A New Chapter - Our Programme 2026

It is nothing short of a homecoming, a return that many observers have long expected and that others have eagerly longed for. From 2026 onwards the Berliner Philharmoniker will again be holding their traditional Easter Festival in Salzburg, the town where Herbert von Karajan founded this Festival in 1967. Karajan was a passionate opera conductor and with his world-class symphony orchestra he wanted to mount exemplary opera performances that would set new standards worthy of his work in the concert hall. His two successors Claudio Abbado and Simon Rattle shared this passion and, having picked up from where he left off, they continued to develop this tradition. The orchestra’s current chief conductor, Kirill Petrenko, is another musician who began his career in the theatre. He and his orchestra now want to open a new chapter in the history of their Easter Festival, a chapter as brilliant as it will be substantial. This new beginning comes at a time when every certainty is being tested and there is no longer an area of our lives where we can simply go on as before. At the same time, however, the great art of all ages can still be a beacon for the rest of us. For the first five years of their future Salzburg residency, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko have chosen two works that raise these very same questions: how will humanity continue to coexist in a world that is growing ever more fragile? How can society be organized in such a way as to withstand the dangers that press upon it not only from the outside but also from within? How is it possible for each of us to find our own personal happiness, while allowing the community to flourish?

It is no accident that one of these works is the one with which the Easter Festival was launched back in 1967: Richard Wagner’s tetralogy »Der Ring des Nibelungen«. Wagner’s magnum opus will be complemented by a work that has never previously been heard at the Easter Festival: Arnold Schoenberg’s only grand opera, »Moses und Aron«. For the present, then, five full-length works of music theatre are being planned, with Wagner’s »Ring« being staged over not four, but five, Easter Festivals.

Both works were revolutionary in terms of their musical resources. Both are grounded in the storehouse of archetypal human experience, from which they have drawn subjects that were burningly relevant in their own day. Both works propose draught outlines of a new social order in a world whose spiritual and intellectual foundations have been shattered or that are destroyed in the course of the action. Both composers were driven by their longing to create a new world order in terms of both state and society and to find a model for society’s spiritual and psychological needs. Both works were intended to encourage their audiences to think and to believe and clothed their arguments in mythical and legendary tales on the one hand and in Bible stories on the other. Their music also appeals to our emotions and to our subconscious.

»Der Ring des Nibelungen« will be staged by Kirill Serebrennikov, who is arguably the most musical and at the same time one of the most thoughtful, original and uncompromising directors of the present day. He sees the whole of our age reflected in this great work, with its disasters and its recoveries, its impending catastrophe and the inspirational power of hope. In keeping with his vision, the inhabitants of a post-apocalyptic world are looking for new ideas and new ideals. They rebuild their lives on the ruins of what has been destroyed.

This new chapter in the history of the Salzburg Easter Festival will be opened with »Das Rheingold« in 2026. I should like to invite you most warmly to join our new Ring Circle and to help us forge a new »Ring« from the very beginning. As always this new production will be part of a Festival that also features a series of concerts showcasing top-flight artists. At one such concert Kirill Petrenko will conduct Gustav Mahler’s monumental Eighth Symphony and at another Joseph Haydn’s oratorio »Die Schöpfung« will be under the baton of Daniel Harding. Last but not least, I would like to draw your attention to the BE PHIL project – under the direction of Tugan Sokhiev, there is a unique opportunity for interested amateur musicians to develop and perform a concert programme together with the Berliner Philharmoniker. I am very much looking forward to welcoming you to Salzburg in 2026!

NIKOLAUS BACHLER, Intendant and Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival

Browse through our 2025 Programme

Das Rheingold
Richard Wagner

A new »Ring des Nibelungen« begins with Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko leading the Berliner Philharmoniker. In Kirill Serebrennikov's production, baritone Christian Gerhaher makes his role debut as Wotan.

Choral Concert I
Joseph Haydn

The first Choral Concert features Joseph Haydn's oratorio »Die Schöpfung«, a work of the century about the creation of the world out of chaos. Daniel Harding, who has had close artistic ties with the Berliner Philharmoniker for almost 30 years since his debut as a 21-year-old, conducts.

Choral Concert II
Gustav Mahler

In the second Choral Concert, Kirill Petrenko performs Gustav Mahler's monumental Eighth Symphony, also known as the »Symphony of a Thousand«, for the first time with the Berliner Philharmoniker. With eight soloists, three choirs and a huge orchestra, Mahler goes beyond anything that has gone before.

Orchestral Concert
Johannes Brahms- Max Bruch,
Hector Berlioz

Hector Berliozʼ »Symphonie fantastique« is the centrepiece of the two concerts with Tugan Sokhiev. On the first date, the double concerto by Johannes Brahms will be performed, while violinist Janine Jansen will play Max Bruch's violin concerto on the second programme.

BE PHIL Special Concert
Antonín Dvořák,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

»Be yourself – Be music – Be Phil« - the Berliner Philharmoniker invite amateur musicians from Austria and neighbouring countries to apply to take part in the Be Phil Orchestra Salzburg Easter Festival 2026 and to develop and perform a concert programme together.

Chamber Concerts

Another musical tradition returns to the Easter Festival: the rich chamber music programme with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker. The programme is all about contrasts and controversies.

Late Night Concerts

Two late-night concerts at Szene are dedicated to music by Wagner, Piazzolla, Mozart, Schönberg & Shostakovich, among others.

Dance
Planet [wanderer]
Damien Jalet,
Kohei Nawa

He is one of the most sought-after choreographers in the dance world and is bringing one of his works to Salzburg for the first time: together with the Japanese visual artist Kohei Nawa, Damien Jalet explored the fragile relationship between humans and the earth and created a monumental installation of bodies.

Electro

In 2026, we want to continue our newly founded electro section and invite internationally renowned artists to take part in our programme. Details will be announced at a later date.

Introductory Lecture »Das Rheingold«

Artwork for the 2026 Easter Festival

As part of the 2026 Easter Festival, we present the first part of a series of works by artist Mathias Vef, created specifically for the Salzburg Easter Festival. His portraits and still lifes are inspired by the epochal disruptions that also permeate his own artistic practice. Artificial intelligence shreds, almost like a meat grinder, the fabric we call reality—and that manifests in our cultural heritage. These these fragments and debris form a new synthetic "primordial soup," from which Mathias Vef conjures surreal figures—mask-like beings caught between depression and dystopia, pride and decay. Their origins and fates remain obscure, their temporal anchor unmoored. The eyes that gaze back at us could be fragments of an uncertain future. Through the lens of artificial intelligence, a visual world unfolds that may serve as an aesthetic requiem for a world in flux—but also as a tribute to its cultural memory.

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