The concert programme 2026
A delicate web of multiple connections runs through the concert programme of the 2026 Festival season – also linking to the opera and drama programme. From the depth of his despair, a broken man cries out in Oscar Wilde’s touching letter from prison entitled De Profundis, which Jens Harzer will deliver as a great monologue with a lamenting melody all his own. De Profundis refers to Psalm 130, the cry from the abyss of despair and sinfulness. This year’s Ouverture spirituelle, meanwhile, focuses on the psalm of penitence, the heartfelt prayer for forgiveness, repentance and mercy, bearing its opening word – “Miserere” – as its title.
The “scènes franciscaines” (Saint François d’Assise) take us directly to the cycle Visions de Messiaen – a concert series featuring compositions by Olivier Messiaen which seem to suspend the sense of time, marked by theological depth, observations of nature and rhythmic complexity. To the devout Catholic Messiaen, music was a way of experiencing eternity.
“Composing means writing time. – ‘L’écriture du temps’ – music is the writing of time,” Francesca Verunelli also points to fundamental musical parameters – and also to our perception of time and finiteness. Verunelli is considered one of the most high-profile sound researchers and composers of the younger generation active today, and her work is presented in two portrait concerts.
A condensed sonic idiom and extreme density, expressed in musical miniatures, characterize the Œuvre of the Hungarian composer György Kurtág, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday – and received decisive impulses for his work while studying with Olivier Messiaen in Paris.
Gustav Mahler’s monumental work in five movements about life, death and redemption – his Resurrection Symphony – marks the beginning of the Vienna Philharmonic’s traditional concert cycle at the Salzburg Festival, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. In doing so, they also build a bridge to Olivier Messiaen, whose opera on St. Francis paints a vivid picture of the transition to eternity in its last scene. Tugan Sokhiev makes his Vienna Philharmonic debut with works by Ravel, Debussy and Prokofiev. Riccardo Muti performs Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, and Christian Thielemann completes his recording project of Brahms works – which began with Ein deutsches Requiem in Salzburg in 2023 – with that composer’s First Symphony and Violin Concerto, interpreted by Augustin Hadelich. The Vienna Philharmonic’s 2026 Festival summer ends under the baton of Andris Nelsons. In addition, solo recitals, lied recitals, “Kleine Nachtmusiken” and selected chamber music performances by the leading artists of our times round out this year’s concert programme.
First published in the Festival insert of Salzburger Nachrichten
