Barcelona’s lustrous temple to classical music, the Palau de la Música Catalana, is one of those well-sized venues capable of welcoming both intimate solo and chamber performances as well as massed choral ranks and orchestras. Given its close association with the choirs of Orféo Català, this is perhaps no surprise. But it is as ever striking to see the rapid juxtaposition between larger-scale orchestral and choral occasions quickly followed by chamber and solo recitals.
Marin Alsop conducts the Chamber Chorus of the Palau de la Música with the Philharmonia Orchestra
© Rachael Hacking
The concerts at the end of the summer prove a case in point: on 29th August, Pablo Heras-Casado arrives with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra for an evening of big boned vocal-orchestral selections from Wagner’s Ring. Leading Wagnerian tenor Klaus Florian Vogt appears alongside Catherine Foster and Nicholas Brownlee. Complementing this, two days later noted Lisztian Mariam Batsashvili gives a solo recital, framed around the B minor sonata of Wagner’s close musical ally Liszt.
But it is perhaps inevitable that Wagner and Liszt’s great musical opponent Brahms would show up in the autumn at the Palau: Julia Fischer returns to Barcelona to perform Brahms’ Violin Concerto with Edward Gardner conducting the London Philharmonic. And later, Daniel Harding conducts Brahms’ Fourth Symphony with Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (with Kirill Gerstein joining for Tchaikovsky’s B flat Piano Concerto). Brahms’ Trios are also presented in February by the all-star grouping of Tabea Zimmermann, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Javier Perianes.
Acclaimed cellist Queyras is at the Palau earlier in the season in fact, for a solo recital of the Bach Cello Sonatas. Indeed, the Palau in 2026–27 has a notably strong Baroque showing, the concert performance of Handel’s Agrippina with Magdalena Kožená in the title role a November highlight. Another Handel opera is presented in concert April too: Alessandro conducted by Dani Espasa with leading Spanish Baroque orchestra Vespres d’Arnadí. Handel’s Messiah naturally shows up in December, performed by the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. And a few days later, Philippe Herreweghe makes a return to the Palau with the crisp sound of the Collegium Vocale Gent and its orchestra for the Christmas Oratorio of Handel’s great contemporary, JS Bach.
Philippe Herreweghe conducts the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées at the Palau
© Antoni Bofill
Bachians should consider making the pilgrimage to Barcelona this Easter, as the Palau offers an extraordinary opportunity to hear Bach’s St Matthew Passion in three performances by three different ensembles. First, Sir Simon Rattle leads Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, together with the children’s choir of Orfeó Català and the Zürcher Sing-Akademie. Then a few days later, Vaclav Luks directs Collegium 1704, the leading Czech Baroque ensemble. Finally, on 3rd April, Teodor Currentzis leads Utopia, the newer period-instrument orchestra founded in 2022, again supplemented by the Cor infantil de l’Orfeó Català. So many important interpretative decisions are required when tackling JS Bach’s magisterial work, and these three performances provide a rare opportunity to see contrasting approaches in action.
Bach’s other great choral work, the B Minor Mass, is also performed at the Palau in the spring, again by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, together with Belgian vocal consort Vox Luminis. Another leading Early music ensemble, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra also appear around the same time for Bach’s Keyboard Concertos, performed by Pierre Hantaï and Aapo Häkkinen – altogether, this coming spring, Barcelona would be a good place for Bach lovers to alight.
But 2027 will be propitious for that other Big B – Ludwig Van Beethoven. Do we need an excuse to celebrate Beethoven? Next year being the bicentenary of the composer’s death has prompted many institutions to roll out the composer’s most audacious works, and the Palau is no exception. With Patricia Kopatchinskaja already framing her November appearance with Fazıl Say around the composer’s most famous violin sonata, the “Kreutzer” (juxtaposed with Kopatchinskaja and Say’s own compositions), the Beethoveniana really gets going in January, with an appearance by Leif Ove Andsnes performing the Third Piano Concerto with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia. Later the same month, Pierre-Laurent Aimard arrives to perform the composer’s Bagatelles and the “Appassionata” Sonata, themselves juxtaposed in classic Aimardian fashion by Ligeti and Stockhausen.
Jordi Savall with Le Concert des Nations at the Palau
© Palau de la Música Catalana
A day later, one of Spain’s greatest living musicians and ensemble leaders Jordi Savall performs the Missa Solemnis, perhaps Beethoven’s most ambitious single composition, with Les Concert des Nations performing on period instruments. Savall is joined by La Capella Reial de Catalunya and soloists including Olivia Vermeulen. (Savall, the Concert and the Capella Reial return to the Palau in July too.)
The other major ambition of Beethoven’s composing career – that of his opera Fidelio – is also performed with an orchestra of period instruments at the Palau this season. In June, Pablo Heras-Casado conducts a concert performance by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and Monteverdi Choir, with soloists including David Butt Philip as Florestan.
Beethoven’s symphonies are also well represented, with the entire cycle of nine performed this season. In April, Iván Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra in the Ninth Symphony, with a Pan-European Chorus, gathered specially from across the continent, marking 70 years after the Rome Treaty. Later, in May, Daniele Gatti conducts the whole cycle with the Staatskapelle Dresdren, with Beethoven’s symphonies paired with new orchestral works by Clara Iannotta, Jesús Torres, Riccardo Panfili and Jörg Widmann.
Not to be outdone with only Bach and Brahms, Jean-Guihen Queyras also plays Beethoven at the Palau too, joining Sir András Schiff and Isabelle Faust for the composer’s Triple Concerto in May with the Constellation Orchestra and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. And Beethoven’s chamber music is also on offer on several occasions, including in performances by Gautier Capuçon with Frank Braley, and Julia Hagen with Lukas Sternath. Will Yuja Wang and Grigory Sokolov perform Beethoven in their Palau recitals in February? Programmes are yet to be announced – but we wouldn’t bet against it.
See upcoming events at the Palau de la Música Catalana.
This article was sponsored by Palau de la Música – Orféo Català.
