Embark on a captivating musical journey with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra as they present a series of riveting performances from February to May 2026. With a repertoire that spans heroic myths, operatic shocks, and Scandinavian influences, this series promises an immersive experience through the masterful interpretations of renowned conductors and performers. Discover the narratives that challenge notions of heroism, delve into Strauss's dramatic 'Elektra,' and explore the rich cultural tapestry of the Baltic Sea region. Each event offers a unique blend of classical compositions and innovative renditions, creating an unforgettable celebration of music and storytelling.

Exploring Epic Narratives: The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Series

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NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alisa Weilerstein / Alan Gilbert

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Whether it’s »Hedwig«, »Nimbus 2000«, »Dobby«, »Gilderoy Lockhart«, »Aunt Marge« or the magical »Night Bus«: the characters and stories of the »Harry Potter« series are world-famous. And the great film scores by John Willimas have also been taking young and old on journeys to magical places and daring adventures for decades. In this family concert, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra plays highlights from the films »Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone«, »Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban« and »Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets«.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

In 2025, the "Waltz King" Johann Strauss II would have celebrated his 200th birthday – and this, of course, deserves a fitting celebration outside of his native Vienna. The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra is dedicating its New Year's Eve and New Year's Day concerts to the man of seemingly inexhaustible creativity. The North German orchestra thus joins the Viennese tradition of t

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Katharina Konradi / Manfred Honeck

Hamburg's former General Music Director Simone Young has always championed the works of Austrian composer Franz Schmidt. She traces her fondness for his music back to her years in Vienna, where Schmidt is a staple of the repertoire. In the north, however, Young was the first in a long time to revive Schmidt's monumental oratorio "The Book with Seven Seals." For her guest conducting engagement with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, she now brings Schmidt's rarely heard Second Symphony in E-flat major to the table.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Simone Young

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Gautier Capuçon / Simone Young

When Sergei Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto was first performed in September 1913, with the composer at the piano, the audience was furious: "To hell with futuristic music. Cats on the roof make better music." Prokofiev bowed as if being applauded – and played an encore. Over a century later, what today's ears consider a rather "moderate" concerto, which begins with an almost romantic theme and features the most difficult solo cadenza of all time, has long been recognized as a masterpiece. The jubilation for soloist Alexander Gadjiev is surely genuine. This is the first time the polyglot pianist, born on the Italian-Slovenian border, has appeared with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alexander Gadjiev / Gergely Madaras

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Konstantin Krimmel / Andris Poga

"No one else has managed to fill music with such meaning and consistent beauty." That's what Herbert Blomstedt says about Anton Bruckner. And his countless admirers say it about Blomstedt, who has filled the concert halls of the world with his humble interpretations, his unpretentious personality, and his insatiable need for musical communication for more than an incredible 70 years. The 97-year-old maestro's outstanding experience with Bruckner has already manifested itself in numerous CD recordings with various orchestras as well as in repeated Bruckner performances with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, to which he has returned regularly since his time as chief conductor. Blomstedt now concludes this series—most recently with the Sixth in October 2019 and the Seventh in June 2022—with Bruckner's Ninth and final Symphony.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Herbert Blomstedt

By the time of his residency in the 2023/2024 season, Joshua Bell had won the hearts of the NDR audience with his breathtakingly singing violin tone and flawless technique—assuming they weren't already fans of this living violin legend. Now the American returns with Camille Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3, premiered in Hamburg exactly 145 years ago (on October 15, 1880) by the then-virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate. This highly romantic, passionate piece is comparatively rarely heard, although its second movement, in particular, with its irresistibly catchy melody, is likely to be singable to everyone.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Josua Bell / Alan Gilbert

When Martin Fröst is invited as Artist in Residence with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in the 2025/2026 season, a signature piece by this extravagant clarinetist is a must: In 1998, the Swede Anders Hillborg wrote his "Peacock Tales" literally specifically for his fellow countryman. In this simultaneously humorous and highly virtuosic clarinet concerto, Fröst's exceptional talent is called upon in several ways. The soloist must not only demonstrate adeptness in all sorts of musical styles from past to present, but also act as a dancer and mime with a mask.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Martin Fröst / Alan Gilbert

Horrific beauty: The works in this concert program truly offer music to indulge in, all of them nostalgic echoes of the lush orchestral sounds of the late Romantic period. But beware: Abysses lurk beneath the harmonious facade... Bernard Herrmann's soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock's legendary psychological thriller "Vertigo" sounds for long stretches – especially in the "love scene" – as if the composer had taken Richard Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" further: pleading string gestures, sweeping harmonies, intoxicating crescendos. This music absolutely belongs on the concert stage! And only those who have the familiar images in mind must think of murder, possession, acrophobia, and perfidious deception...

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Augustin Hadelich / Juraj Valčuha

War, despair, grief, farewell, death – the works in this concert program deal with very serious matters and are therefore not exactly "light fare." Yet where can music touch us more deeply, where can we experience it more intensely than when dealing with precisely these tragically current themes? Following his cancellation in January due to illness, Maestro Semyon Bychkov returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, pairing Dmitri Shostakovich's mighty Eighth Symphony with Richard Strauss's wistful "Four Last Songs."

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Christina Nilsson / Semyon Bychkov

Classical concerts are only for nerds? The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra proves the opposite. At the birthday special, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra plays the greatest hits in music history. Many people will be familiar with the melodies from television or the cinema: the theme music from the »Hamburg Journal«, the »Ride of the Valkyries« or the »Wedding March« – music that has been guaranteed to work for centuries. For its 80th birthday, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra invites everyone who has never been to an orchestral concert – and for an unbeatable €12!

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alan Gilbert

In 2025, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester will be 80 years old – an occasion to round off the 2024/25 season with a concert programme that is far from ordinary. Founded in bombed-out Hamburg in 1945, the ensemble once set an example of humanity and community in a world shattered by war, ideology and cruelty. 80 years later, this message seems more important than ever. Iranian musician Kayhan Kalhor composed his concert »Venus in the Mirror« for »peace and friendship«, which is now being launched in Hamburg.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester / Kayhan Kalhor / Yo-Yo Ma / Alan Gilbert

On the second day of "Derrick Gee's Radio Weekender," the Elbphilharmonie's Creator in Residence invites you to a colorful program that transforms the Kaispeicher into a pop-up marketplace. Visitors can browse through the record crates of "Honey Bucket Records" and, of course, purchase the records, enjoy coffee and cake, and experiment with modular synthesizers themselves. There will also be a live podcast and, as a musical highlight, a short concert with members of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. Derrick Gee will host the afternoon and talk to musicians and guests.

Derrick Gee’s Radio Weekender

Elbphilharmonie

In the run-up to the performances of Richard Strauss's "Elektra," the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the NDR Vokalensemble, under their chief conductors Alan Gilbert and Klaas Stok, will devote a joint concert to other heroic myths in music. It becomes clear: the oft-praised heroism itself is a myth. For just as Elektra, in her supposedly self-sacrificing fight against injustice, becomes a possessed murderer herself, so too do the protagonists of this concert program "fail": Orpheus cannot free his wife Eurydice from the underworld because he is looking around for her; Napoleon, to whom Ludwig van Beethoven originally wanted to dedicate his "Eroica," tramples on the human rights he proclaimed; and Prometheus, another hidden "dedicatee" of the symphony that has itself become a myth, also makes several mistakes as the legendary originator of human civilization...

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra & Vocal Ensemble / Klaas Stok / Alan Gilbert

"Noble simplicity and quiet grandeur"? No way! With their breathtaking operatic shocker "Elektra," Richard Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal completely turned the 18th-century idealized image of antiquity on its head in 1909. Horror instead of humanism, revenge instead of a feat of glory, bloodbath instead of a flowering of culture: this one-act opera leaves no one unmoved to this day. And in terms of the musical language, Strauss and his mammoth orchestra also went to extremes in every respect.

Strauss: Elektra / Alan Gilbert

What do the home countries of all the guest artists and composers participating in this concert have in common? Denmark, Russia, Sweden, and Estonia border the Baltic Sea! And the creative potential of this cultural region is nothing short of legendary. Two of the most popular protagonists from there are now meeting with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra: the Estonian star conductor Paavo Järvi and the exceptional Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst, who has been invited as NDR Artist in Residence for 2025/2026.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Martin Fröst / Paavo Järvi

»Schumann’s music opens up a whole world of new musical forms for us, touching strings that his great predecessors have not yet touched.« This is how none other than Piotr Tchaikovsky enthused about his German colleague. In fact, Schumann – alongside Mozart and Mendelssohn – was a great role model for the creator of ‘Pathétique’, »Swan Lake« and co. In the music of the older Romantic composer, Tchaikovsky found »the echo of mysterious processes of our soul life that move the heart of today’s man.« So there are plenty of reasons to juxtapose selected works by the two »brothers in spirit«. In the Elbphilharmonie, the NDR Vokalensemble under Kaspars Putniņš, currently chief conductor of the Swedish and Latvian Radio Choirs, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under star conductor Paavo Järvi will explore this affinity.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / NDR Vocal Ensemble / Philip Mayers / Paavo Järvi

This program revolves almost entirely around William Shakespeare. After all, the English poet, with his immortal and timeless plays, has inspired more composers and genres in music history than almost anyone else. The American James Gaffigan, current General Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin, follows this trail in his return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Lawrence Power / James Gaffigan

She is passionate about the works of her Scandinavian homeland: Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund. At 36 years old, she has already conducted many of the world's most important orchestras – but the trained cellist has never before performed with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. The newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic literally extends a warm welcome ("Velkomne med æra") to Hamburg with one of her Norwegian compatriots who is relatively unknown here: Like Edvard Grieg in his time, the composer Geirr Tveitt, who died in 1981, was also interested in the folk songs surrounding his home on the Hardangerfjord and arranged them atmospherically for orchestra in his "One Hundred Folk Songs from Hardanger," Op. 151.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alexander Melnikov / Tabita Berglund

She is passionate about the works of her Scandinavian homeland: Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund. At 36 years old, she has already conducted many of the world's most important orchestras – but the trained cellist has never before appeared as a guest with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. The newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic is now celebrating her Hamburg debut with arguably Finland's biggest symphonic hit: Jean Sibelius' Second Symphony. "Like a river of small streams" – as the composer once described his organic compositional technique – in this piece, one theme after another grows from a simple three-note motif, culminating in the broad melodic flow of the triumphant finale. Immediately after its premiere in 1902, the work became a model for many other Scandinavian composers – and to this day, no other symphony by Sibelius has been able to surpass the popularity of this Second Symphony, which brilliantly bridges the gap between Romantic tradition and innovation.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Tabita Berglund

Jean Sibelius called one of his many symphonic poems "The Bard." We're never told what the piece is about. Only that it centers on a wandering poet and singer, like those found in many legends, including Norse mythology. And this bard, of course, is given his own instrument: the harp, which plays an important role in Sibelius's score. Sibelius was probably simply interested in a timeless portrait of the artist—after all, aren't he and his performers essentially all "bards"?

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Johan Dalene / Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Richard Strauss's Serenade, Op. 7, is the work of a 17-year-old. The young master was still attending high school when he completed his piece. But the famous conductor Hans von Bülow championed the work and laid the foundation for Strauss's success. After the performance, the young composer burst with pride and self-confidence: "Well, the serenade was well-received," he wrote to his father, "it was almost as successful as Weingartner's [string serenade], which is very pretty, although after Bülow, mine is the best of the three pieces [in the concerto]."

NDR Elb Philharmonic Orchestra / Vadim Gluzman / Martin Frost / Sakari Oramo

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

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

Matthias Pintscher, newly appointed conductor of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and an expert on the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, has programmed a birthday greeting and – in keeping with the music festival motto “The End” – two very different farewell works for his guest conducting engagement with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Leonidas Kavakos / Matthias Pintscher

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is, so to speak, the artistic breeding ground for many of the world's top conductors: Greats such as Adrian Boult, Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons, and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla spent crucial years of their careers leading this ensemble. Since April 2023, Japanese conductor Kazuki Yamada has been at the helm of the English musicians—and that's promising!

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Frank Peter Zimmermann / Kazuki Yamada

For his return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, American conductor Ryan Bancroft has put together a program that, with works from Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain, essentially maps out his personal professional landscape. The concert begins with a young piece from Bancroft's current musical home of Sweden: The leader of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducts a work by former NDR Composer in Residence Anders Hillborg. This all-rounder of new music wrote his sonically irresistible "Sound Atlas" on commission from the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, among others. After the triumphant premiere in 2019, the Financial Times wrote: "If Stanley Kubrick were to return for a remake of '2001' and needed a soundtrack, Hillborg would be his man."

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Ryan Bancroft

For his guest appearance with his Hamburg colleagues, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Chief Conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from Hanover, has brought a program featuring three Slavic composers. Nikolai Lugansky, a renowned Rachmaninoff expert who has released a highly acclaimed complete recording of his piano concertos, will be at the piano.

GDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Nikolai Lugansky / Stanislav Kochanovsky

He is among the absolute pinnacle of the international conducting profession: Franz Welser-Möst, current head of the Cleveland Orchestra, returns to the podium for the final crowning glory of the 2025/2026 season. The former General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera brings with him lively works that celebrate the musical culture of his Austrian homeland – and simply spread good cheer!

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

4 - 7 Feb, 2026

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra & Vocal Ensemble / Klaas Stok / Alan Gilbert

13 - 15 Feb, 2026

Strauss: Elektra / Alan Gilbert

26 - 27 Feb, 2026

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Martin Fröst / Paavo Järvi

Mar 1, 2026

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / NDR Vocal Ensemble / Philip Mayers / Paavo Järvi

19 - 22 Mar, 2026

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Lawrence Power / James Gaffigan

22 - 25 Jan, 2026

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alisa Weilerstein / Alan Gilbert

Jan 11, 2026

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

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