The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester is one of Germany’s leading symphonic orchestras and an ambassador of its culture. Led by their principal conductor, Alan Gilbert, the resident orchestra of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie will perform works by Liszt, Ravel and Brahms. The latter’s Piano Concerto No. 2 will feature one of today’s best-known pianists, Leif Ove Andsnes, at this concert in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.

The wait is over, as The Cleveland Orchestra returns to Müpa Budapest after twenty years. The Austrian Franz Welser-Möst has been standing at the helm of what is considered one of the best symphonic ensembles in the United States for twenty-four years, carrying on the legacy of his predecessors, including the Hungarian-born György Széll and Christoph von Dohnányi. At their Budapest concert, the Music Director, for whom the 2026–2027 season is the last with the orchestra, will guide them through two Second Symphonies – those of Martinů and Brahms – as well as Liszt’s symphonic poem Orpheus.

Vakhtang Kakhidze, a defining artist of the Caucasian region, will also perform in Müpa Budapest. The Georgian conductor and composer has always sought to reinterpret the cultural heritage of his homeland, and the intention behind his ambitious Requiem, which he completed in 2021, was to fuse Western classical music with Georgian folk music. The original soundscape of the work can be enjoyed at the festival courtesy of one of the most important groups to sing traditional Georgian polyphonic music, the Rustavi Ensemble.

The festival, which follows the fundamental values of Liszt’s inimitable oeuvre, has from the start sought to have programmes that represent the quality and diversity of genres that characterized the legendary composer. To the delight of Liszt aficionados, this year several of the performances will be dedicated to his legacy. His oratorio Christus was an uncompromising realization of his striking youthful ideas about church music. Following a concert at the Musikverein in Vienna – another event of the Liszt Fest – the performance of this work will close the festival in Budapest on the birthday of the composer, featuring Hungarian, Austrian, Slovak and Swiss singers, the Hungarian National Choir and the Pannon Philharmonic, with Gergely Kesselyák conducting.

With their Liszt Inspirations, Balázs Fülei and András Szalai select from the works of the elderly Liszt in the Budapest Music Center, at what they call a musical meditation. They will present cimbalom-piano paraphrases of Liszt’s late piano works, which they have released on their album, En Rêve – Liszt Inspirations.

Lovers of electronic music will also be treated to a special concert in October, with Autechre, one of the most innovative and most difficult to categorize formations of the genre, performing at the House of Music Hungary. Rob Brown and Sean Booth have been searching for and carving out new directions in electronic dance music since 1987; with the concert hall unlit during the performance, the setting will not be conventional either.

With FrenÉsie, their latest production, the FrenÁk Company will delve into the concept of reality, exploring how capable we are to leave our own fantasies for the sake of what is going on in the world.

The Danube Art Ensemble will also premiere their new show at the Liszt Fest, showing the many faces of Romany culture, with inspiration drawn from poetry and the visual arts. This is a tribute to the passion and joie de vivre that marks the culture of the Roma, featuring the Göncöl band, Franciska Farkas, István Szilvási, Pákó Horváth and Dominik Balogh.

Literature will again be part of the festival programme; in fact, audiences can also experience the interplay between music and literature. In Müpa Budapest’s Festival Theatre, the Liszt Fest will salute László Tihanyi, who turned seventy in March. This celebration of an extremely rich oeuvre will include The Iron Box, the latest work by this seminal Hungarian composer, which looks at Ferenc Móra’s secret love affair, drawing on letters and the author’s works.

The Autumn Margó Literary Festival will await book lovers between 15 and 18 October at the National Dance Theatre, with the best-loved authors and most exciting new books of the Hungarian scene and international literature, including a chance to meet Bernardo Atxaga, Steinunn Sigurðardóttir, Beatriz Serrano, László F. Földényi, János Háy, Edina Szvoren and Pál Závada, among others.

Written over a period of more than ten years, Erdő van idebenn (There’s a Forest Inside) is Marcsi Tóth’s first novel, which won the 2025 Margó Prize for Best Book of Prose. In Müpa Budapest’s Glass Hall, László Valuska will ask the author about the creative process, her plans for the future and the issues of living in non-metropolitan Hungary.