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7. January 2026

Kent Nagano and Jan Vogler in Frankfurt (January 2026)

On 22 and 23 January, Kent Nagano will conduct the hr-Sinfonieorchester, with Jan Vogler as soloist performing Dutilleux’s cello concerto Tout un monde lointain. The program will conclude with Schubert’s Symphony in C major.

22, 23 January Frankfurt, Alte Oper
hr-Sinfonieorchester
Henri Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain
Franz Schubert: Große C-Dur-Sinfonie

More information here.

Kent Nagano and Jan Vogler are also collaborating on Wagner’s Ring tetralogy in the historical context of the period in which it was written. The performances are based on the latest findings in Wagner research and historical performance practice. The project is part of the Dresden Music Festival’s multi-year project The Wagner Cycles (2023–2026) and is accompanied by an extensive supporting program. The world premiere of Das Rheingold took place in Dresden in 2023, followed by guest performances in Cologne, Ravello, Prague, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Lucerne. The project will continue until 2026 with performances of Götterdämmerung.

6. January 2026

Omer Meir Wellber and the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg on DLF Kultur (January 2026)

Zeitspiel 4: Haydn meets the present – now available to listen to on Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

The concert by the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by General Music Director Omer Meir Wellber, recorded at the Elbphilharmonie on 21 December 2025, will be broadcast today at 8:00 p.m. CET on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. For the 4th Philharmonic Concert, Detlev Glanert drew inspiration from Joseph Haydn’s Farewell Symphony to write a new composition. Contemporary composers have written new movements for classical works for all ten Philharmonic Concerts of the season. The “ZeitSpiele” bring fresh ideas to the music and reveal surprising facets.

On the program:

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 45 fis-Moll „Abschiedssinfonie“

Detlev Glanert: „Sinfonia“ for chamber orchestra

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 49 f-Moll „La Passione“

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 44 e-Moll „Trauersinfonie“

19. December 2025

Omer Meir Wellber’s first New Year’s Concert as General Music Director with the Hamburg State Orchestra (December 2025)

Omer Meir Wellber and the Hamburg State Orchestra invite to an extraordinary New Year’s program at the Elbphilharmonie on December 31, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. Entitled New Year’s Concert 2025, the program includes operetta classics by Johann Strauss, a world premiere, and a humorous surprise work.

The concert also marks the festive conclusion of the Johann Strauss Year, which will reach its highlight and conclusion on December 31, 2025, on his 200th birthday. Together with the orchestra, Omer Meir Wellber is focusing on a musical program between tradition and contemporary musical language for his first season.

18. December 2025

Midori (December 2025)

Violinist Midori will perform in January 2026 with cellist Antoine Lederlin and pianist Jonathan Biss in a series of chamber music evenings. The program features works by Franz Schubert, including Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898, Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, D. 929, Notturno for Piano Trio in E-flat Major, D. 897, and Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C Major, D. 934.

For decades, Midori has been a defining figure in the classical music scene. In addition to her performances with international orchestras, she is committed to music education and cultural exchange.

17. December 2025

Kent Nagano (December 2025)

After concluding his time in Hamburg, Kent Nagano is now devoting himself to new and long-standing collaborators with these exciting projects.

On 14 December 2025, Nagano will conduct a concert with the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie, featuring works by Debussy (Ibéria) and Strauss (Don Quixote) as well as the world premiere of Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier’s Caída lenta for orchestra.
The new year begins with a concert in Frankfurt: on 22 and 23 January, Nagano will conduct the hr-Sinfonieorchester with Jan Vogler as soloist in Dutilleux’s cello concerto Tout un monde lointain and Schubert’s Symphony in C major.
In February, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma and Modena is on the programme.
A special highlight will be the premiere of John Adams’ opera Nixon in China on 24 February 2026 at the Opéra de Paris. Valentina Carrasco’s production features a renowned ensemble, including Thomas Hampson and Renée Fleming.

4. December 2025

Omer Meir Wellber (December 2025)

Since 1 September 2025, Omer Meir Wellber has been shaping the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra as its General Music Director with his unique combination of tradition and bold innovation. Before Wellber ends the year in Hamburg in December, he will conduct the Wiener Symphoniker at the Wiener Konzerthaus in December – on the programm, on 4 December (Prokofiev’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 and Elgar’s Symphony No. 1) and on 5 December (Prokofiev’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2) with Yuja Wang.

Only then to finish off the year 2025 in Hamburg with concerts in the Elbphilharmonie with Haydn and Glanert (= ZeitSpiel 4) and the New Year’s Eve concert at 11 a.m. on 31 December in the Elbphilharmonie.

1. December 2025

David Philip Hefti with the Stuttgart State Orchestra: Performances of Final(ment)e – Beziehungsweisen für zwei Trompeten und Orchester (December 2025)

On 7 and 8 December 2025, the Stuttgart State Orchestra will perform the work Final(ment)e – Beziehungsweisen für zwei Trompeten und Orchester by David Philip Hefti at the Liederhalle Stuttgart. The concert will be conducted by General Music Director Cornelius Meister.

The two soloists, Alexander Kirn and Lennard Czakaj – the principal trumpeters of the orchestra – will shape, together with the orchestra, a unique interplay of sound and spatial perception. Composed in 2021, this double concerto for trumpets explores themes of encounter, distance, and the search for connection. A continuous accelerando structures the work’s three parts, culminating in an emphatic finale. Through its spatial disposition of players, the piece deliberately embraces a certain degree of acoustic ambiguity – a key element of its dramaturgy and expressive force.

These performances promise an intense live experience in which music is not only heard, but also spatially felt – driven by the energy of the orchestra and the presence of the two soloists.

More information here

24. November 2025

Third philharmonic concert in Hamburg (November 2025)

“In the 3rd Philharmonic Concert, we encounter Gustav Mahler in the vocal interpretation by Annika Schlicht and Benjamin Appl. Ella Milch-Sheriff was inspired by some of his songs to create new compositions. “I have to find the right balance ,” she says of her work, “between my position as a 21st-century composer and the texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, which come from a completely different era.”*** CHANGE NOTICE: The 3rd ZeitSpiel will be conducted by Keren Kagarlitsky, who is replacing Adam Fischer at short notice. Afterwards, the 3rd Philharmonic Concert will round off its song-like program—instead of the originally announced Concerto for Orchestra Sz 116 by Béla Bartók—with Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120.”

More information here.

6. October 2025

The new YouTube channel of the Richard Wagner Academy of the Dresden Music Festival (Oktober 2025)

The Richard Wagner Academy (RWA) of the Dresden Music Festival is pursuing its desire to continue the work of “The Wagner Cycles.” The ambitious goal of the project is the systematic reconstruction of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” from the perspective and using the methods of historical performance practice. This field of work has given rise to workshops, publications, and much more, enabling the transfer of knowledge from musicology to practice. In the future, these offerings will also be made available to young musicians and the interested public.

Thematically sorted short videos and YouTube Shorts are intended to make the artistic and scientific processes even more visible – and to take all participants and interested parties on a journey with exclusive insights, rehearsal glimpses, concert impressions, and sound samples. Find the channel here.

3. October 2025

Kent Nagano conducts Wagner’s “Siegfried” as the third opera in “The Wagner Cycles” at the Lucerne Festival (September 2025)

On September 12, Kent Nagano presents Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried” together with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln as part of “The Wagner Cycles” project.

What began in 2023 with a concert performance of “Rheingold,” continued in 2024 with “Die Walküre,” and now goes on with the development of “Siegfried,” can be considered a benchmark for Wagner interpretation. The Wagner Cycles project is dedicated to Richard Wagner’s monumental opera tetralogy in a unique combination of theoretical and practical approaches.

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