chemnitz, plays a prominent role. Marcus Merkel, one of Germany's most exciting young conductors of our time, assumes the overall musical direction.

From Chemnitz to the World

Theaterplatz

We conclude the concert season with Bernstein, Gershwin, and Glass, three icons of American music. Bernstein's first musical from 1944 is brimming with edgy rhythms, jazzy harmonies, and blues-tinged melancholy—the dances are the musical essence. Before Bernstein, Gershwin had not only chosen a revolutionary theme in his opera "Porgy and Bess"—it's about love and survival in a Black neighborhood—but also incorporated the music of his protagonists, such as spirituals, blues, and jazz, into the composition. Morton Gould arranged this "American Folk Opera" for the concert hall. In 2023, the MDR Symphony Orchestra and Maki Namekawa premiered Philip Glass's new piano concerto with great success—it can now also be heard in Suhl and Leipzig.

America

"Reference and contradiction" could be a pair of terms that could be used to describe both works in this program. In Kapustin's work, the tension lies in the fusion of classical form and jazz idiom. "Here, the classical element carries more weight for me. The jazz style is merely color," the composer said of his now famous String Quartet Op. 88. Béla Bartók's Piano Quintet, on the other hand, draws on two traditions: that of Hungarian folk music and the compositional style of Johannes Brahms. In contrast, the Hungarian composer's newly developed harmony already points to the stage work "Bluebeard's Castle," composed seven years later.

MDR-Kammerkonzert

Leopold Stokowski, a great admirer of Bach, examined his works under the microscope and, with the aid of modern instruments, "magnified" the Baroque master's sound world into an orchestral experience. Taneyev, on the other hand, demonstrated an affinity for historical compositional styles, whose polyphonic compositional artistry even inspired admiration from his teacher Tchaikovsky. The cantata, little known in this country, tells of the last hours of John of Damascus in a haunting choral-symphonic movement. In contrast, Shostakovich chose a very secular theme for his cantata, which, in a historicizing way, was a parable of the brutal oppression in his time.

Kantaten

Louis Philippson focuses on composers such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov, engaging creatively with them. The resulting works—"Beethoven Virus," "Dancing Bee," "Piano Concerto No. 1 Variation," and "Für Elise Variation"—are on the program, as are his reinterpretations of hits such as "The Winner Takes It All," "Por Una Cabeza," and Vittorio Monti's "Csárdás."

Louis Philippson LIVE

Dmitri Kabalevsky was one of the politically inconspicuous, yet highly popular Soviet composers, as his first cello concerto exemplifies. Composed between 1948 and 1949, lyrical passages predominate, with flashes of Russian and Middle Eastern folk music. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, on the other hand, is a work in which the composer struggles for his artistic and physical survival. After sharp party criticism of his opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk," the new symphony was intended to demonstrate his aesthetic pliability. Shostakovich achieved a brilliant balancing act: He composed an ostensibly "folk" work that, concealed behind artful compositional techniques, did not skimp on critical depictions of reality.

Guest Concert

Kursaal Bad Lauchstädt

In his 6th Symphony, Tchaikovsky breaks with tradition: no triumphant final movement relieves the oppression of the preceding outbursts and distorted waltzes. The beautiful facade crumbles, mercilessly revealing the discouraging reality that repeatedly assails Tchaikovsky's inner world. Bernstein, on the other hand, makes his theme clear right from the title. In the face of two world wars, the Cold War, and the nuclear threat, the literary source for the symphony, the essay of the same name by HD Auden, depicts people's anxiety and restlessness, but also their fearful search for identities and ideals—a theme of depressing topicality.

Soul life

With his most famous composition, Gustav Holst takes us through the imaginary spheres of space and characterizes the planets - more mythologically than astronomically. In Philip Glass' opera "The Voyage" the journey also leads into space - far beyond the horizon that Holst still considered unattainable. The selected opera excerpts raise two central questions: Stephen Hawking, the scientist, ponders the possibilities of overcoming boundaries, both physical and mental; the commander of the spaceship and the inhabitants of another star ask themselves what and who awaits them at the destination of their journey. Adventure, discovery - we wish you an exciting start into the year 2025!

Planets

Off into a new year, off into space! On New Year's Eve, the MDR Symphony Orchestra and MDR Radio Choir will embark on a musical journey to the stars. In addition to Gustav Holst's "Planets" and Philip Glass' "The Voyage", the program includes film music that will take you into the infinite expanse of space: ET, the extraterrestrial flies home with music, and fans of the legends of "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" will also get their money's worth.

ARD New Year's Eve concert

The tradition of Christmas oratorios continues in Howard Arman's composition. The Revelation of James, a gospel that was not included in the Bible, reports events surrounding the birth of Christ that do not appear in Matthew and Luke. Mary, not Jesus, is the focus of a vivid, dramatic and almost theatrical narrative. Chorales and motets from the 17th century are woven into Arman's composition and form the musical responses to the events narrated. The Leipzig audience thus encounters Howard Arman once again as a composer. But his skills as an arranger are of course not neglected in this concert either, as his versions of popular Christmas carols always provide acoustic surprises, which are not without a good dose of English humor.

Christmas Concert

When the first candle burns on the Advent wreath and bright fairy lights start to shine in the windows, when the calendar doors are gradually opened and the kitchen smells of cinnamon stars, gingerbread and almond biscuits - then it is Advent. And of course there are also familiar Christmas melodies that get us in the mood for the festivities. That is why the MDR children's choir is on tour giving concerts in the run-up to Christmas. For many years it has been a tradition to arouse anticipation of Christmas everywhere in the broadcast area with cheerful, serious and contemplative festive songs.

MDR-Sinfonieorchester

Jun 28, 2026

Carmina burana

Jun 19, 2026

Windspiel

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