Stuttgart is set to become a hub of musical excellence with a series of captivating performances orchestrated by the Staatsorchester Stuttgart. From a delightful lunchtime concert to family-friendly techno, classical chamber music, and engaging song recitals, this line-up promises a diverse blend of genres and experiences. Whether you're a seasoned music enthusiast or a curious newcomer, these events provide a remarkable opportunity to dive into the world of music, offering enriching experiences for all ages.

A Symphony of Events: A Journey Through Stuttgart's Musical Landscape

Experience a musical journey like no other with Stuttgart’s Staatsorchester as they present a diverse array of events ranging from the Lunchtime Concerts and the ambient Tea&Techno to captivating Song Recitals and energetic chamber music performances. These events not only spotlight the artistic prowess of renowned musicians but also offer unique experiences for families and music enthusiasts alike, fostering a deeper connection with classical and contemporary music. Join us as we explore these vibrant events that promise unforgettable moments for audiences of all ages.

Stuttgart’s Symphony of Events: From Chamber Music to Family Fun

Get ready for a vibrant mix of musical experiences courtesy of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart. From the soothing Lunchtime Concerts at the Opera House to the family-friendly Tea&Techno sessions, each event promises a unique auditory adventure. Notable highlights include a thrilling Robin Hood musical, a showcase of chamber music genius with works by Mozart and Bartók, and captivating song recitals featuring acclaimed vocal artists. The series culminates with the Sparda Klassik Open Air, celebrating community and the joy of music under the stars.

A Melodic Journey: Unveiling the Diverse World of Staatsorchester Stuttgart's Upcoming Events

The Staatsorchester Stuttgart invites you to an array of musical events that promise to enrich your artistic senses. From Lunchtime Concerts offering a refreshing musical break in the grand foyer of the Opera House to intimate Song Recitals at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart featuring remarkable talents like Rachael Wilson, Ida Ränzlöv, and Atalla Ayan, each performance is crafted to captivate. Also, don't miss the Sparda Klassik Open Air, a delightful outdoor event at Höhenpark Killesberg, where music meets the open sky.

Harmony in Stuttgart: A Series of Captivating Concert Experiences

Immerse yourself in a series of captivating musical events presented by Staatsorchester Stuttgart. From the intimate Lunchtime Concerts in the Staatstheater foyer to the vibrant Sparda Klassik Open Air, there's something for every music lover. These events showcase the immense talent of artists like Ida Ränzlöv, Atalla Ayan, and Cornelius Meister, set against the backdrop of Stuttgart's finest venues. With a mix of recitals and open-air performances, these events promise an enriching experience for audiences of all ages.

A Symphony of Events: Discover the Musical Offerings by Staatsorchester Stuttgart

Experience the harmonious convergence of soulful recitals and dynamic open-air performances in Stuttgart. With standout performances by Ida Ränzlöv, Atalla Ayan, and a grand open-air concert led by Cornelius Meister, these events promise a musical celebration like no other. From the refined notes of song recitals to the family-friendly Sparda Klassik Open Air, the Staatsorchester Stuttgart offers an exquisite blend of tradition and innovation, making June and July 2025 months to remember.

A Symphony of Voices: Stuttgart's Celebrated Song Recitals and Open Air Music Event

A 25-year-old romantic idealist who, with unbridled self-assurance, made both the sensual pleasures of life and transcendence after death tangible in music: that was Richard Strauss. With his tone poems Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration, he stirred up the music world around 1890. His late-romantic sound paintings caused both enthusiasm and consternation among audiences. A quarter of a century later, Franz Kafka wrote his groundbreaking novel The Trial. Ivan Danko’s composition Process musically captures the bizarrely oppressive atmosphere there. The deliberately Kafkaesque choice of solo instruments by our Composer in Focus, namely oboe, Wagner tuba and harpsichord, contributes to this. Following the successful Prague premiere in 2024 on the 100th anniversary of Kafka’s death, Danko’s Process will be performed for the first time in Germany in Stuttgart. Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue KV 546 is the link between Strauss’ and Danko’s metaphysical questions in this program.

EPSG:4326

2. Symphony Concert

Beethoven Hall (Beethovensaal)

Joseph Haydn shows his entertaining side in the best sense of the word in his famous Trio in G major, which he composed in London in 1795. Haydn had been Kapellmeister at the court of the Esterházy family for almost thirty years. There he also became acquainted with original Hungarian dance music, which he presented to the delighted London audience in the last movement of the trio, the Rondo all’Ongarese. Zoltán Kodály had a completely different view of Hungarian folk music. He did not look for the temperamental element in it, but rather - like his colleague Béla Bartók - discovered a “Hungarian style“ on his research trips, “free of any sentimentality” and “superfluous ornamentation”. This is exactly what Kodály adopted in his second string quartet, which he composed between 1916 and 1918: a work of great seriousness and almost archaic power. In his Piano Quartet No. 1, on the other hand, Johannes Brahms indulges in Hungarian folklore, which the Hamburg-born composer also revived in his Hungarian Dances. In the final Rondo alla Zingarese of his quartet, Brahms sets sparks flying.

2. Chamber Music Concert

Liederhalle Cultural and Congress Center

In no other music do the horns blare so joyfully and magnificently as in Robert Schumann’s Concert Piece in F major. Born in Zwickau, Schumann composed the work in Dresden in 1849, at the time a center of the German revolutionary movement. As Schumann noted, the political turmoil sparked his creative powers, as the jubilant sounds of his concert piece testify. A highlight of Sylvain Cambreling’s work as General Music Director of the Stuttgart State Opera from 2012 to 2018 was the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s opera Erdbeben. Träume. From this work, the Japanese composer has put together an orchestral suite in which he reminds us of the extent to which (natural) disasters demand humility from life on our planet. Human destiny is at the very heart of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. The Russian Romantic composer considered “the whole of life“ to be “an incessant alternation of harsh reality with fleeting dreams of happiness“. And this is exactly what he turned into music with his Fourth, unleashing powerful storms of life as well as conjuring up islands of idyll.

1. Symphony Concert

Goran Jurić presents a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Alexandra Goloubitskaia on the piano.

1. Song Recital

Stuttgart Opera

Enjoy a musical lunch break in the foyer of the Opera House - personally designed by the musicians of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart and the Staatsopernchor Stuttgart.

Lunchtime Concert

Joseph Haydn, the light-footed Viennese classicist? This does not apply to his String Quartet op. 20 no. 5. The colorful key of F minor alone suggests something profound. This quartet also makes you sit up and take notice with its musical themes and great harmonic surprises. “Haydn’s, Mozart’s, Beethoven’s quartets, who would not know them, who would throw a stone at them?“ Robert Schumann wrote these words full of admiration in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1842. Studying the classical masters inspired him to try his hand at the royal genre of chamber music. Within two months, Schumann composed three tenderly romantic string quartets. He even needed only ten days for the third in A major. The first three movements are floating, almost ethereal, before the finale comes along full of dance and temperament. The 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy provided a talented sample of stupendous aplomb with his String Octet in E flat major. In its brilliance, balanced quality and exuberant sonority, this work is one of the fantastic musical miracles of the 19th century.

1. Chamber Music Concert

English, Czech, German, French, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Italian, Greek and Turkish. These are the languages that will be sung in the premieres of the 2025/26 season. That’s quite a lot. But when you consider that people from more than 50 nations work at the Stuttgart State Theatres, that’s probably not even a fraction of the languages that are spoken here. Opera as a genre, on the other hand, has a world language in music with which it can communicate universally, directly and across language barriers. The opening concert with the State Orchestra, the State Opera Chorus, the ensemble and guests on the first day of the new season will focus on a wide variety of music from home. And the great thing is: when music, experiences and memories are shared, they become more, not less.

Musik von Zuhause

With Gustav Mahler's monumental Eighth Symphony, Cornelius Meister and the State Orchestra continue their Mahler cycle and, together with eight vocal soloists, the children's choir and the State Opera Choir, bring the symphony concert series to a crowning conclusion. Shortly after completing the score, Mahler said in 1907: "The symphony must be like the world. It must encompass everything". This central credo for Mahler is reflected in the variety of forms and musical characters of his Eighth Symphony. Baroque fugue techniques can be found in it as well as a tonal language influenced by Richard Wagner. The first and only two performances during his lifetime were Mahler's greatest triumph. After the premiere in 1910, Thomas Mann commented that Mahler embodied "the most serious and sacred artistic will of our time".

7. Symphony Concert

A (hopefully!) balmy summer evening and the most wonderful music in a relaxed atmosphere: the Sparda Klassik Open Air will take place for the second time on the Killesberg in July 2025. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart and GMD Cornelius Meister present an entertaining yet challenging program for the whole family. This year, we have invited over 1,000 primary school children from the "SingGrund" project (singing elementary schools Filderstadt) as special guests. A program by Monika Grauschopf, who, like us, is convinced that singing together is one of the best ways to make this world a better place - and therefore helps every primary school child in Filderstadt to sing for an hour a week. This year, their big final concert is the prologue to our summer concert.

Sparda Klassik Open Air

Höhenpark Killesberg

Atalla Ayan presents a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Alan Hamilton.

6th Song Recital

The Staatstheater Stuttgart

Ida Ränzlöv presents a recital program in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, accompanied by Cornelius Meister.

5. Song Recital

Galería Estatal de Stuttgart

Cornelius Meister and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart are once again performing a symphony cycle this season.
Following the complete Schumann and Brahms symphonies, the last six Mozart symphonies and symphonies by Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky, the focus is now on the only four major symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. His First, written at the age of 15, was premièred at the Mendelssohn home for his sister Fanny's birthday. This was followed in 1830 by the so-called "Reformation Symphony". However, as it only appeared in print posthumously in 1868, it was given the number 5.

6. Symphony Concert

Rachael Wilson presents a recital program in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, accompanied by Simon Lepper.

4. Song Recital

This symphony concert marks the second time that the Stuttgart State Orchestra has invited its partner orchestra, the Baden-Württemberg State Youth Orchestra, to a joint concert in the Liederhalle. At the first concert on Sunday 27 April, the State Youth Orchestra will perform together with musicians of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart and british conductor Kerem Hasan Ludwig van Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3. Pianist Alexander Melnikov, who has already performed in renowned concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall and Toppan Hall in Tokyo, will then interpret Sergei Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.

5. Symphony Concert

After the premiere of his Quintet in E flat major at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his father Leopold that the new work received "extraordinary acclaim" and added: "I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life." Free from any genre traditions, he achieved a congenial success with the innovative combination of four wind instruments and a piano. Mozart uses the five instruments, whose voices are closely interwoven, in a very nuanced manner. The Piano quintet by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók also premiered in Vienna, albeit 120 years later. Shortly before, he had completed his composition studies with Brahms’ friend Hans Koessler in Budapest. In addition to the clear influence of Johannes Brahms, some of Bartók’s individual traits can also be recognized in this late Romantic work, such as the tonal steps and rhythms derived from Hungarian folk music, which are characteristic of his later style. Between the two quintets, Bartók’s captivating Romanian Folk Dances can be heard in a version for flute and percussion.

7. Chamber Music Concert

A musical adventure with Robin Hood and his companions from Sherwood Forest - colorfully set to music by Thomas Dorsch, excitingly narrated by Jens Wawrczeck, known from the radio play series The three Investigators

Robin Hood

The violist Rebecca Clark, born in London in 1886, is one of England’s most important composers. When she anonymously submitted her Sonata for Viola and Piano, which is characterized by dense harmonies, intoxicating emotions and a high degree of virtuosity, to a competition in 1919, the jury assumed that Maurice Ravel was the composer. The fact that a woman was behind such a phenomenal work was inconceivable to the jury at that time. Almost a century later, Thomas Adès, one of the most frequently performed composers of our time, was also born in London. In his piece Catch from 1991, he plays with different combinations of the four instruments. The clarinet takes on the role of a wanderer: sometimes it is far away from the other instruments, sometimes it joins them. Adès’ piece is followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet, which premiered at the Vienna Burgtheater in 1800. Its six-movement structure goes back to courtly light music, but the symphonic features go far beyond. The work was already a public favorite in Beethoven’s time.

6. Chamber Music Concert

In the touching piece Music for Fleeting Birds, written in 1977 for wind quintet, the Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks gives nature a voice, as he does in many of his other works. Some of the sounds are reminiscent of the calls of migratory birds flying away, heralding the darkness and cold of winter in Latvia. Niels Gade, one of the most important Danish composers of the Romantic period, who was a close friend of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann, follows. The latter recognized a "decidedly distinct Nordic character" in Gade’s music. His novelettes for piano trio were particularly popular among lovers of sophisticated domestic music. Carl Nielsen, one of Gade's students, whose wind quintet from 1922 forms the conclusion of the concert, was also known as the "Danish Strauss" due to his symphonic works. The Trio by Trygve Madsen, one of Norway’s most versatile contemporary composers, whose music is also influenced by jazz, blends in between the two Danish composers.

5. Chamber Music Concert

A few months after the birth of his son Siegfried, Richard Wagner composed the Siegfried-Idyll with which David Afkham and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart open this symphony concert. It was premiered as a birthday present for his wife Cosima in the stairwell of their villa in Tribschen. Wagner noted in the score: "Tribschen idyll with Fidi birdsong and orange sunrise." Anton Bruckner, eleven years his junior, was a great admirer of Wagner. His Fourth Symphony, which he gave the nickname "Romantic", was his long-awaited breakthrough. Shifting between dreamy passages and waves of dramatic intensification, it heads towards a radiant finale.

3. Symphony Concert

In the foyer of the opera house, Claudia Muschio, Itzeli Jáuregui, Charles Sy and Johannes Kammler present an entertaining and varied evening of songs from the Italian bel canto repertoire. The ensemble singers will be accompanied by Vlad Iftinca on the piano.

3. Song Recital

At the turn of the year: highlights from operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jacques Offenbach, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet and Richard Wagner.

New Year's Concert

Franz Schubert composed his String Trio in B flat major, which, like his Symphony in B minor, remained a fragment. Together with his early string quartets, the string trio was also intended for music-making within the Schubert household: his brothers and his father played violins and cello, he himself played the viola. Some 60 years later, in his first string quartet Bedřich Smetana looks back on his life and describes both the happy moments of his youth and the "inevitable fate" of his deafness. The jubilant movement of the finale breaks off abruptly and a high note is heard in the 1st violin, with which Smetana translated the beginning of his hearing loss into music. The quartet ends in a resigned mood, without a glimmer of hope. Russian Late Romantic Anton Arensky broke up this classical quartet formation with his String Quartet No. 2, in which he played the cello instead of the violin. He composed the quartet in 1894 in memory of his deceased friend Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky. In addition to funeral hymns from the Russian Orthodox liturgy, the quartet also contains variations on Tchaikovsky’s children’s song Legenda.

4. Chamber Music Concert

The Notations span the life's work of French composer Pierre Boulez, who is regarded as one of the central figures of New Music after the Second World War. In 1945, he first created his 12 Notations for solo piano - a debut work consisting of twelve pieces of twelve bars each with a clear connection to the twelve-tone technique. Around three decades later, Boulez expanded the miniatures for piano into the powerful-sounding Notations for orchestra, which are characterised by an expressionist intensity and a melodic and rhythmic complexity. Under the direction of Cornelius Meister, who was once Boulez's assistant, this key work of New Music will be combined with Anton Bruckner's eighth Symphony.

The Goldberg Variations for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, published in 1741, represent the height of the Baroque art of variation and are performed in a version for string trio in this concert. The opening Aria is followed by a total of 30 variations based on the bass line introduced at the beginning. In the last variation, Bach contrapuntally interweaves the folk songs Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir gewest and Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben and combines them with the bass of the Aria. Artistic variations and the use of a simple song can also be found in Joseph Haydn's so-called "Kaiserquartett" dating from 1797. The 65-year-old composer incorporated his previously composed song Gott! erhalte Franz, den Kaiser into the second movement of this string quartet, which is one of his late works. This melody, on which Haydn based four variations, is known today primarily as the German national anthem. Around 40 years after the string quartet was composed, August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote his Lied der Deutschen, the third verse of which now serves as the text of the German national anthem and is sung to Haydn’s popular melody.

3. Chamber Music Concert

Esther Dierkes and Björn Bürger present a program of songs in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Götz Payer on the piano.

2nd Song Recital

The members of the International Opera Studio present a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompagnied by Vlad Iftinca.

Louise Farrenc was the first woman to receive a piano professorship at the renowned Paris Conservatory. Born in 1804 into a family of artists belonging to the Parisian Bohème, she was supported in her musical career from a young age. Her popularity as a composer was rather unusual in the male-dominated musical world of the 19th century. Her music was performed, published and discussed in reviews. Encouraged by the premiere of her Nonet, in which the star violinist Joseph Joachim was performing, she insisted upon receiving the same salary from the conservatory as her male colleagues - with success. Clara Schumann was only 15 years younger than Farrenc and her Trio op. 17 from 1846 is her greatest work of chamber music. As her husband Robert had not yet composed a classical trio at the time, she was able to express herself freely in this area without being exposed to the often inhibiting comparison with her husband. Her trio captivates with expressive themes and a touching melancholy. The concert opens with the yearning sounds of the trio composed by Charles Koechlin around 1900, who was a fellow student of Maurice Ravel at the famous Paris Conservatory.

The encounter between different cultures is at the centre of the 1st symphony concert. Mischa Tangian composed the piece The Order of Time for percussion and orchestra especially for this concert, in which European and non-European musical cultures meet. The sound of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart is combined with the sound of non-European musical instruments, played by soloist Roshanak Rafani and members of the Babylon Orchestra. 

 Beethoven Hall (Beethovensaal)

It starts with blue: with water and the sky. But blue also continues with toys, toothpaste and the odd flower. Together we welcome what is perhaps the most beautiful colour of all - a musical meditation in German and Arabic.

Hello Blue

Nord / JOiN (Junge Oper im Nord)

In his Serenade No. 6 dating from 1950, the American composer Vincent Persichetti combines two string instruments with a trombone, sometimes engaging them in an animated conversation, sometimes in a dreamy indulgence. This piece is followed by Gustav Mahler’s piano quartet, which was composed during his student days and is his only surviving work of chamber music. Apart from sketches for a scherzo only the first movement of the work has survived, which in this concert meets Alfred Schnittke’s piano quartet referring to Mahler’s quartet fragment. In this work, composed in 1988, Schnittke attempts to "remember something that did not come about (...), a sound quality that could not be thought through to the end." Mahler’s quartet sound shimmers through dimly, but is strongly alienated by clusters and polyphonic structures. The open end also gives Schnittke’s quartet the character of a fragment. The final piece is the colorful String quartet in D major by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, marked by its turn-of-the-century harmonies.

Fall asleep at the opera? Yes. A relaxed ambient techno concert not only for small children, but also for parents who need a break.

Tea&Techno

When Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky was relaxing on Lake Geneva in 1878, the idyllic setting inspired him to write one of his most beautiful works, the Violin Concerto in D major. The young violinist Mira Foron returns to the Stuttgart State Orchestra with this audience favorite. Two years ago, she thrilled the audience in the Liederhalle with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. David Philip Hefti pursues a different solo concerto concept with Final(ment)e for two trumpets and orchestra. The work was created in 2021 as an atmospheric reference to Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, but is to be understood as an independent composition. Hefti initially has the soloists play at some distance from the orchestra, which results in an “intentional blurring of the interplay“. The composer works with a wide range of timbres, which he enhances by using flugelhorns, C trumpets and a piccolo trumpet. The ten Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms, which are played after the interval, are also dazzling. The Viennese by choice from Hamburg landed indestructible hits with them – as glowing as they are rousing.

Michael Nagl presents a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Vlad Iftinca on the piano.

2. Song Recital

With radiant orchestral songs by Richard Strauss and thrilling dances by Antonín Dvořák, Edvard Grieg and others.

New Year’s Concert

What do Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius and Alexander Zemlinsky have in common? They studied with Robert Fuchs at the Vienna Conservatory. His own work faded behind the success of his students. With his Terzett in A major in the rare instrumentation for two violins and viola, Fuchs shows himself to be an admirer of Brahms. Hans Gál, born in Lower Austria in 1890, was also inspired by Brahms. He studied in Vienna and taught there at the New Conservatory. After fleeing from the National Socialists, Gál lived in Great Britain. His Quintet for clarinet and string quartet, composed in 1977, oscillates between late Romanticism and almost classical transparency. The program concludes with one of Franz Schubert’s great chamber music works, his Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major. The Viennese composer completed it in 1828, the year of his death, and the symphonic structure of this work went beyond the usual framework. Great music between lightness and epic depth.

This chamber music concert spans a wide range from the Baroque to Viennese Classicism and Czech Modernism. Jan Dismas Zelenka and Johann Friedrich Fasch were contemporaries of Johann Sebastian Bach. Zelenka came from Bohemia and worked at the Saxon court in Dresden, while Fasch, from Thuringia, worked briefly in Prague. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Cello sonata in G minor in Berlin and dedicated it to King Frederick William II of Prussia. The last two works on the program take us back to the Czech Republic. Leoš Janáček’s Pohádka tells the Russian fairy tale of Tsarevich Ivan and Princess Marya in a rhapsodic tone. Bohuslav Martinů initially studied in Prague and moved to Paris in 1923. There he absorbed various musical influences: the esprit of the Groupe des Six, the formal rigor of Igor Stravinsky and the nonchalance of jazz.

In 1874, Bedřich Smetana had a great idea: he planned a cycle of symphonic poems with which he wanted to pay tribute to his native Czech Republic. No sooner had the decision been made than a devastating fate befell him: within a few months, Smetana lost his hearing. His despair is great – but his will to assert himself as a composer is even greater. And so he set to work writing the symphonic poem Vyšehrad. According to legend, the hill beneath this Prague castle rampart is the seat of Princess Libuše, the progenitor of the Czech nation. Smetana tells this story with two harps – as if the medieval bard Lumír were singing his eternal song. The second piece in the cycle, The Moldau, is one of the most famous works not only by Smetana, but in classical music in general. A portrait of the Bohemian Amazon queen Šárka is heard in the third piece: an audibly cruel creature. From Bohemian Fields and Groves reveals the beauty of the composer’s native landscape. Tábor is dedicated to the turbulent history of the Czech Republic at the time of the Reformation. In Blaník, the sixth symphonic poem, Smetana depicts the mountain of the same name, where an army of knights awaits its heroic deployment. Conductor Dennis Russell Davies, General Music Director of the Stuttgart State Opera in the 1980s, has a special affinity with all the Czech legends and places.

4. Symphony Concert

Adam Palka presents a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Yuri Aoki on the piano.

What moved Dmitri Shostakovich deeply at the end of his life was expressed musically in his last work. Although he found it more than difficult to write, he put his Viola Sonata op. 147 down on paper - a work in which he looks back on his often painful life full of melancholy. Our Composer in Focus this season is Ivan Danko. His composition Frustration of the Tolerance is inspired by the painting of the same name by Slovakian artist Albin Brunovský and moves between expressive drama, quiet fragility and a hint of folkloristic motifs – an exploration of inner turmoil and the attempt at balance. In his Piano quintet No. 1, Antonín Dvořák does not yet appear as the Czech national composer he has become known as. This music is highly romantic, full of opulent harmonies and rapturous gestures.

Esther Dierkes and Björn Bürger present a recital program in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, accompanied by Cornelius Meister on the piano.

Dance has a special significance in all cultures. With his Four Black American Dances, the American composer Carlos Simon shows how important dance is for the black communities in the USA in particular. Simon has chosen four examples: a ring shout, a waltz, a tap dance and finally a holy dance, in which the exuberant forms of expression of black Protestant denominations come to life. Equally gripping are Erwin Schulhoff’s Five pieces for string quartet, in which the Prague-born composer takes up fashionable dances of the 1920s. In the version for large orchestra by Manfred Honeck and Tomáš Ille, the rapid rush of sound in these miniatures is immediately captivating. Antonín Dvořák traveled from Prague to the USA in 1892 to help establish an original American art music. Not only did he give his Symphony No. 9 the title From the New World, he also incorporated harmonic and rhythmic elements from indigenous and black music cultures. Manfred Honeck, General Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart from 2007 to 2011, will return to the podium of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart as guest conductor for this concert.

Court Kapellmeister – a title that composers were extremely keen on until the 19th century. At the Danish court in Copenhagen in 1861, it was Niels Wilhelm Gade who was delighted to be appointed to this position. It was during this time that he composed his Piano Trio in F major op. 42 – a work in which he audibly recalled the period of his life in Leipzig, during which he was the Gewandhaus Kapellmeister and associated with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann. Ernest Bloch, whose works are influenced by Jewish musical traditions, was both a reconciler and an admonisher of music. His second violin sonata, titled Poème mystique, is impressionistic in tone and alternates between meditative and highly expressive passages. In it, Bloch combines Jewish melodies and synagogue chants with Gregorian chorales from the early Christian church. In 1899, the string octet by the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn aroused the ambition of George Enescu, who was only a little older at the time. The Romanian composer maximised the sonic power of this large string ensemble with sweeping melodic arcs and intense furor.

Moritz Kallenberg presents a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Rita Kaufmann on the piano.

Nino Rota had every reason to be happy in 1973 – at least for a short time: his music for Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Godfather was initially nominated for an Oscar, but was suddenly removed from the list. During this time, the Italian composer wrote his clarinet trio, which shows him from both a romantic, yearning and humorous side. Rota did win the Oscar two years later. The melodic arcs in the Phantasy Quintet by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams are shrouded in mist. These elegiac sounds blend 16th and 17th century idioms with moments of English folk song. Just as Vaughan Williams transformed his most successful film music for Scott of the Antarctic into his seventh symphony, Erich Wolfgang Korngold incorporated music from many films into his concert music. The sonorous passion so typical of his style also pervades his large-scale Piano Quintet in E major op. 15, where exuberant intensity and eruptions of sound alternate with the most delicate lyricism and airy sentiment in the smallest of spaces.

The members of the International Opera Studio present a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Vlad Iftinca on the piano.

6. Song Recital

Cornelius Meister and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart conclude their multi-year Gustav Mahler cycle with three concerts. Since 2018, they have performed all nine of the Viennese composer’s symphonies together. In just one week, the Stuttgart Liederhalle offers a unique overview of Mahler’s symphonic oeuvre: from the world-embracing First to the tragic Sixth and the pensive, introspective Ninth.

6. Symphony Concert(s)

The enchanting symbiosis on a balmy summer evening: classical music in the open air! The Staatsorchester Stuttgart offers a festival of sound for the citizens of this city. Just listen and enjoy!

Summer Concerts

Mozart’s Symphony No. 32 in G major is one of his shortest contributions to this genre. He probably used it as an overture for the opera La villanella rapita by his Italian contemporary Francesco Bianchi. Mozart contributed not only overtures, but also arias to stage works by other composers. Soprano Claudia Muschio presents two of these together with conductor Lothar Zagrosek, who is once again leading the Stuttgart State Orchestra almost twenty years after his departure as General Music Director. Anton Bruckner was deeply impressed by Mozart’s somnambulistic ability: “I deeply admire Mozart and try to preserve his clarity and beauty in my own work.“ The Austrian Romantic surprised his contemporaries with this confession. Throughout his life, Bruckner was accused of not structuring his compositions clearly enough. As a result, he reworked almost all of his nine symphonies several times. A rare exception is his Seventh, which was immediately well received. Bruckner succeeded in creating an exceptionally balanced work - with impressive themes and dramatic progressions.

Staatsorchester Stuttgart

7 - 8 Dec, 2025

3. Symphony Concert

Dec 18, 2025

2. Song Recital

Jan 1, 2026

New Year’s Concert

Jan 28, 2026

3. Chamber Music Concert

Oct 9, 2025 - Jun 16, 2026

Lunchtime Concert

23 - 24 Nov, 2025

2. Symphony Concert

Nov 12, 2025

2. Chamber Music Concert

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