A grand concert for peace will open the 2026-27 season at the Palau de la Música
Thirty-five concerts have been scheduled, starting with the tribute to Pau Casals and events such as the complete Beethoven symphonies, Jordi Savall, Lang Lang and the tour with Dudamel
BarcelonaThe Palau de la Música Catalana has unveiled its flagship concert series for the 2026-27 season, featuring a total of 23 scheduled concerts, plus 8 special concerts and 4 performances of Beethoven's complete symphonies, commemorating the bicentenary of the Bonn genius's death. The opening concert, to be held on September 28, will be a tribute to Pau Casals, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of his birth and linked to the season's central theme: peace. Conducted by Xavier Puig, it will bring together cellist Pablo Ferrández, the Casals Quartet, the Montserrat Choir, the Orfeó Català, and the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, along with top-tier Catalan soloists. The Palau 100 series will offer 13 concerts, featuring renowned orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra; promising young conductors on the international music scene such as Klaus Mäkela, Tarmo Peltokoski, Rafael Payare, Raphaël Pichon, and Lorenzo Viotti; as well as established and renowned conductors returning to the modernist stage, including Simon Rattle, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, and Esa Pekka. The series will also bring together outstanding soloists such as violinists Julia Fischer, Isabell Faus, and Lisa Batiashvili; cellists Daniel Müller-Scott, Gautier Capuçon and Jean-Gihen Queyras, and pianists Kirill Gerstein, Leif Ove Andsnes, Javier Perianes, Martin Helmchen and András Schiff, as well as the most iconic voices of sopranos Sabine Devielhe and Emőke Bará Reinoud van Mechelen.
From the First to the Ninth
This new season will highlight composers less frequently featured in major concert halls while maintaining a program of essential works, with special emphasis on Beethoven in commemoration of the bicentenary of his death. Specifically, the Palau de la Música Catalana has chosen to present a Complete Symphony Cycle, a project undertaken in collaboration with BCN Clàssics. This cycle will feature four concerts in the modernist hall with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Daniele Gatti, allowing audiences to hear the complete symphonic cycle of the genius from Bonn, from the First to the Ninth. As part of the Palau 100 series, eight extraordinary concerts have been added this season, expanding and enriching the program with special initiatives. Performers will include ensembles such as the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and the Utopia Orchestra, and conductors such as Pablo Heras-Casado, Teodor Currentzis, and Jordi Savall, among others.
The season will include other outstanding projects, such as Josep Pons's performance with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the oratorio Elias by Felix Mendelssohn with the Gran Teatro del Liceo Symphony Orchestra and the choirs of the Orfeó Català conducted by Xavier Puig, or the Solemn Mass directed by Jordi Savall with Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Reial de Catalunya.
From Cecilia Bartoli to Lang Lang
The 2026-27 season of the Palau Grans Veus series will bring some of the most outstanding operatic voices of the moment, in a total of four concerts, plus two additional performances outside the subscription series. The stage will feature top-tier artistic pairings, such as Cecilia Bartoli and Lang Lang, and Lea Desandre and Thomas Dunford. It will also host the Palau debut of soprano Nadine Sierra and concerts with Juan Diego Flórez, Franco Fagioli, and René Pape.
The Palau Òpera series, in its sixth season, will reaffirm its commitment to bringing Baroque opera to audiences in concert or semi-staged formats. Three operas will be offered in concert version, plus one additional performance outside the subscription series. These are three operas by Handel, two of which will be the Spanish premieres: Riccardo Primo and Alessandro, in addition toAgrippinaOutside of the regular subscription series, and in homage to Beethoven, will arrive Fidelio with Pablo Heras-Casado and the Monteverdi Choir.
International tour with Dudamel
At the presentation of the New York Philharmonic's 2026-27 season on March 10, it was announced that the Orfeó Català and the Orfeó Català Girls' Choir will also participate in the first tour led by Gustavo Dudamel, from October 9 to 22, 2026. They will travel to the Philharmonie de Paris (Paris), L'Auditori (Barcelona), the National Auditorium of Music (Madrid), the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), and the Musikverein (Vienna), where the Palau choirs will perform a piece. In the transmigration of souls by John Adams, which the American composer wrote in homage to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attack, twenty-five years ago.
