Wigmore Hall’s Stellar 125th Anniversary Festival Set For This Month
BBC Radio 3 will broadcast all 14 concerts featuring Lise Davidsen, Yunchan Lim, and Rhiannon Giddens
Wigmore Hall's 125th Anniversary Festival will open on 25 May 2026, bringing together six generations of musical stars from around the world for two weeks of celebratory concerts at the heart of the Hall's anniversary season.
BBC Radio 3 has confirmed that it will broadcast the Festival in its entirety from 25 May to 7 June 2026, with more than 20 live and specially-recorded evening, lunchtime and late‑night concerts across the schedule, and all available on BBC Sounds.
Centred on the Hall's inaugural concert date of 31 May 1901, the Festival opens on 25 May with a reimagining of that historic event. Composer and pianist Thomas Adès joins soprano Louise Alder, violinist Alina Ibragimova, pianists Joseph Middleton and Cédric Tiberghien in a programme reflecting the 1901 concert, with music by Beethoven, Schubert, Bach and Brahms. The evening also features the world première of Adès's new piano arrangement of 'Vesper (for Henry Purcell)' from his 2023 workForgotten Dances, performed by the composer.
The opening night also marks the launch of historian Julia Boyd's new book, There Is Sweet Music Here: The World of Wigmore Hall (Elliott & Thompson, 2026), which traces the Hall's journey from its Edwardian beginnings to its place today as one of the world's leading chamber music venues.
Across the Festival, audiences will experience an exceptional range of performances. Vocal highlights include Lise Davidsen in an all-Schubert programme; Ian Bostridge in Schumann's Dichterliebe and Liederkreis; Asmik Grigorian in French and Russian repertoire and Strauss's Four Last Songs; and Christian Gerhaher with pianist Gerold Huber.
Pianists include Igor Levit, Alexandre Kantorow, Angela Hewitt and Lukas Sternath, while ensembles and collaborators include the Leonkoro and Belcea Quartets, Les Arts Florissants with William Christie, Abel Selaocoe's Bantu Ensemble, Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi and Crash Ensemble, and London Voices in Stockhausen's Stimmung.
Chamber music highlights include Mendelssohn's Octet, Mozart's G minor String Quintet with Tabea Zimmermann and the Belcea Quartet, and piano quintets by Schumann and Brahms performed by Igor Levit with the Leonkoro Quartet. The Festival closes on 7 June with a rare complete performance of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Christian Tetzlaff, marking his 60th birthday.
John Gilhooly, Director of Wigmore Hall, said:“BBC Radio 3 has been an indispensable partner to Wigmore Hall for decades, and we are deeply grateful for this extraordinary commitment to broadcasting our entire 125th Anniversary Festival. Its support allows this celebration of our artists, our repertoire and our history to be shared with audiences far beyond the Hall, across the UK and internationally.”
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