Return of the Berliner Philharmoniker to the Salzburg Easter Festival from 2026

The Berliner Philharmoniker will return to the Salzburg Easter Festival from 2026. From 1967, the orchestra was an annual guest at the festival founded by Herbert von Karajan; in 2013, it made the move to the Baden-Baden Easter Festival. The Berliner Philharmoniker will continue to perform regularly in Baden-Baden after 2025. A corresponding concept with annual concert residencies is currently being developed jointly by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. The 2023 Baden-Baden Easter Festival, which will take place from 1 to 10 April, will focus on Richard Strauss' opera Die Frau ohne Schatten and musical Vienna around 1900.

“We are very grateful to the supporters and the entire team of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden for the long-standing and friendly collaboration at these special festivals,” says Andrea Zietzschmann, general manager of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation. “We are looking forward to the next three Easter Festivals in the town, and this year to an ambitious festival programme with the new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten. We will continue to cultivate our connection to Baden-Baden and to our loyal Festival audience through joint concert projects after 2025”.

Eva-Maria Tomasi and Stefan Dohr, orchestra board representatives of the Berliner Philharmoniker: “Our thanks also go to all those who organise and make the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden possible, as well as to our wonderful audience. We look forward with anticipation to the next three festivals in Baden-Baden and will continue to remain faithful to the city with concerts there. At a meeting of the orchestra, the members decided to move back to Salzburg at Easter from 2026 onwards, and to redevelop the content of the festival at the former venue together with the team there”.

“We are very grateful to the Berliner Philharmoniker for building up the Baden-Baden Easter Festival with us, and for participating in it 12 times up to 2025, with new opera productions and many concerts. The orchestra has given us important impulses for the seven annual Baden-Baden music, opera and dance festivals, which we would like to develop further in the future with other artistic partners,” says Benedikt Stampa, artistic director of Baden-Baden’s Festspielhaus. “Artists need to change, but should also know in which places they are always welcome. Baden-Baden is and remains such a place for the Berliner Philharmoniker. All the more reason for us to look forward to the Easter Festivals with this extraordinary orchestra and its chief conductor Kirill Petrenko which still await us here”.

Nikolaus Bachler, artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival, stated: “I am very pleased that we have succeeded in reconnecting the original orchestra with this very special festival – because the Berliner Philharmoniker and Salzburg have a shared history of more than 40 years, which will blossom anew with chief conductor Kirill Petrenko from 2026 onwards”.