Venue: Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg

The Helsinki Philharmonic’s winter visit to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie offers a vivid portrait of Finnish musical identity at its most compelling.

Iván Fischer and Alina Ibragimova transform familiar works into a vivid experience. From Beethoven’s Violin Concerto to Strauss’ Josephs Legende, the orchestra dazzles with colour, energy and cinematic intensity.

The Israel Philharmonic’s debut at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie showcases Lahav Shani’s elegant precision, Martin Fröst’s vivid virtuosity and Paul Ben-Haim’s rare symphonic voice, culminating in radiant musical unity.

Tenebrae transforms the Elbphilharmonie into a living instrument, exploring centuries of choral music through spatialised sound, Pärt’s tintinnabuli, Renaissance masterpieces and contemporary innovations in a vivid acoustic experiment.

Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, stripped to piano, harmonium and voices, unfolds like a musical sphinx in the Balthasar-Neumann’s performance at the Elbphilharmonie. 

Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris opened the Elbphilharmonie season with a vivid journey from Strauss’s dramatic energy, through a reflective new Horn Concerto, to Sibelius’s luminous, precise grandeur.

At the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Fazıl Say concluded his residency with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic with an evening of jazz, Ravel and his own symphony, capturing the restless energy of an Istanbul-style metropolis.

Under Jaime Martín, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra showcase Indigenous music through William Barton’s didgeridoo alongside Elgar and Mussorgsky, creating a visually and sonically vivid, if uneven, evening.