Het Concertgebouw Announces 2026–2027 Season: Europe, Beethoven, Coltrane and Lucie Horsch

Het Concertgebouw announces its 2026–2027 season, with a special focus on Beethoven, the centenary of John Coltrane's birth, Spotlight Artist Lucie Horsch, and the history of Europe. The programming connects that history with contemporary perspectives, ranging from Mahler and Reich to Beethoven and Shostakovich. The season also features international artists of the highest calibre, including Janine Jansen performing the Beethoven violin sonatas, Yunchan Lim in solo recital, and Sir Simon Rattle with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. In September, Het Concertgebouw will welcome the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra for the first time, conducted by its founder Daniel Barenboim. Series tickets go on sale on 31 March; individual tickets from 1 June 2026.

Beethoven Year 2027

Beethoven will be given a prominent place throughout the season. The Belcea Quartet performs all fifteen string quartets; Janine Jansen and Denis Kozhukhin bring the ten violin sonatas to both the Main Hall and the Recital Hall. Pianist Ronald Brautigam presents a three-part sonata series on historical and modern instruments, and Igor Levit performs a personal selection of Beethoven sonatas. The anniversary year culminates in a performance of the Ninth Symphony conducted by Iván Fischer with his Budapest Festival Orchestra and a pan-European choir.

World-Famous Symphony Orchestras

Het Concertgebouw again welcomes several international orchestras of distinction. Highlights include the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich conducted by Paavo Järvi, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pekka Kuusisto, who also performs as violin soloist, the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Semyon Bychkov, and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Great Soloists and Pianists in the Main and Recital Hall

Among the returning soloists, Cecilia Bartoli brings her programme Celestial Harmonies and Kian Soltani performs Elgar's Cello Concerto. Pianists Yuja Wang, Krystian Zimerman, Mitsuko Uchida, Arcadi Volodos, Yunchan Lim and Grigory Sokolov feature in the Great Pianists series. In the Recital Hall, Joshua Bell, Nicolas Altstaedt and Sheku Kanneh-Mason can be heard in chamber music programmes.

Spotlight: Lucie Horsch

Amsterdam-born Lucie Horsch has longstanding ties to Het Concertgebouw. She won the Concertgebouw Young Talent Award in 2016 and the Royal Concertgebouw Concours in 2009, and has performed at the hall regularly ever since. As this season's Spotlight Artist, she showcases her versatility as recorder player, pianist and singer. She appears as soloist with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging and performs Schumann's Piano Quartet, among other highlights. This summer she gives a concert in the Main Hall featuring solo concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel.

John Coltrane: 100 Years

Het Concertgebouw, where Coltrane himself performed on multiple occasions during the 1960s, celebrates his centenary with three programmes revisiting his legacy. Branford Marsalis & Dianne Reeves and the Flat Earth Society Orchestra each pay homage to his groundbreaking sound. His son Ravi Coltrane follows in his father's footsteps with a performance at Het Concertgebouw, offering a tribute to his mother, the pianist, organist and harpist Alice Coltrane.

Composer in Residence: Carlos Simon

Composer Carlos Simon takes up his first European residency at Het Concertgebouw, a hall he himself has described as "the golden standard." The season opens on 7 September with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performing his Four Black American Dances. The season closes on 9 June with the premiere of his most ambitious work to date, the Good News Mass, inspired by his childhood in a Pentecostal congregation in Atlanta.