The European Orchestra Academy is a joint initiative between the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) and the European Union Youth Orchestra, founded under the visionary guidance of Iván Fischer. This prestigious program provides talented young musicians from around Europe with invaluable orchestral experience alongside the BFO, while also offering them the opportunity to perform as chamber ensembles across numerous European countries.

Masterclass of the European Orchestra Academy – Closing Concert

BFO Rehearsal Hall

The Budapest Festival Orchestra will conclude its guest tour in Bad Kissingen with a vibrant and colorful program. The concert will open with a choral work by Fanny Mendelssohn, a talented member of the Mendelssohn family who remained unrecognized, as orchestra members are keen a cappella singers and committed to the oeuvre of rarely performed composers. After the orchestra musicians, Gramophone Award-winning Julia Fischer’s violin from 1742 will take center stage. The soloist for Beethoven’s lone, grand violin concerto is not only a violinist: she is also a pianist, a quartet player, an instructor and the founder of a youth orchestra. As a reviewer wrote, “She has a pure tone, impeccable intonation, and immaculate technique, but she also has a warm heart and a radiant soul”. The concert will be concluded by the serene symphony of Johannes Brahms, written when he had finally stepped out from Beethoven’s shadow.

Tour: Mendelssohn Hensel, Beethoven, Brahms

Regentenbau

A true legend will take the stage with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The grande dame of the piano, the “priestess of art,” Elisabeth Leonskaja, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in 2020, has received the highest distinctions in both Austria and Georgia, and was the winner of a competition at the age of 19 before a jury led by Arthur Rubinstein. She later performed in duo with Sviatoslav Richter while conquering the world’s most prestigious concert halls. This time, she will perform one of Mozart’s most popular and grandiose piano concertos, and the only one concluding in a minor key. This piece will be framed in a special manner. The concert will open with the orchestral version of Prokofiev’s chamber overture written for original Hebrew themes and conclude with a Schumann symphony inspired by pleasant experiences and calling to mind a peaceful riverside excursion.

Tour: Prokofiev, Mozart, Schumann

Experience our end-of-season Concertino event up close in an informal setting. At the general rehearsal, our supporters can gain an insight into the preparation process.

Meeting point in the foyer of the Liszt Academy between 9:30 and 9:50. Attendance at the general rehearsal is free of charge for members of our BFO Patrons club, but subject to prior registration. Registration is available on the website after logging in.

Concertino: C.P.E. Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Shostakovich, Beethoven

Liszt Academy

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Concert  at the Teatro Olimpico

Teatro Olimpico

Although Mozart didn’t dictate his Requiem to Salieri from his deathbed as depicted so dramatically in the film Amadeus, the younger composer was indeed gravely ill and did not live to finish this beloved masterpiece. But what does remain is such glorious music that we can’t do without it. Our Hungarian guests and their marvelous music director take their leave sharing one of the greatest of all Requiem settings.

Mozart Requiem

Hollywood Bowl

We are pleased to announce that the series presenting the music of the two Viennese masters continues, with Gérard Korsten returning to the BFO after 2024, once again to conduct pieces by Haydn and Mozart. Korsten, who is known for his dynamic temperament and uncompromising attitude towards sound quality, will focus this time on the horns. Depths and heights, lyricism and virtuosity, singing and fireworks, hunting and a serenade, all conveyed by the horns. It seems that Viennese classicism was full of horn virtuosos, as will be captivatingly illustrated not only by the horn concertos listed on the program but also by the two other pieces, in which Haydn and Mozart each included four horns. The soloist for the concertos will be Alessio Allegrini, who has been the principal horn of several ensembles, from La Scala Orchestra to the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Haydn–Mozart with Gérard Korsten

The Budapest Festival Orchestra takes a musical trip to the banks and into the depths of the Rhine when offering Schumann’s symphony, inspired by charming experiences and a Wagner scene. The former commemorates a peaceful riverside excursion to the Rhine, and the latter is one of the most famous scenes from the monumental opera tetralogy, The Ring of the Nibelung. The concert will feature two outstanding singers in the roles of Brünhilde and Wotan in one of the most dramatic father-daughter scenes in operatic literature. Swedish soprano Ingela Brimberg, who is very much at home in the Wagnerian repertoire, has sung the title role in numerous productions from Stockholm to Madrid to Bordeaux.

Tour: Alhambra, Granada

Patio of the Palace of Charles V

Three icons of Romanticism, an emotional intermezzo, a world-famous violin concerto and the sounds of the Rhein will make up the program of the Budapest Festival Orchestra in Montpellier. The first notes of the concert will be played in a commemoration: Brahms’s lament seeking calm will be performed in the orchestration and in memory of Victor Aviat, principal oboist of the orchestra, who passed away in May. The Mendelssohn concerto in the middle, comprising a challenging opening movement, a lyrical aria and a finale evoking A Midsummer Night’s Dream will feature the soloist Renaud Capuçon, a returning guest artist for the BFO. The former concertmaster of Claudio Abbado will use his 1737 Guarnieri violin to share the deep and nuanced tones of the piece, while displaying the virtuosity which makes him a favorite of audiences and critics. The program will conclude with a Schumann symphony inspired by pleasant experiences and calling to mind a peaceful riverside excursion.

Tour: Montpellier Capuçon, Fischer

Le Corum

Exploring new paths – this is one way to sum up the background to the three pieces offered at the concert. The concert will open with music by Schubert, who, in addition to inventing the genre of German songs – writing more than 600 of them –, after six symphonies arrived at an entirely new orchestral language, even if the piece ultimately remained unfinished. The colorful program will continue with the Bartókian Movement for Viola composed by György Kurtág, who was also searching for his own voice but had not found it just yet. The soloist will be Lawrence Power. 

Tour: Salzburg Festival

Felsenreitschule, Salzburg

Grandiose romanticism performed by one of the best orchestras in the world. Rachmaninoff and Mahler on the program of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. A song that is most expressive without words. A virtuoso piano concerto that is probably more “comfortable” than the previous one, only according to its composer. A symphony that took the genre to a whole new level. Each one is a beautiful, emotionally resonant piece. The orchestral version of Vocalise, a gem of the vocal repertoire, originally written for voice and piano, will open the concert, followed by Piano Concerto No. 3, with Isata Kanneh-Mason, who has performed at major concert halls in the world, from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, as a soloist, and recorded a number of exciting albums as a Decca Classics artist. After the interval, the orchestra will perform Mahler’s lengthy palette of emotions, his Symphony No. 1, which was premiered in Budapest.

Tour: Menuhin Festival Gstaad

Festival-Zelt Gstaad

The last cheerful sound before the world war, bringing harmony to a seemingly irreconcilable conflict and a groundbreaking string octet: this is the emotional rollercoaster offered by the Budapest Festival Orchestra to audiences in Saanen. A few months after composing his Divertimento, an unimpeded piece invoking also the looming atmosphere of war, Bartók emigrated to America. Iván Fischer reflects on the horrors of that very war, while exploring how, despite all this, we can still admire German culture. The answer is provided, among other things, by Mendelssohn’s piece concluding the concert, which is still a hallmark work in octet literature. In the cantata of Fischer, also the conductor of the concert, the soloists will be Gergely Csikota, the orchestra’s well-traveled trumpet player, and soprano Mirella Hagen, whose voice was praised by Bachtrack as “effortless and ethereal”.

Tour: Menuhin Festival Gstaad – Chamber Concert

St. Mauritius Church Saanen

Tour: La Chaise-Dieu

Saint-Robert Abbey Church, La Chaise-Dieu

A true legend will take the stage with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The grande dame of the piano, the “priestess of art,” Elisabeth Leonskaja, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in 2020, used to perform in duo with Sviatoslav Richter while conquering the world’s most prestigious concert halls. This time, she will perform one of Mozart’s most popular and grandiose piano concertos, and the only one concluding in a minor key. This piece will be framed in a special manner. The concert will open with music by Schubert, who, in addition to inventing the genre of German songs – writing more than 600 of them –, after six symphonies arrived at an entirely new orchestral language, even if the piece ultimately remained unfinished. Relationships between men and women will take center stage after the intermission. The music of Bartók’s pantomime, The Miraculous Mandarin, will come to life through a storyline that explores questions of body and soul.

Tour: Lucerne Festival Leonskaja, Eva Duda Dance Company, Fischer

KKL Lucerne

Normally the roles are clear: the orchestra sits onstage, and the audience listens from the hall. That’s where the sound blends best, of course. But it raises an intriguing question: how does the orchestra itself experience a concert, and what does the conductor actually hear? “Mittendrin” gives you the answer. You take your seat right among the musicians, who are spread out a bit more widely than usual so that extra chairs can be positioned to accommodate you as guests. Iván Fischer, a master of imaginative ideas, is now bringing to Lucerne a daytime version of the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s much-loved Midnight Music series, already well known in Hungary. 

Tour: Lucerne Festival – Mittendrinn

KKL Luzern

Normally the roles are clear: the orchestra sits onstage, and the audience listens from the hall. That’s where the sound blends best, of course. But it raises an intriguing question: how does the orchestra itself experience a concert, and what does the conductor actually hear? “Mittendrin” gives you the answer.

Tour: Lucerne Festival – Middle Stage

The rays of sun chase night away.” If there is an opera for everyone, an opera about the very essence of life, it’s The Magic Flute. For the first time since 2015, Iván Fischer will once again bring to the stage Mozart’s philosophical tale, where good and bad, light and darkness, right and wrong, courage and fear, wisdom and superstition, vengeance and mercy are juxtaposed. The opera, which is Mozart’s last work for the stage, is an initiation ceremony and a moral tale about the journey to adulthood. “It’s an inscrutable work of magical power,” says Fischer, who is particularly awed by the opera’s optimism, humor, playfulness, fairy tale-like quality, deep humanism, or, in a single word, complexity. The international cast includes Mozart specialists from the world’s leading opera houses, several of whom are already familiar to the BFO’s audiences.

Fischer and The Magic Flute

Müpa Budapest

Join us as we usher in a new season and celebrate opera, music, the marvel of the human voice, creativity, and the many-layered artistry of a genre that delights and stirs all the senses.

Iván Fischer has renewed The Magic Flute. Mozart’s opera transports us into a world of enchantment, allowing an escape from the daily grind. Join us for tasty hors d'oeuvres before the curtain rises, served in an atmosphere created by fashion designer Eszter Cselényi and unmistakably evoking the world of Mozart himself. After the opera, guests of the BFO and Müpa Budapest are invited to an informal gathering to meet the artists and creators participating in the performance. Selfies allowed! Gone will be the distance between stage and audience, and art will become tangible. An evening of connections and once-in-a-lifetime encounters.

Opera and Reception: Celebration in the Realm of the Queen of the Night

Celebration in the Realm of the Queen of the Night – Reception

For almost a quarter of a century, the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s program series for children has brought a high-quality classical musical experience to the youngest. The orchestra’s rehearsal hall not only serves experimenting with the tiniest details of the symphonic pieces to be performed, or playing chamber music, but also as the venue for educating the next generation of classical music lovers. There is no better promotion of these events than the fact that several members of the BFO’s loyal audiences came to love music at these Cocoa Concerts, with a polka-dot mug in their hands.

Cocoa Concert

Sunday Chamber Music – 1

The legendary Sir John Eliot Gardiner will conduct the Budapest Festival Orchestra for the first time! The Honorary Doctor of the Liszt Academy and multiple Grammy Award-winning conductor rose to international fame mainly through his performances of early music, but he also enjoys exploring Romantic compositions. He conducts with “boundless energy,” to borrow a characterization from The Guardian, be it Joseph Haydn or Jean Sibelius, the composers featured in his program. Although the two composers arguably have little in common, the dual threads of patriotism and cosmopolitanism run through the concert. The evening’s centerpiece is a work from Haydn’s triumphant London period, composed following his release from decades of service to the Esterházy court. The program concludes with a Sibelius symphony inspired by an excursion to Italy. With the opening piece, BFO musicians will once again demonstrate their talents as a choir with a deeply moving performance of the heart-wrenching song by the Finnish composer.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the BFO

Sunday Chamber Music – 2

Iván Fischer was requested by the Berlin Konzerthaus to compose an opera for children based on Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s world-famous picture book, The Gruffalo. The humorous opera now premieres in Hungary in translation by Ádám Nádasdy. The production is recommended for children between the ages of 3 and 10.

The opera follows the adventures of a clever little mouse who, while strolling through the forest, meets a fox, an owl, and a snake, all eager to eat him. To escape, he invents a fearsome creature called the Gruffalo, with terrible claws, terrible tusks, and, believe it or not, a particular taste for foxes, owls, and snakes. The trick works, until, quite out of the blue, a real Gruffalo appears, so our clever mouse must outsmart him, too.

After the performance, members of the audience who are brave enough will have a chance to take a picture with the Gruffalo and the other characters of this delightfully fanciful tale.

The Gruffalo – A Children’s Opera by Iván Fischer

“The rays of sun chase night away.” If there is an opera for everyone, an opera about the very essence of life, it’s The Magic Flute. For the first time since 2015, Iván Fischer will once again bring to the stage Mozart’s philosophical tale, where good and bad, light and darkness, right and wrong, courage and fear, wisdom and superstition, vengeance and mercy are juxtaposed. The opera, which is Mozart’s last work for the stage, is an initiation ceremony and a moral tale about the journey to adulthood. “It’s an inscrutable work of magical power,” says Fischer, who is particularly awed by the opera’s optimism, humor, playfulness, fairy tale-like quality, deep humanism, or, in a single word, complexity. The international cast includes Mozart specialists from the world’s leading opera houses, several of whom are already familiar to the BFO’s audiences.

“The Magic Flute is a childhood experience for everyone that accompanies them throughout their lives. Because this opera speaks to both children and adults.” Fischer shares his own experiences, as he and his brother participated in a production of the work held in the Opera House as children. Much later, the Festival Orchestra’s opera performances also traditionally began with a semi-staged production of The Magic Flute at the Liszt Academy in the early 1990s.

Winterfestspiele Baden-Baden: Fischer and Die Zauberflöte

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

“The rays of sun chase night away.” If there is an opera for everyone, an opera about the very essence of life, it’s The Magic Flute. For the first time since 2015, Iván Fischer will once again bring to the stage Mozart’s philosophical tale, where good and bad, light and darkness, right and wrong, courage and fear, wisdom and superstition, vengeance and mercy are juxtaposed. The opera, which is Mozart’s last work for the stage, is an initiation ceremony and a moral tale about the journey to adulthood. “It’s an inscrutable work of magical power,” says Fischer, who is particularly awed by the opera’s optimism, humor, playfulness, fairy tale-like quality, deep humanism, or, in a single word, complexity. The international cast includes Mozart specialists from the world’s leading opera houses, several of whom are already familiar to the BFO’s audiences.

Vicenza Opera Festival: Fischer and The Magic Flute

In the 2026–27 season, the Concertino series will return, with the BFO’s chamber orchestra offering both well-known masterpieces and unfairly overlooked works from the Baroque to the twentieth century. The ensemble, which will perform without a conductor, will be led by Daniel Bard, one of the orchestra’s concertmasters. The energetic works by Austro-Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff blend modern sounds and neoclassical elements with jazz and the dance rhythms of various national traditions. Schulhoff’s composition will be followed by one of the earliest trombone concertos in music literature, featuring Attila Sztán, the BFO’s Junior Prima Award winning musician, as soloist. After the concerto, which blends graceful elegance with structural rigidity, the ensemble will perform Handel’s ever-faster concerto grosso, composed for full string ensemble without soloists. The program will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s popular chamber piece invoking Mozart and Haydn.

Concertino – 1

In November, the concert hall of Müpa Budapest will be filled with spring birdsong. The program, which will remind us of the importance of preserving our planet, will open with the music of Einojuhani Rautavaara, the greatest Finnish composer of the second half of the twentieth century, who pays tribute to the breathtaking Finnish landscape and wildlife with a concerto composed for birds and orchestra. The closing piece will be a symphony by Beethoven, himself also a passionate nature lover. The symphony evokes memories of rural life, including a bit of woodwind ornithology. Between the two, Mozart’s final violin concerto—a fresh and colorful composition—will be performed, featuring Georgian Lisa Batiashvili as the “fearless, tonally rich and technically immaculate” (The Guardian) soloist. The orchestra will be seated under an enormous tree symbolizing the love of nature and our sense of responsibility for the natural world.

Concert for Nature

In November, the concert hall of Müpa Budapest will be filled with spring birdsong. The concert, which will remind us of the importance of preserving our planet, will open with the music of Einojuhani Rautavaara, the greatest Finnish composer of the second half of the twentieth century, who pays tribute to the breathtaking Finnish landscape and wildlife with a concerto composed for birds and orchestra. The closing piece will be a symphony by Beethoven, himself also a passionate nature lover. The symphony evokes memories of rural life, including a bit of woodwind ornithology. Between the two, Mozart’s final violin concerto—a fresh and colorful composition—will be performed, featuring Georgian Lisa Batiashvili as the “fearless, tonally rich and technically immaculate” (The Guardian) soloist. The orchestra will be seated under an enormous tree symbolizing the love of nature and our sense of responsibility for the natural world.

Concert for Nature – Storytime with Iván

Will you come at midnight and listen to some classical music while lounging on a beanbag, just an arm’s length from the musicians? This question might have sounded weird ten years ago but, thanks to the Festival Orchestra, Midnight Music has since become one of the best and most popular programs for those who have a keen interest in culture but don’t like the constraints at traditional concerts. There is no need to dress up, and these concerts won’t last for hours; instead, you can enjoy the friendly, relaxed atmosphere, made even more personable by Iván Fischer’s witty comments about the pieces being performed A community event, a party instead of a party, a memorable experience – who said classical music was boring and rigid?

Midnight Music

Castle Garden, Budapest

In November, the concert hall of the Isarphilharmonie will be filled with spring birdsong. The program, which will remind us of the importance of preserving our planet, will open with the music of Einojuhani Rautavaara, the greatest Finnish composer of the second half of the twentieth century, who pays tribute to the breathtaking Finnish landscape and wildlife with a concerto composed for birds and orchestra. The closing piece will be a symphony by Beethoven, himself also a passionate nature lover. The symphony evokes memories of rural life, including a bit of woodwind ornithology. Between the two, Mozart’s final violin concerto—a fresh and colorful composition—will be performed, featuring Georgian Lisa Batiashvili as the “fearless, tonally rich and technically immaculate” (The Guardian) soloist. The orchestra will be seated under an enormous tree symbolizing the love of nature and our sense of responsibility for the natural world.

Tour: Concert for Nature in Munich

Isarphilharmonie, Munich

A closeness to nature and birdsong run through the Festival Orchestra’s guest performance. The program, which will remind us of the importance of preserving our planet, will open with the music of Einojuhani Rautavaara, the greatest Finnish composer of the second half of the twentieth century, who pays tribute to the breathtaking Finnish landscape and wildlife with a concerto composed for birds and orchestra. The closing piece will be a symphony by Beethoven, himself also a passionate nature lover. The symphony evokes memories of rural life, including a bit of woodwind ornithology. Between the two, the program includes Bartók’s unfinished piano concerto, composed in the final months of his life, which likewise brings the murmur of the forest into the concert hall. The soloist in the concerto, the Russian-American Kirill Gerstein, has been described by international critics as a sonic poet who enchants his listeners, and as one of today’s most intelligent musical thinkers, an artist who always finds something new and interesting in music. In a spirit of love and responsibility toward nature, the orchestra will take its place beneath a giant tree.

Tour: Concert for Nature in Ferrara

Teatro Comunale di Ferrara

Tour: Concert for Nature in Antwerp

Koningin Elisabethzaal, Antwerp

Sunday Chamber Music – 3

Back to Nature – Chamber Music on Period Instruments

If it’s December 26, it’s Boxing Day, and, since 1983, it’s also the birthday of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Traditionally, however, it’s our audiences who receive the gifts. The Surprise Concert promises a truly special experience, as one can never quite know what Iván Fischer, an artist of tireless imagination, will conjure from his rich musical repertoire. Over the years, concertgoers have voted on the program and even formed a choir. There have been chamber performances and solo appearances; the music has ranged from jazz and klezmer to folk traditions. Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and contemporary styles have all had their place, and, on some occasions, listeners have even been welcomed by entirely unexpected seating arrangements.Of course, this year’s program is still a surprise, but one thing is for sure: everyone who comes and opens the present given by the orchestra will enjoy an uplifting atmosphere and captivating musical experiences.

Surprise Concert

Budapest Congress Center, Budapest

Marin Alsop returns to Budapest and the BFO after almost ten years! The American artist, who has been hailed as a pioneer for female conductors, will again treat audiences to a grandiose violin concerto and a Shostakovich symphony, this time complemented by a symphonic poem. The principal guest conductor of both the Philadelphia and Philharmonia Orchestras is a superb violinist herself, so audiences can expect a sensitive rapport between Alsop and the soloist of the evening, Serbian-French violinist Nemanja Radulović. Radulović, who has been praised for his “lyric delicacy and super-virtuosity” (The Times) and who offers a compelling blend of tradition and bold experimentation, will perform Samuel Barber’s only violin concerto, preceded by Richard Strauss’s passionate music and followed by Shostakovich’s grotesque apology, composed in 1937 against the backdrop of Stalin’s purges.

Marin Alsop and Shostakovich’s Fifth

After his concerts featuring Haydn and Mozart in recent years, Kossuth-Prize-winning conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy is now presenting a truly romantic program. The concert begins with Schubert’s overture, which was saved by the composer himself from more than one failure on stage (The Magic Harp, Rosamunde) before it became a popular concert piece. This will be followed by Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1., which explores the depths of the instrument’s soul. Éva Kóbor, the soloist for this piece, has been working with the Budapest Festival Orchestra as a member of the European Orchestra Academy since 2024. Kóbor was invited to perform after winning the ensemble’s Sándor Végh Competition as a co-winner in January 2026. The concert will conclude with Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. This music of personal struggle is a reflection of Schumann’s recovery from physical and mental illness.

Young Violinists with Gábor Takács-Nagy – 1

Sunday Chamber Music – 4

In the BFO’s early music concert, ethereal dance movements alternate with arias about burning passion. Jonathan Cohen, the orchestra’s returning guest conductor and a British expert on Baroque music, will ensure historically faithful interpretations, while Sigrid T’Hooft, an indispensable contributor to the series, will be responsible for historical gestures. The star of the night will be Vivica Genaux; the Alaska-born mezzo-soprano captured public attention with her CD featuring baroque arias associated with the repertoire of the famous castrato Farinelli. Her recordings are regarded as gems of historic performance. Genaux, a specialist in the Baroque and bel canto repertoires, captivates listeners instantly even when singing arias taken out of their original context. Following the orchestral suites with which the program opens, audiences can enjoy her beautiful voice and extraordinary technical prowess in arias by Vivaldi and Hasse, which alternate between sorrowful and fiery, lyrical and unstoppably virtuosic.

Jonathan Cohen and the BFO’s Baroque Ensemble

The BFO’s Children’s Choir is set to make its debut at a grand concert. The project, which was conceived by Iván Fischer, brings together young singers with exceptional abilities from different parts of Hungary and offers them opportunities to perform and participate in individual and group musical training sessions. The program combines the rich traditions of Hungarian choral singing with the cutting-edge educational methods of the best international schools. As part of this, the children’s choir will perform songs from different national traditions, from Hungary to Israel, Japan, and Mexico. The leitmotif of the entire selection is the conviction that we belong not only together but also to the natural world around us. The young titans will be followed by another “Titan,” Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, a composition which captures a rich palette of emotions and which premiered in Budapest (and includes a children’s song).

Fischer and Mahler’s Titan – Storytime with Iván

Two geniuses of orchestration, two masterpieces of intimate tone, and two world-renowned musicians – all in one concert. Robin Ticciati, British music director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, returns to the BFO to conduct two grand pieces from the turn of the century. The concert begins with Rachmaninoff’s first piano concerto, which blends the composer’s youthful passion and the older maestro’s experience. One could say the same of the soloist, who, according to Riccardo Chailly, possesses extraordinary musical depth and technical abilities, despite his youth. Born in 2001, Malofeev “manifests the piano mastery of the new millennium in itself” (Il Giornale). The second half of the concert offers a portrait of Strauss himself, as his tone poem A Hero’s Life is a kind of ironic musical mirror, reflecting the composer and, even more so, the world around him.

Robin Ticciati and A Hero’s Life

Sunday Chamber Music – 5

The BFO’s spring concert kicks off with works by Polish and Hungarian composers performed by Polish and Hungarian musicians. Composers Béla Bartók and Karol Szymanowski and musicians Gábor Takács-Nagy and Marta Dettlaff complement one another in friendly harmony. At the second concert of the BFO’s series introducing young violinists, conductor Takács-Nagy, who also enjoys international renown as a violinist, will put the spotlight on Dettlaff, the orchestra’s Polish academist and one of the winners of the 2026 Sándor Végh Competition. Dettlaff, who was born in 2001, will perform Szymanowski’s violin concerto, an example of “sophisticated primitivism” and a unique blend of raw folk energy and impressionistic tones. But first, the orchestra will play five folksong-like pieces by Bartók, who also returned to his roots for inspiration. The concert concludes with Schumann’s deeply moving symphony, a work which developed over the course of roughly a decade.

Young Violinists with Gábor Takács-Nagy – 2

“The Ninth,” referred to with this simple term, is a masterpiece known to everyone. Beethoven’s last, longest, and most monumental symphony is at once the embodiment of the ideas of the genius and the rebellious artist, as well as a celebration of the whole of humankind. It is a work that pushes and indeed breaks down boundaries in every sense of the word, as it incorporates into a purely instrumental genre the human voice, which sings in the finale of how “all men become brothers.” Along with Beethoven’s universal musical and philosophical ideas, audiences can enjoy the return of the BFO’s much-loved guest artists, a Swedish soprano, a Dutch alto, an English tenor, and a German bass-baritone, who will ensure that this concert, where, together with the Pan-European Choir, they will sing Schiller’s immortal lines (now the text of the European Union anthem), will traverse national boundaries.

Tour: Beethoven Ninth

The Concertgebouw

Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona

Bozar, Brussels

Konzerthaus Dortmund

Alte Oper

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg

“The Ninth,” referred to with this simple term, is a masterpiece known to everyone. Beethoven’s last, longest, and most monumental symphony is at once the embodiment of the ideas of the genius and the rebellious artist, as well as a celebration of the whole of humankind. It is a work that pushes and indeed breaks down boundaries in every sense of the word, as it incorporates into a purely instrumental genre the human voice, which sings in the finale of how “all men become brothers.” Along with Beethoven’s universal musical and philosophical ideas, audiences can enjoy the return of the BFO’s much-loved guest artists, a Swedish soprano, a Dutch alto, an English tenor, and a German bass-baritone, who will ensure that this concert, where, together with the Pan-European Choir and the Hungarian National Choir, they will sing Schiller’s immortal lines (now the text of the European Union anthem), will traverse national boundaries.

Fischer and Beethoven’s Ninth

Music of the Future – Contemporary Chamber Music

Tilting at windmills; a tempestuous love story; a tasteful collage; virtuosic minimalism; an eccentric job search; emotional turmoil and a Venetian musketeer – all wrapped in Baroque music. The BFO’s concert, performed using period instruments, will feature seven pieces by four composers. Armenian-French violinist Chouchane Siranossian will lead the orchestra’s performance of seldom played works by Telemann, Handel, Bach, and Veracini. Siranossian’s violin performances, which combine talent and research, have been described as “unique and angelic” (Gramophone), “tremendously dynamic” (The Strad), and “worthy of the spotlight” (Diapason). The cantatas will come alive through Baroque specialist Andreas Wolf’s “powerful, resonant voice with a beautiful bronze tone” (Bachtrack). And, once again, the audience will have the opportunity to enjoy the authentic period choreography of Sigrid T’Hooft, one of the most renowned experts of Baroque gestures, who has been supporting the work of the orchestra for more than fifteen years.

Chouchane Siranossian and the BFO’s Baroque Ensemble

Romance, with a capital R, the way a French and an Austrian composer understand it. The first half of the concert features Saint-Saëns’s often fiery concerto, a work that ranges across extreme emotional states. Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich called it the greatest concerto of all time. The soloist will be Nicolas Altstaedt, whom international critics have described as being in a class of his own, a great storyteller who captivates audiences with each note. After the intermission, Iván Fischer will lead the orchestra for Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 7. Over an hour long, the piece was Bruckner’s most acclaimed work. And as surprising as it may seem, Wagner provides the link between the two pieces. The conservatives described Saint-Saëns as too modern, calling him a forerunner of Wagner, while Bruckner was a devotee of his German comtemporary's music and paid homage to Wagner in several ways through his own music.

Fischer and Nicolas Altstaedt

A class A concert with a lot of Bs: the BFO is visiting Paris with one work each by Bartók and Bruckner. The first half of the concert will feature Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the one “more pleasing in its thematic material”, which was premiered in Frankfurt with the composer as the soloist. This time, Alexandre Kantorow will sit at the piano, just two days before he celebrates his own 30th birthday. The French pianist, a winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition was described by Classica as “the young tzar of the piano” and by Fanfare as no less than “Liszt’s reincarnation”. Playing Bartók with Lisztian talents seems a promising endeavor. After the intermission, Iván Fischer will lead the orchestra for Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 7. Over an hour long, the piece was the most acclaimed work of the composer, who in this composition paid homage in several ways to the art of his hero, Wagner.

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Jul 4, 2026

Tour: Alhambra, Granada

Jul 16, 2026

Tour: Montpellier Capuçon, Fischer

Aug 8, 2026

Tour: Salzburg Festival

Aug 16, 2026

Tour: Menuhin Festival Gstaad

Aug 17, 2026

Tour: Menuhin Festival Gstaad – Chamber Concert

Jun 18, 2026

Masterclass of the European Orchestra Academy – Closing Concert

Jun 13, 2026

Tour: Mendelssohn Hensel, Beethoven, Brahms

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

Jul 4, 2026

Tour: Alhambra, Granada

Jul 16, 2026

Tour: Montpellier Capuçon, Fischer

Aug 8, 2026

Tour: Salzburg Festival

Aug 16, 2026

Tour: Menuhin Festival Gstaad

Aug 17, 2026

Tour: Menuhin Festival Gstaad – Chamber Concert

Jun 18, 2026

Masterclass of the European Orchestra Academy – Closing Concert

Jun 13, 2026

Tour: Mendelssohn Hensel, Beethoven, Brahms

Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Budapest Festival Orchestra