Where even to begin with this year’s season at Barcelona’s resplendent Palau de la Música Catalana? One of the world’s standout music venues, its acoustic dimensions suit orchestral, chamber and solo recitals – and its seasons continue to harbour the biggest names in classical music, together with significant rising stars.
Piano soloists
The Palau’s 2025–26 season kicks off in September with three piano recitals – including Angela Hewitt performing the Goldberg Variations – and the Palau boasts an especially strong piano showing this year. Later solo recitals will be given by, among others, Sir Stephen Hough, Beatrice Rana, Grigory Sokolov, Vikingur Ólafsson, Sir András Schiff and Elisabeth Leonskaja. Piano pilgrims take note.
Piano soloists joining for concertos are no less strong. In October, formidable young talent Mao Fujita makes an appearance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, to perform – what else – the Grieg Piano Concerto. Yuja Wang also makes an appearance in the new year, alongside the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, performing the fiendish Ligeti Piano Concerto and Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto.
Kristian Bezuidenhout also performs Beethoven this season, in February, together with Palau regular Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées.
Early music and period performers
Well regarded as performers on period instruments, listeners should catch Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées’ earlier appearance in October, performing Beethoven Symphonies Five and Six. Their later appearance with Bezuidenhout includes Symphonies Two and Eight. Also early in the season will be an appearance from Teodor Currentzis’ unconventional period-instrument band MusicAeterna, performing a programme of works by Rameau – expect rambunctiousness.
A special feature for fans of period ensembles is a series of concert performances of Baroque operas this season, beginning in October with Catalan band Vespres d’Arnadí airing a rarity: Scarlatti’s Mitridate Eupatore. Shortly after, Phillipe Jaroussky’s Ensemble Artaserse perform Handel’s Alcina in a concert performance in November. Not to be outdone, Cecilia Bartoli and period band Les Musiciens du Prince appear later the same month for a semi-staged performance of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Later, in February, Il Pomo d’Oro and Francesco Corti give Handel’s Giulo Cesare, with a talented young cast.
The Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble and Choir will also perform Handel on period instruments in March, as well as, perhaps unusually, Bruckner’s Mass no. 2. Bach is also well-represented this season: Austrian period ensemble Concertus Musicus Wien also appear in March, performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, as well as young UK-based period ensemble Arcangelo, to perform the St Matthew Passion. The English Baroque Soloists also make an appearance for the St Luke Passion, spuriously by Bach. Many other period bands, including some standout Catalan ensembles, appear through the season.
Chamber music
If these Passions and operas might feel overwhelming, never fear: smaller, more delicate chamber fare is always available. For instance, early in the season, promising young French guitarist Thibaut Garcia presents his arrangement of the Goldberg Variations for two guitars; or Benjamin Appl’s Lieder recital in November. Also in November, renowned Korean violinist Bomsori Kim and appears to perform some classic violin sonatas with Rafał Blechacz.
In January, British vocal ensemble Voces8 appear at the Palau, in an a cappella vocal programme, stretching from Orlando Gibbons and Rachmaninov. Other recommended chamber dates early in the new year include the US-based Attacca Quartet, with a programme of contemporary string quartets. Later, well-known Brits Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason appear for a programme for cello and piano music.
Orchestras
Alternatively, it’s entirely possible to dive headlong into the world of philharmonic orchestras, and this season the Palau boasts a good few. In November, Myung-whun Chung conducts the Tokyo Philharmonic in The Rite of Spring, with fiery Maxim Vengerov joining for Tchaikovsky’s crowd-pleasing Violin Concerto. Later the same month, Sir Simon Rattle makes a return to the Palau to conduct the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Janáček’s Taras Bulba and Bruckner’s enormous Seventh Symphony.
In February, Rattle’s former haunt the London Symphony Orchestra also make an appearance at the Palau, together with Gianandrea Noseda and young piano talent Seong-Jin Cho, for a programme including Chopin’s First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s First Symphony. Later the same month, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra make an appearance – Zubin Mehta is slated to conduct Schubert’s Great C Major Symphony and Beethoven’s Sixth.
Eva Ollikainen and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra also appear at the Palau in the new year, with cellist Kian Soltani. An appropriately Nordic-flavoured programme includes Sibelius and leading Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, with Soltani presenting Elgar’s contemplative Cello Concerto (the programme rounded off by the razzle and dazzle of Stravinsky’s Firebird).
A slew of major orchestras drop by the Palau in May. Daniele Gatti heads up the Staatskapelle Dresden and the chorus of Orfeó Català for Verdi’s Requiem, with soloists including Elīna Garanča. Shortly after, Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra also arrive for a programme including selections from Wagner’s Walküre and Schumann’s Third Symphony “Rhenish”. Catalonia’s own Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona will also drop by the same month, conducted by Stephanie Childress, for a gentler programme including early Sibelius and Lili Boulanger, with the month rounded out by the Orquestra de Miracle, one of the region’s foremost youth orchestras.
If it weren’t already obvious, there is much else besides in this year’s season at the Palau. If the threat of drowning looms, be sure to navigate via our listings.
See our complete listings at the Palau de la Música Catalana.
This article was sponsored by Palau de la Música – Orfeó Catala.
