The 2026 Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert

Every year, as the days grow longer, Austria gets ready for one of the classical calendar’s highlights: the Vienna Philharmonic’s Summer Night Concert. This event, inaugurated in 2004, brings the prestigious orchestra together with some of the world’s most illustrious soloists — in front of an audience of up to 60,000 — in the gardens of Vienna’s world-famous Schönbrunn Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the 2026 edition, Swiss maestro Lorenzo Viotti and Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel (Rolex Testimonee since 2007) make their Summer Night Concert debuts in an international program of striking variety, featuring Sir Bryn in favorite opera arias from Boito's Mefistofele, Verdi's Falstaff, and Wagner's Das Rheingold, as well as the Broadway standard "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof. The program also includes Massenet's beloved "Meditation" from Thaïs, the spirited Russian Dance from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Korngold's delightful homage to "Waltz King" Johann Strauss II in Straussiana, a suite from Ravel's sumptuous Daphnis et Chloé (with the Vienna State Ballet in a choreography by Eno Peçi), an orchestral arrangement of Florence Price's lyrical Adoration, and even more surprises in store.

Photo © Julius Silver