The programme of Ravenna Festival 2026

Double date for the MKO, Münchener Kammerorchester, a historic ensemble based in Munich, ready to shine in Chopin's Concerto No. 1 together with the young Arsenii Moon, a piano talent of the first sphere, revelation of the penultimate Busoni Competition. First the orchestral players wink at the 'under-35s', with pages by Pärt, Mozart and Bartók (followed by a DJ set), while the next day master and pupil appear: Haydn in the debut of Creation and Beethoven with Symphony No. 5. At the centre is the heart of Chopin.

Director Enrico Onofri

The Alighieri Theatre

and Rocca Brancaleone

Riccardo Muti

It is confirmed as one of the masterpieces of the 20th century rediscovered and enhanced by Riccardo Muti Nobilissima Visione, Paul Hindemith's ballet composed in 1937, inspired by Giotto's frescoes in the Bardi Chapel in Santa Croce in Florence, depicting episodes from the life of St. Francis after his conversion. Selected in Concert Suite, the pieces dialogue in the best ideal form with the Festival's fil rouge, introduced by the dreamy and sophisticated nocturnal span of Contemplazione, a late 19th-century page by Alfredo Catalani.

Youth Orchestra

Luigi Cherubini

Rocca Brancaleone

Kent Nagano

Looking at the four different colours of Vivaldi's Seasons, composer Aziza Sadikova, roots in Uzbekistan, studied organ and composition in London. And she reinterprets them in Farbenzeiten, for oboe, cello, trumpet, percussion and orchestra, premiered in 2024 at the Philharmonie in Berlin conducted by Kent Nagano, standard bearer and dedicatee. The original proposal, in its Italian premiere, is paired with the naturalism of Beethoven's Pastorale, in a diptych entrusted to the music stands of the young Cherubini Orchestra.

Director Kent Nagano

Palazzo Mauro De André

Roberto De Simone

A rich tribute to the figure of Roberto De Simone is the layout that in two days sees first the Cappella Neapolitana conducted by Antonio Florio, proposing rarities from the 17th and 18th centuries by Caresana, Netti, Scarlatti, Fago and anonymous composers, declined on the theme of the Nativity; and then the next day Peppe Barra, in a new version of the Cantata dei pastori, which was rediscovered by De Simone. This will be accompanied by an exhibition of the original costumes from Gatta Cenerentola and a vernissage with Barra interviewed by Filippo Arriva.

Basilica of San Vitale

The Alighieri Theatre

Chorus & Ensemble 1685

Interweaving an ideal correspondence with the last verses of the Franciscan Canticle of the Creatures and the praise of Sora nostra morte corporale, the severe compositions, ashen yet full of hope, concerted by Antonio Greco, a fine connoisseur of the Baroque: they are two Motets by Johann Sebastian Bach, for choir, orchestra and basso continuo, and the Requiem by the Bohemian Jan Dismas Zelenka. The new Choir & Ensemble 1685 (Bach-Händel-Scarlatti trio year of birth) created within the Ravenna Conservatory is called upon to perform them.

Director Antonio Greco

Basilica of St Francis