Early Music

Des musiques et des mondes - Nuit européenne des musées

The Bach Choir & Orchestra of the Netherlands: St Matthew Passion

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

La Voix humaine

As usual—yet always exceptional—Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan embodies music through both voice and gesture. Here, she performs with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, with whom she shares strong artistic ties.

Yunchan Lim

At just 20 years of age, and already winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim embodies the new generation of pianists, and creates subtle resonances between repertoires, movements and composers.

Richard Wagner / Siegfried

Performed by the musicians of Concerto Köln and the Dresdner Festspielorchester under the direction of Kent Nagano, this Siegfried is the fruit of years of research into what would be a historically informed reading of Wagner’s operas.

Mozart passé, Mozart présent

Dialogues avec Mozart

A play of mirrors featuring composers of the present engaging with those of the past: Webern pays tribute to Bach, Adès to Couperin, and Eötvös to Mozart, whose delightful ‘Haffner’ Symphony is the programme finale.

Émile fait la musique

Since 2015, the adventures of the facetious Émile, by author Vincent Cuvellier and illustrator Ronan Badel, also exist as a musical tale. Orchestrated by Marc-Olivier Dupin, this colourful show is performed by Guillaume Marquet.

Autour de Guitarmania, avec le guitariste Thibaut Garcia

Lang Lang

Lang Lang makes a bold return, with a programme demanding nothing less than his full powers—from the grace of Fauré, to the moody visions of Schumann, to the alternately delicate and vigorous sensibility of Chopin.

Guitare en fête

The glory of the guitar celebrated in two festive acts: a special ensemble made up of conservatory students from across the Paris region, followed by soloist Thibaut Garcia, a leading figure among the young generation of virtuosos.

The Bach Choir & Orchestra of the Netherlands: St Matthew Passion

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Guitare Odyssée

Guitare Odyssée

World Doctors Orchestra / Stefan Willich

Made up entirely of doctors from all over the world who have achieved musical excellence, the World Doctors Orchestra presents a rich French programme, from Tomasi’s brilliant Concerto to two pillars in the repertoire, by Debussy and Saint-Saëns.

Musik in der Sophienkirche: Orgelkonzert Dominik Sustek

Dominik Susteck, a distinguished composer and improviser, known for his innovative organ interpretations, will perform at Sophienkirche. His program features his compositions alongside works by Bruhns, Bach, and Messiaen, blending rich baroque organ tradition with experimental sounds. A video transmission will showcase the organist's captivating performance.

Musik in der Sophienkirche: Orgelkonzert Dominik Susteck

Dominik Susteck, a distinguished composer and improviser, known for his innovative organ interpretations, will perform at Sophienkirche. His program features his compositions alongside works by Bruhns, Bach, and Messiaen, blending rich baroque organ tradition with experimental sounds. A video transmission will showcase the organist's captivating performance.

Janine Jansen / Denis Kozhukhin

The duo formed by Janine Jansen and Denis Kozhukhin in a programme juxtaposing Brahms—a composer particularly close to their hearts—with a selection of 20th-century French chamber music.

Portico Quartet Ensemble

Since its emergence in the mid-2000s, the ever-evolving Portico Quartet has established itself at the forefront of London’s thrilling new jazz scene. Here the group presents an ‘augmented’ live version of its stunning minimalist, ambient-oriented album Terrain.

Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment: St Matthew Passion

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Johann Sebastian Bach / Messe en si

Powerful, syncretic if we take the Credo in its most universal sense, the Mass in B minor is one of the most profound and hermetic monuments in the history of music. As Cioran once cheekily opined, “If anyone owes everything to Bach, it's God!”

The Bach Choir & Orchestra of the Netherlands: St Matthew Passion

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Johann Sebastian Bach / Messe en si

Powerful, syncretic if we take the Credo in its most universal sense, the Mass in B minor is one of the most profound and hermetic monuments in the history of music. As Cioran once cheekily opined, “If anyone owes everything to Bach, it's God!”

Hana Blažíková / Bruce Dickey / The Breathtaking Collective Ensemble

Angels playing music were an extremely popular motif in the Renaissance – often, the heavenly figures sing accompanied by the cornet, an early brass instrument. Cornet virtuoso Bruce Dickey and soprano Hana Blažíková now trace the celestial tonal affinity of voice and instrument, accompanied by the Breathtaking Collective, with such enchantingly beautiful and highly virtuoso music of the 17th century. Bruce Dickey has completely dedicated himself to rediscovering the cornet. Today, largely disappeared from concert life, the wooden, in most cases crescent-shaped, instrument with a mouthpiece similar to those on trumpets was incredibly popular in the 16th and 17th century, especially in combination with singing. Like a second voice, the cornet ornaments the clear soprano of early music star Hana Blažíková, gets into sensitive dialogue and vies for the most splendid coloraturas and flourishes. The singer and cornetist, both of whom are regularly on stage with the greats of historical performance practice, such as Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Ton Koopman and Jordi Savall, have put together a fascinating selection of secular and sacred pieces for »On the Breath of Angels«. Accompanied by strings, theorbo, organ and harpsichord, dramatic operatic arias and intimate movements from motets sound. »Breathtaking listening experiences!« enthuses a reviewer of the related album. After this concert, one wonders how and why the cornet could have fallen so much out of fashion.

Concertgebouw Orchestra: Bach's St Matthew Passion

The week before Easter wouldn’t be complete without Bach’s always overwhelming St Matthew Passion, which for decades has been one of the most popular works among classical music lovers in the Netherlands. Bach composed the Passion nearly 300 years ago in such an emotional, compelling way that it leaves few listeners unmoved.The Concertgebouw Orchestra first performed the work in January 1891, and eight years later, the annual Passion tradition was officially established. This year’s Passion performance features Riccardo Minasi, one of the most interesting conductors to rise to fame in recent years, and a specialist in eighteenth-century music. Originally scheduled for 2020, his first appearance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra was postponed owing to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s high time he came to share his vision of Bach’s immortal masterpiece with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Rising Stars / Matilda Lloyd - Simon Lepper

Rising trumpet star Matilda Lloyd presents a delightful panorama of works and transcriptions—featuring Debussy, Fauré and Ibert alongside the likes of Bozza, one of the most prolific composers for of music for wind instruments.

Rising Stars / Carlos Ferreira - Pedro Emanuel Pereira

Carlos Ferreira, age 31 and Principal Clarinet of the Orchestre National de France, has achieved enviable repute in his young career. His programme features some of the finest scores ever written for his instrument, by Debussy, Poulenc and Schumann.

Table ronde : héroïques ? La voix des cheffes aujourd'hui

Der junge Bach – Aus dem Andreas-Bach-Buch und der Möller'schen Handschrift

Rising Stars / Quatuor Agate

Quatuor Agate drew its name from Brahms’ Sextet No. 2, dedicated to the composer’s second love, Agathe von Siebold. For this programme, it pairs Ligeti’s quite Bartókian Quartet No. 1 and Dvořák’s Quartet No. 13, a triumph among his chamber music.