Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra / Hadelich / Honeck

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will give a festive opening to the 2026/27 season under its principal conductor, Manfred Honeck. The programme features works from [!!!!From the New World«: An orchestral fanfare by composer and conductor John Adams – who will be conducting the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time in May as part of the »Orchestras International« series – provides a festive opening.

Augustin Hadelich performs Barber’s Violin Concerto
Our featured artist, Augustin Hadelich, performs Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, which draws on the European Romantic tradition whilst also featuring American influences. Alongside sumptuous cantilenas and memorable melodies in the first two movements, it impresses with an extremely breakneck final movement featuring a dizzying perpetuum mobile.

Between spirituals and Ländler
Transatlantic ties also characterise the second part of the concert. Antonín Dvořák spent three years in the USA, where he served as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York. It was during this time that he composed his 9th Symphony, which was inspired by the music of the indigenous and African-American populations, but is also marked by a longing for his Bohemian homeland. The wide variety of musical ideas, of which Dvořák was so rich, come together here to form a magnificent musical whole.

The Season Opening Celebration
The concert in the Great Hall marks the start of a season-opening celebration to which we warmly invite all concert-goers: Look forward to culinary delights, refreshing drinks and musical surprises throughout the building – with exclusive short concerts featuring, amongst others, musicians from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the band Lusterboden. Let’s celebrate the start of the new season together – with music and inspiring encounters!