»The End« explored at the Hamburg International Music Festival

Between apocalypse and new beginnings: The upcoming edition of the Hamburg International Music Festival takes »The End« as its overarching motto and presents performances of large-scale, full-length masterpieces all related to this festival theme, including Franz Schmidt’s oratorio »The Book with Seven Seals« (»Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln«), Richard Wagner’s »Götterdämmerung«, Giuseppe Verdi’s »Messa da Requiem« and Leonard Bernstein’s »Mass«. The festival also focuses extensively on the jazz legend Miles Davis and the great German composer Hans Werner Henze, with several concerts dedicated to each artist. The festival’s 45 events will be performed by Hamburg’s leading orchestras, as well as ensembles such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Staatskapelle Dresden and Teodor Currentzis’s Utopia. Once again, some of the most compelling artists of our time are set for guest performances, including Elīna Garanča, Janine Jansen, Daniil Trifonov, Arcadi Volodos, Leonidas Kavakos and Christian Tetzlaff. Some remarkable projects – including a staged homage to the 1970s cult film »The Big Feast«, an evening with circus acrobats and music by Gustav Mahler and a Haydn concert by Ensemble Resonanz with Meret Becker reading texts by Wolfgang Herrndorf – also feature on the programme. The »Lost Music« series presents musical traditions from around the world currently threatened with extinction. Tickets are now available at www.elbphilharmonie.de.

Each year, the Hamburg International Music Festival creates a platform for especially ambitious projects and programmes to be realised. The opening concert with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck approaches the theme of endings from a biblical perspective: The Austrian composer Franz Schmidt painted the apocalypse with broad brushstrokes in his opulently orchestrated late-Romantic oratorio »The Book with Seven Seals« (»Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln«) for soloists, choir, organ and orchestra (1/2 May). Elīna Garanča and Benjamin Bernheim are among the vocal soloists in a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s iconic Requiem, presented by the Sächsische Staatskapelle and the Staatsopernchor Dresden under Daniele Gatti at the close of the festival (3 June). Kent Nagano conducts a »Götterdämmerung« in its original, historically informed sound, with the Concerto Köln, the Dresdner Festspielorchester and a top-tier cast of singers exploring the playing and singing techniques of the 19th century (26 May).

Omer Meir Wellber, the new General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, oversees a spectacular special production (24/25 May). Leonard Bernstein’s »Mass«, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in 1971, caused quite a stir even before it was first performed. The FBI even felt compelled to warn US President Richard Nixon about the mass, in which sacred music meets rock, blues, gospel, jazz and performance art. Oscillating between ritual and rebellion, a powerful mosaic of sound emerges, culminating in an overwhelming plea for peace. The concert on Sunday afternoon (24 May) will be broadcast live via video transmission to the park in front of Hamburg’s landmark »Michel« church. Afterwards, all participants are set to gather there and invite the public to a creative street festival complete with music, food, performances and workshops.

One focus of the festival is firmly on Hans Werner Henze, whose 100th birthday is set to be celebrated by the music world on 1 July 2026. Both personally and artistically, the composer, who died in 2012, spent his entire life caught between opposing worlds. Bourgeois audiences were unsettled by his enthusiasm for the 1968 student revolution; the left criticised his sophisticated lifestyle and his, as he himself put it, »longing for full, wild harmony«, which ran counter to the aesthetic doctrines of the avant-garde of the time. The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Bleuse and featuring Tamara Stefanovich, perform Henze’s sensitive adaptation of »Tristan« (16 May), while Matthias Pintscher leads the Elbphilharmonie’s resident orchestra as it tackles the Seventh Symphony (21/22 May). The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, perform the Ninth Symphony, which is dedicated to the resistance fighters against the Nazi regime (31 May). Chamber music milestones are also performed by the Scharoun Ensemble, founded by members of the Berliner Philharmoniker (16 May) and by the Schumann Quartet (19 May).

Miles Davis, undisputedly the most influential jazz musician of the 20th century, is also being honoured at the Elbphilharmonie on the occasion of his 100th birthday. No fewer than five concerts explore the complexity of his artistic legacy. Ambrose Akinmusire, the star trumpeter of the younger generation, devotes his attention to the quiet tones of the cool jazz era (3 May), drummer Bobby Previte brings the funky fusion sound of the 1970s to life with his »Bitches Brew« project (5 May), the NDR Big Band interprets the orchestral album »Sketches of Spain« (6 May) and, as a special highlight, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane – son of John Coltrane – celebrates his father’s birthday at the Elbphilharmonie together with Terence Blanchard (30 June). Bass icon Marcus Miller, the most important musical partner of Miles Davis in the last phase of his career, revisits albums such as »We Want Miles«, »Tutu« and »Amandla« with colleagues including Mike Stern, Bill Evans and Mino Cinelu (9 July).

Choral programmes broaching the subjects of death and consolation, in keeping with the festival theme, are presented by the Balthasar Neumann Choir and acclaimed conductor Lionel Sow with the Elbphilharmonie’s titular organist Iveta Apkalna (4 May) and by the legendary Huelgas Ensemble under its founder Paul Van Nevel (20 May). In another concert programme, Ensemble Resonanz combines Joseph Haydn’s comforting »Last Words« with texts by the terminally ill author Wolfgang Herrndorf, read by actress Meret Becker (»Tatort«, »Babylon Berlin«) from Herrndorf’s blog »Arbeit und Struktur« (8 May).

Teodor Currentzis and his orchestra Utopia pair Alban Berg’s violin concerto »To the Memory of an Angel« (featuring soloist Vilde Frang) with Gustav Mahler’s groundbreaking Symphony No. 1 (12 May). Jörg Widmann, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, four of the world’s foremost musicians, perform Olivier Messiaen’s »Quartet for the End of Time«, framed by other modern classics from Maurice Ravel to Elliot Carter (24 May). Julian Prégardien can be heard in the Recital Hall with »Die Schöne Müllerin«, Schubert’s most tragic song cycle, accompanied by Kristian Bezuidenhout on fortepiano (3 June).

The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen presents Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with none other than Christian Tetzlaff as soloist, followed by Johannes Brahms’ exuberant Second Symphony, led by Jukka-Pekka Saraste on the podium, a true master of his craft (10 May). Janine Jansen and the Camerata Salzburg combine Baroque and modern works in a programme featuring compositions by Richard Dubugnon, Nino Rota, Francesco Geminiani and Antonio Vivaldi (7 May). The programme of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, conducted by its principal conductor Joana Mallwitz, features Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 together with Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonic Third Piano Concerto with Alice Sara Ott as soloist (27 May). Khatia Buniatishvili and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields present music by Sibelius, Mozart and Haydn (11 May).

Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos presents an evening of music by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Schubert’s expansive last piano sonata in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall (29 May). Daniil Trifonov explores the realms of chamber music there together with Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider on the violin – from the passionate, romantic compositions of Clara and Robert Schumann to the concentrated miniatures of Anton Webern and Ludwig van Beethoven’s incredibly virtuosic Kreutzer Sonata (14 May). Elbphilharmonie Artist-in-Residence Kian Soltani indulges his shared love of chamber music with his friends Mao Fujita and Renaud Capuçon in the Laeiszhalle Recital Hall, playing piano trios by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Pyotr Tchaikovsky (4 May). In his final concert of the season, Soltani presents traditional Persian music with Ensemble Shiraz (29 May).

As species and ecosystems continue to die out, so too are intangible cultural traditions eroding away across the world – whether through war, displacement or authoritarian suppression. The Hamburg International Music Festival is spotlighting three endangered musical cultures in its »Lost Music« concert series. All participating artists combine historical research and authentic performance practice with contemporary resonances. The Yuşan Zillya ensemble presents music of the Crimean Tatars, who were forcibly resettled by Stalin and only allowed to return after Ukraine’s independence in 1991. Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, they have once again been under enormous threat (7 May). The singer Elaha Soroor belongs to the Hazara, a Shiite Afghan minority that suffers particularly harsh treatment under the Taliban (15 May). Ghada Shbeir, together with François Joubert-Caillet on the viola da gamba, revives early Christian Aramaic chants from Lebanon (23 May).

Marco Ferreri caused a veritable scandal in 1973 with his film »La Grande Bouffe« (The Big Feast), which depicts four disillusioned men who eat themselves to death in an act of decadent excess. The Belgian original sound ensemble B'Rock Orchestra now brings this setting to the concert stage with a theatrical and musical banquet. Operatic set pieces from throughout music history are exaggerated with electronic beats – a biting commentary on a society trying to fill its inner emptiness with excess, only to be consumed by it (8 May). The Tyrolean Musicbanda Franui, known for blurring the boundaries between classical and folk music, presents songs by Gustav Mahler without vocals, but with brass, strings, harp and dulcimer. And world-renowned Australian acrobats from Brisbane-based contemporary circus Circa bring weightless, graceful choreographies to the Grand Hall (28 May).

Creatively minded Hamburg residents aged 16 and above explore the themes of loss and hope over several weeks in the community project »Lost and Found«. Together with professional artists, they present their final works in a musical performance featuring texts, videos and compositions, accompanied by Ensemble Shiraz, which has a dual mission of preserving Persian musical traditions and forging new paths (31 May).

The International Music Festival Hamburg is a joint festival organised by HamburgMusik, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, Konzertdirektion Dr. Rudolf Goette, the NDR Big Band, NDR das neue werk and the Balthasar Neumann Choir and Ensemble.

Supported by the Förderkreis Internationales Musikfest Hamburg, the K.S. Fischer-Stiftung and the Stiftung Elbphilharmonie.

Fr, 1. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr / Sa, 2. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Franz Schmidt: Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln / Manfred Honeck
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester / MDR-Rundfunkchor / NDR Vokalensemble / Maximilian Schmitt / Tareq Nazmi / Christina Landshamer u.a.

So, 3. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Miles 100: Ambrose Akinmusire & Brussels Jazz Orchestra
»... What’s Not There – A New Perspective on Miles«

Mo, 4. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Balthasar-Neumann-Chor / Iveta Apkalna / Lionel Sow
Distler: Totentanz / Feller: Danse macabre / Brahms: Schnitter Tod, sowie Werke von J.S. Bach u.a.

Mo, 4. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Laeiszhalle Kleiner Saal
Renaud Capuçon / Kian Soltani / Mao Fujita
Tschaikowsky: Klaviertrio a-Moll op. 50 / Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Klaviertrio d-Moll op. 49

Di, 5. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Miles 100: Bobby Previte Reimagines »Bitches Brew«
mit Fabian Rucker, Michael Kammer und Brad Jones

Mi, 6. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Miles 100: NDR Bigband »Two Sketches of Spain« mit Claus Stötter, Pablo Martín Caminero u.a.

Do, 7. Mai 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Yuşan Zillya Ensemble
Lost Music: Musik der Krimtataren

Do, 7. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Janine Jansen / Camerata Salzburg
Dubugnon: Piccolo concerto grosso / Geminiani: Concerto grosso »La Follia« / Vivaldi: Die vier Jahreszeiten

Fr, 8. Mai 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
B’Rock Orchestra: »Das große Fressen«
Ein inszeniertes Bankett zwischen Barock und Pop nach dem Film »La grande bouffe«

Fr, 8. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Ensemble Resonanz / Meret Becker / Riccardo Minasi
Haydn: Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze / Lesung aus Wolfgang Herrndorf: Arbeit und Struktur

So, 10. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen / Christian Tetzlaff / Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Violinkonzert e-Moll / Brahms: Sinfonie Nr. 2

Mo, 11. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Khatia Buniatishvili / Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Mozart: Klavierkonzerte KV 466 & KV 488 / Haydn: Abschiedssinfonie

Di, 12. Mai 2026, 18 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Quartett der Kritiker
Diskussion über Gustav Mahlers Sinfonie Nr. 1

Di, 12. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Utopia / Vilde Frang / Teodor Currentzis
Berg: Violinkonzert »Dem Andenken eines Engels« / Mahler: Sinfonie Nr. 1

Do, 14. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Daniil Trifonov / Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider
Beethoven: Kreutzer-Sonate / Weitere Werke für Violine und Klavier

Fr, 15. Mai 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Roots Revival
Lost Music: Musik der Hazara

Fr, 15. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr / Sa, 16. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester / Tamara Stefanovich / Pierre Bleuse
Henze: Tristan / Ives: Central Park in the Dark / Debussy: Images für Orchester

Sa, 16. Mai 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Scharoun Ensemble Berlin
Rihm: Chiffre VI / Arne Gieshoff: Neues Werk / Turnage: This Silence / Henze: Kammermusik 1958 – NDR das neue werk

So, 17. Mai 2026, 11 Uhr, Zeise Kinos
Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum
Film / Elbphilharmonie PLUS

So, 17. Mai 2026, 16 Uhr / 18.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester / Pierre Bleuse
Ives: Central Park in the Dark / Debussy: Images für Orchester

Di, 19. Mai 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Schumann Quartett
Haydn: Streichquartett D-Dur / Henze: Streichquartett Nr. 5 / Beethoven: Streichquartett F-Dur

Mi, 20. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Huelgas Ensemble / Paul Van Nevel
»Memento mori« – Werke von Orlando di Lasso, Guillaume Dufay, Giovanni Gabrieli u.a.

Do, 21. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr / Fr, 22. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester / Leonidas Kavakos / Matthias Pintscher
Wagner: Siegfried-Idyll / Szymanowski: Violinkonzert Nr. 2 / Henze: Sinfonie Nr. 7

Sa, 23. Mai 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Ghada Shbeir & François Joubert-Caillet
Lost Music: Aramäische Gesänge

So, 24. Mai 2026, 12 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal + Straßenfest auf der Michelwiese
Leonard Bernstein: Mass / Omer Meir Wellber
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg / Audi Jugendchorakademie

So, 24. Mai 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Jörg Widmann / Isabelle Faust / Jean-Guihen Queyras / Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Mo, 25. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Leonard Bernstein: Mass / Omer Meir Wellber
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg / Audi Jugendchorakademie

Di, 26. Mai 2026, 17 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Wagner: Götterdämmerung / Kent Nagano
Dresdner Festspielorchester / Concerto Köln

Mi, 27. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Konzerthausorchester Berlin / Alice Sara Ott / Joana Mallwitz
Beethoven: Klavierkonzert Nr. 3 / Mahler: Sinfonie Nr. 5

Do, 28. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
»Urlicht Primal Light« – Gustav Mahler goes Circus
Circus Company Circa / Musicbanda Franui

Fr, 29. Mai 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Kian Soltani / Ensemble Shiraz
»Persian Night« – Traditionelle persische Musik

Fr, 29. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Arcadi Volodos / Klavierabend
Mazurken und Sonaten von Frédéric Chopin und Franz Schubert

Sa, 30. Mai 2026, 18 Uhr, Hauptkirche St. Michaelis
Lucienne Renaudin Vary / Jörg Endebrock
Werke für Trompete und Orgel

Sa, 30. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Ensemble Resonanz / RIAS Kammerchor Berlin / Justin Doyle
»fantasy & farewell« – Werke von Ralph Vaughan Williams, Hubert Parry, Edward Elgar und Joanna Marsh

So, 31. Mai 2026, 17 Uhr/ 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
»Lost and Found«
Ein szenisches Konzert mit Musik, Texten und Videos zum Thema »Verlust und Hoffnung«

So, 31. Mai 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin / Rundfunkchor Berlin / Vladimir Jurowski
Beethoven: Leonoren-Ouvertüre / Brahms: Schicksalslied / Henze: Sinfonie Nr. 9

Mo, 1. Juni 2026, 20 Uhr, Laeiszhalle Großer Saal
Cembalomania: Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone
Bach: Konzerte für 3-4 Cembali, Brandenburgisches Konzert Nr. 5 – Das Alte Werk

Di, 2. Juni 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden / Gautier Capuçon / Daniele Gatti
Wagner: Auszüge aus »Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg« & »Parsifal« / Saint-Saëns: Violoncellokonzert Nr. 1 / Debussy: La mer

Mi, 3. Juni 2026, 19.30 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal
Julian Prégardien / Kristian Bezuidenhout
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin

Mi, 3. Juni 2026, 20 Uhr, Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal
Verdi: Messa da Requiem / Daniele Gatti
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden / Elīna Garanča / Benjamin Bernheim / Riccardo Zanellato