Hangzhou Philharmonic announces its 2026-27 season: Das Rheingold on 13 November, four dated concerts, none yet on sale

The Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra announced its 2026-27 season — its eighteenth — on its WeChat account on the evening of 6 September. Until now this site listed the orchestra only when it played in Shanghai. From this season it also lists the orchestra's home season in Hangzhou.

Hangzhou is outside what this site normally covers. This season is listed because several of its concerts are worth the trip from Shanghai, not because the site has started covering the city. All four begin at 19:30. Hangzhou is about an hour from Shanghai by high-speed rail; check the last return service against the date you are travelling.

The announcement names roughly twenty-five concerts and reproduces brochure pages for five of them, carrying date, curtain time, hall, performers and programme. Four are listed here. The fifth, a children's concert called Stars of the Future (30 May 2027, 19:30, conducted by Yang Yang), prints no hall and no programme, so it is not listed yet. The remaining twenty exist only as prose with no dates; the orchestra's own site, hzpo.org, still lists the 2025-26 season.

The four:

12 September, 19:30 — The Light of Rome, season opening concert, Zijingang Theatre of Zhejiang University. Yang Yang conducts Respighi's complete Roman Trilogy, marking 90 years since the composer's death. This one is not at the orchestra's home hall.

13 November, 19:30 — Das Rheingold, concert version, Hangzhou Grand Theatre, Opera Hall. Markus Stenz conducts, Matthias Goerne sings Wotan, and twelve other singers complete the cast. This is the last instalment of a Ring the orchestra has staged over four years: Die Walküre in 2023-24, Siegfried in November 2024, Götterdämmerung in November 2025. The cycle therefore ends with the prologue rather than beginning with it.

29 November, 19:30 — Across East and West, Hangzhou Grand Theatre, Opera Hall. Yang Yang conducts. The first half is Zhou Tian's Gift and Ye Xiaogang's Caprice for violin and orchestra, That Which Kindles — commissioned by the orchestra and receiving its world premiere here, with Paloma So as soloist. The second half is Mahler's Fourth Symphony, whose finale is sung by Li Jingjing.

27 March 2027, 19:30 — Where Sorrow and Joy Meet: Yu Long, a Russian Night, Hangzhou Grand Theatre, Opera Hall. Yu Long conducts, with Lu Yiwen in Chen Qigang's erhu concerto La Joie de la Souffrance, followed by Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony.

None of the four has a published price or on-sale time. The orchestra sells through a WeChat mini-programme, and Damai carries no Hangzhou Philharmonic listing at all. This site will update when tickets are announced.

The announcement also states that the season is built around the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death, with all nine symphonies across nine concerts, and names Emmanuel Pahud, Dang Thai Son, Marc-André Hamelin, Benjamin Beilman and Ning Feng among the soloists, with Shui Lan, Zhang Guoyong and Li Xincao among the conductors. Those concerts will be listed as their dates are published.

See every classical concert in Shanghai on Shanghai Concerts