[AD] With Cimarosa to the Musikfest Berlin 2026

Three years after the successful previous edition, Cimarosa is offering a music tour to Berlin once again. Three evening concerts at the prestigious Musikfest Berlin take center stage, which in 2026 celebrates its 75th anniversary and annually opens the Berlin concert season in spectacular fashion.

Three evenings in a row we head to the legendary Philharmonie Berlin, the beating heart of the Berlin music scene. The hall designed by Hans Scharoun, with its revolutionary vineyard model and world-renowned acoustics, provides the ideal setting for this rich program.

The concerts

The opening evening features one of the key works from twentieth-century opera history: Le Grand Macabre by György Ligeti, based on the surrealist drama by Brussels author Michel de Ghelderode. In the fictional Breughelland, inspired by Bruegel and Bosch, a grotesque blend of medieval mystery play, absurd slapstick and dark humor unfolds. Coloratura arias, rhythmically complex ensembles and cabaret-style scenes alternate with one another. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Chamber Choir and an international soloist ensemble conducted by Nicholas Collon bring Ligeti's "anti-anti-opera" to life in a semi-staged performance.

The second concert is entirely dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Jordi Savall leads his ensemble Le Concert des Nations through three compelling musical travel sketches: the Scottish Symphony, the Italian Symphony and the overture Die Hebriden. A rediscovery on historical instruments, in a fresh and sparkling interpretation.

The closing concert combines Romanticism and modernity. Two impressive works by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth — Tombeau I and Dreydl — in which memory and transience take center stage, are interspersed with late Romantic masterworks: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto featuring star violinist Blake Pouliot, and Rachmaninoff's moving Symphony No. 3. The excellent Kansas City Symphony is conducted by Matthias Pintscher.

The daytime program

The daytime offers much to discover as well. We stay at the four-star hotel NH Collection Berlin Mitte am Checkpoint Charlie, in the heart of the city. Highlights include visits to the majestic Schloss Charlottenburg, the Neues Museum on Museum Island, the iconic Neue Nationalgalerie by Mies van der Rohe, the Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind and Schloss Sanssouci in Potsdam. We stroll along Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate, and conclude at the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer and Checkpoint Charlie. A gastronomic lunch in Sir Norman Foster's transparent Reichstag dome, with breathtaking views over Berlin, forms an unforgettable highlight.

The tour guide is Stephan Weytjens and Myriam Libert.

The option on concert tickets expires mid-June — so don't delay registering!