Hamburg International Music Festival ends on high note
Press Information
The Hamburg International Music Festival drew to a close this week, with a phenomenal performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s »Messa da Requiem« by Daniele Gatti, the Sächsische Staatskapelle and the Staatsopernchor Dresden. The theme of this year’s festival was »End«. Approximately 75,000 people attended the 54 festival events, with an overall attendance rate of 92%.
Since 1 May, leading international classical artists including Elīna Garanča, Janine Jansen, Daniil Trifonov, Arcadi Volodos, Benjamin Bernheim, Leonidas Kavakos and Christian Tetzlaff have appeared on stage in Hamburg. Manfred Honeck conducted the impressive opening concerts of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra featuring Franz Schmidt’s oratorio »Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln« (»The Book with Seven Seals«). Omer Meir Wellber led a rousing performance of Leonard Bernstein’s »Mass« at the Elbphilharmonie.
Other highlights included concerts featuring music by Hans Werner Henze, whose 100th birthday was posthumously marked by performances from artists such as Matthias Pintscher, Vladimir Jurowski and Tamara Stefanovich. Teodor Currentzis received a standing ovation for his interpretation of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 with Utopia. The Huelgas Ensemble from Belgium embarked on a memorable evening-long journey through 440 years of music history and surprised the audience with an encore on the Elbphilharmonie Plaza.
The Musicbanda Franui presented songs by Gustav Mahler without vocals, reimagined for wind instruments, strings, harp and dulcimer. Accompanying the performance, the Australian acrobats of the circus company Circa brought weightless, graceful choreography to the Grand Hall. Three concerts were dedicated to Miles Davis, undisputedly the most influential jazz musician of the 20th century; meanwhile, a popular pop-up bar in the Kaispeicher played almost his entire recorded catalogue on vinyl while guests enjoyed fine drinks and superb views.
Concert programmes with works exploring the theme of »End«, including Richard Wagner’s »Götterdämmerung«, Joseph Haydn’s »The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross« and Olivier Messiaen’s »Quatuor pour la fin du temps«, left a particularly lasting impression on audiences. The festival theme was also reflected in the »Lost Music« series, which showcased musical traditions from around the world that are threatened with extinction.
Supported by the Förderkreis Internationales Musikfest Hamburg, the K.S. Fischer-Stiftung and the Stiftung Elbphilharmonie.
The next edition of the Hamburg International Music Festival begins in April 2027, with the theme »Sex, Drugs & Rock ’n’ Roll«. The programme will be announced on 17 November.