Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Strong line-up of pianists at Wigmore HallAmong a full spring and summer season at Wigmore Hall is a particularly strong line-up of pianists. Recitalists include Leif Ove Andsnes (January 12), Nelson Goerner (March 27) Richard Goode (May 7), Benjamin Grosvenor (May 24), Yunchan Lim (April 7 and 8), Víkingur Ólafsson (April 12 and 13) and András Schiff (June 7 and 9). In addition, Martha Argerich visits as accompanist to cellist Mischa Maisky (February 6) and Boris Giltburg completes his Beethoven sonata cycle.London and Berlin celebrate Pierre Boulez centenary2025 marks the centenary of the birth of Pierre Boulez (1925-2016). Over five months his music is celebrated at the Barbican in concerts by the London Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Quatuor Diotima and BBC Symphony Orchestra, of which Boulez was chief conductor in the early 1970s. The climax of the programme comes on March 30, when the BBC makes Boulez the focus of one of its “Total Immersion” days of concerts, talks and films.Meanwhile in Berlin, the Pierre Boulez Saal will host concerts and recitals by a range of international performers including the Jack Quartet, fellow composer-conductor George Benjamin, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the resident Boulez Ensemble, comprising members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.David McVicar returns to Wagner’s Ring cycleFollowing a generally well-received Das Rheingold earlier this year, David McVicar returns to direct the next two instalments of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Conducting duties are shared between Simone Young and Alexander Soddy. Camilla Nylund makes her first appearance in the cycle as Brünnhilde. Other major singers include Elza van den Heever as Sieglinde, Michael Volle as Wotan, and Klaus Florian Vogt as both Siegmund and Siegfried.Mark-Anthony Turnage’s piercing new opera premieres in LondonAll eyes will be on the Royal Opera on February 11 when the company gives the premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera, Festen. “Decorum descends into chaos in this piercing new opera of trauma and complicity,” promises the advance publicity. Based on the cult Danish film of 1998, the opera has a libretto written by Lee Hall, best known for Billy Elliot. It will be conducted by Edward Gardner, directed by Richard Jones, and the cast is led by Gerald Finley.Simon Rattle and Antonio Pappano conduct Janáček and StraussSummer highlights at the London Symphony include two contrasting operas in concert, Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr Brouček, conducted by former music director Simon Rattle, and Strauss’s Salome, conducted by his successor, principal conductor Antonio Pappano. Peter Hoare sings the role of the drunken Brouček in Janáček’s satirical time-and-space fantasy. Asmik Grigorian brings her much-lauded Salome to London for the first time in the Strauss.Ten days of MahlerAmsterdam has long prided itself on having a special reputation in the performance of Mahler. This summer the Concertgebouw presents the third Mahler Festival in its history, offering all Mahler’s symphonies and songs over a 10-day period. Performers include Klaus Mäkelä with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Iván Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Jaap van Zweden with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Petrenko with the Berlin Philharmonic.John Adams’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ arrives in New YorkWith its newfound enthusiasm for staging contemporary work, the Metropolitan Opera has four nearly new operas coming up. The biggest draw is likely to be John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra, arriving in New York from its premiere in San Francisco in 2022. The opera will be conducted by the composer, who has made his own libretto, taken mostly from Shakespeare. Gerald Finley and Julia Bullock sing Antony and Cleopatra in a production directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer.Shostakovich celebrationsThe world’s concert halls will be full of Shostakovich in 2025, marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. The Gewandhaus is hosting an exhaustive two-week festival that embraces concerts, recitals and talks, headed by Andris Nelsons conducting three orchestras — the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Boston Symphony and the specially formed Festival Orchestra — in the major works. Daniil Trifonov, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and the Quatuor Danel take part in recitals.Glyndebourne opens with expansive WagnerThe opening new production of next summer’s Glyndebourne will be Parsifal, the festival’s third Wagner opera. With the traditional long interval to enjoy a picnic in the gardens, the audience will have plenty of time to take in this most expansive of operas at its leisure. Robin Ticciati conducts, Jetske Mijnssen is the director, and the cast includes Daniel Johansson, Kristina Stanek and John Relyea as Parsifal, Kundry and Gurnemanz.Find out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning
