Hamburg International Music Festival

Programme highlights to close the season: in this edition of the five-week festival, the great Hamburg orchestras and star guests explore the motto »Sex, Drugs & Rock ’n’ Roll«

Elbphilharmonie
Elbphilharmonie © Thies Rätzke

Description

»It’s all about sex.« This is how conductor Leonard Bernstein once described the raw, almost physical energy of Igor Stravinsky’s scandalous ballet »Le sacre du printemps«. Just one of many examples in which supposedly lofty classical music ventures boldly into realms more commonly associated with rock and pop. So when the Hamburg International Music Festival adopts the motto »Sex, Drugs & Rock ’n’ Roll« this season – marking the Elbphilharmonie’s tenth anniversary – it is not only a playful provocation, but also a wake-up call to this often underestimated side of classical music.

After all, even if Chuck Berry once sang »Roll over Beethoven«, the force of Beethoven’s symphonies can easily rival the power of a rock band. And as for mind-altering substances, Hector Berlioz knew a thing or two about them: in his »Symphonie fantastique« (1830), he portrays an opium-induced trip complete with near-death experience and witches’ sabbath. A special focus is devoted to New York composer Julius Eastman, who shaped his identity as an African American and gay artist into a highly distinctive musical language, yet ultimately lost his battle with drug addiction.

The festival opens with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra performing an oratorio by the recently deceased composer Sofia Gubaidulina on the power of love. With such monumental productions, the month-long festival once again elevates an already world-class programme at the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle – further enhanced by stars such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Barbara Hannigan, Sir Simon Rattle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan and the Berlin Philharmonic, who join Hamburg’s leading orchestras to turn the festival into a true celebration.

The complete programme will be announced in November 2026.

Supported by the Förderkreis Internationales Musikfest Hamburg and Stiftung Elbphilharmonie

Events of the festival

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