2026 Arts Preview: The year ahead in classical music
David Kettle on the concerts to catch in 2026
The Night With… Haptic, Anatomy Rooms, Aberdeen, 23 January; Civic House, Glasgow, 25 January; Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, 31 January Glasgow-based composer, producer and general impresario Matthew Whiteside’s informal, sometimes provocative new music series continues with Haptic (formerly Ensemble 1604), who play new music on ancient instruments – think recorders, Baroque cello, theorbo, lute (plus the silvery countertenor of Rory McCleery). They collide together Stef Conner’s atmospheric, immersive Ghost Weavers with the confrontational, driving rhythms of Coming Together by US composer and activist Frederic Rzewski.
Hebrides Ensemble: Music for Time, Dumfries House, Cumnock, 1 February; Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, 2 February; Bun Sgoil Ghaidhlig Phort Righ, Portree, 6 February; Adelaide Place, Glasgow, 7 February Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is an iconic piece, written and premiered in a Nazi PoW camp, and colliding together tough modernism and lush melody in its meditations on spirituality and time. The Hebrides Ensemble have some profoundly moving insights into the piece, and they pair it on a Scottish tour with a new piece on similar themes by Bristol-based Arthur Keegan.
Scottish Opera: The Great Wave, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 12 & 14 February; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 19 & 21 February We all know the image – a towering pillar of water, slender boats apparently at its mercy, and snow-capped Mount Fuji in the background. Now Japanese-born, UK-resident composer Dai Fujikura has transformed the life of The Great Wave off Kanagawa’s creator, Katsushika Hokusai, into an opera – and it’s a barely believable tale of lightning strikes, identity changes, and a ceaseless quest for artistic perfection.
Glasgow Barons, Govan and Linthouse Parish Church, Glasgow, 12 February Conductor and force of nature Paul MacAlinden has embedded music deep in the Govan community through the many and varied tendrils of his Glasgow Barons projects – but it’s the strings of the original Glasgow Barons orchestra that perform this rich programme that ranges from Thea Musgrave’s Shakespeare-inspired Aurora to Sally Beamish’s trad-influenced Seavaigers to Tchaikovsky’s luscious Serenade for Strings.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, City Halls, Glasgow, 26 March; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 29 March In an already rich and impressive BBC SSO 90th birthday season, Debussy’s voluptuous opera of love, lust and death stands out. Chief conductor Ryan Wigglesworth is no stranger to the stage – his own opera The Winter’s Tale was admired at English National Opera a few years back – while he has a strong cast for this masterpiece of mystery and suggestion, including Huw Montague Rendall and Sophie Bevan as the illicit lovers.
Scottish Chamber Orchestra: The Language of Eden, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 26 March; City Halls, Glasgow, 27 March Jay Capperauld is riding high as the SCO’s Associate Composer, and The Language of Eden – getting its premieres in March – surely counts as one of his most ambitious and provocative creations, an oratorio on the origins of language itself. Capperauld has written it for starry British baritone Roderick Williams, who’s joined by the SCO Chorus and exceptional principal guest conductor Andrew Manze.
Royal Scottish National Orchestra: Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 27 March; Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 28 March Ravel’s one-act opera is an achingly beautiful, heartbreaking tale of a naughty child whose toys come to life to punish him for his mischief – and who finds comfort and love in the arms of his mother. Music Director Thomas Søndergård is sure to bring its colourful, zippy score to vibrant life, and before the interval, Lanarkshire-born BBC Young Musician finalist Ethan Loch is the soloist in Gershwin’s evergeen Rhapsody in Blue.
National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Perth Concert Hall, 10 April; City Halls, Glasgow, 11 April NYOS is a truly exceptional ensemble by any standards – not only a shining example of the best in youth music making, but also a brilliantly colourful, energetic band whatever it’s playing. That colour and energy will be put to good use in its spring concerts under conductor Grant Llewellyn, which shuttle us from rowdy, drunken northern nuptials in Maxwell Davies’s An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise to all the bustle of a southern capital in Vaughan Williams’s vibrant A London Symphony.
Dunedin Consort: Cantatas and Concertos, Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, 6 May; Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow, 7 May Under the scholarly but vibrant leadership of John Butt, the Dunedin Consort is one of Scotland’s musical treasures in Baroque and early music and much more besides. These two concerts focus squarely on Bach – whose music, in Butt’s hands, sounds always fresh and new – with two early cantatas alongside orchestral works by his contemporaries Telemann and Graupner.
Edinburgh International Festival: Berlin Philharmonic & Zurich Opera, Usher Hall & Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 26-30 August EIF’s two early-announced classical events hint at a particularly rich roster for 2026. The Berlin Philharmonic returns to Edinburgh after 20 years to bring the Festival to a gloriously exuberant conclusion in Scriabin’s Third Symphony, Le divin poème, alongside Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Elgar, while Zurich Opera brings four outings for director Adele Thomas’s striking production of Verdi’s A Masked Ball, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
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