Festival tour 2026
At the start of the 2026/27 season, the Berliner Philharmoniker and chief conductor Kirill Petrenko set off once again for some of Europe’s great festivals. While the orchestra is almost at home in Salzburg and Lucerne, most of the musicians will be visiting the Edinburgh International for the first time. The tour concludes at the BBC Proms in London, where the vast Royal Albert Hall – seating an audience of more than 8,000 – never fails to thrill. The programme features works by Tchaikovsky, Elgar and Scriabin, as well as Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Augustin Hadelich, a soloist held in high regard by the Berliner Philharmoniker.
The Tour in Pictures
From Salzburg via Lucerne and Edinburgh to London – the best concert photos from on the road.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pyotr Tchaikovsky, whose fate-laden Fourth Symphony is featured on this tour, conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker himself – and was thrilled by the orchestra. We look back on a remarkable collaboration.
Video: Alexander Scriabin’s Symphony No 3
Perhaps no other composer combines power, sensuality and transcendence as masterfully as Alexander Scriabin. Audiences on the festival tour can now discover his Third Symphony – an orchestral drama, a mystical incantation. In our video introduction, violist Matthew Hunter presents the work, accompanied by excerpts from rehearsals with Kirill Petrenko.