Leading British conductor Edward Gardner: BBC Proms & album release with London Philharmonic Orchestra, orchestral concert at Norwegian Opera, & European festivals this summer
(June 2026) — Recently hailed as “a conducting force to be reckoned with” (The New York Times), leading British conductor Edward Gardner returns to Europe after a string of U.S. successes with the orchestras of Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. On the heels of his fifth season as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), he and the orchestra revisit their celebrated interpretation of Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony, first on a new album release (June 26) and then live at London’s BBC Proms (July 27). Having also just completed his second season as Music Director of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, the conductor returns to the Oslo house for an orchestral program of Beethoven, Nielsen, and Grieg (Aug 21). Gardner completes his summer lineup at three European festivals, collaborating with director Deborah Warner on an operatic double-bill at Austria’s Tyrolean Festival Erl (July 3, 10, & 19), leading the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne at Germany’s Ruhr Piano Festival (July 9), and conducting the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in back-to-back programs at Switzerland’s Klosters Music (Aug 8 & 9).
An Alpine Symphony with LPO on disc (June 26) & live at BBC Proms (July 27)
When Gardner led the London Philharmonic Orchestra in an account of An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss in February of last year, Bachtrack marveled:
“From the atmospheric opening, the falling minor string scale prefiguring the glorious major sunrise theme, Gardner had the LPO on a tight leash. He never let up throughout the symphony’s single movement, that momentum achieved by never languishing in the big moments, and making the transitions as tight as possible. … The storm was suitably wild, with a mad climax, but once again, Gardner kept a steely control, within which the players could really let rip. And let rip they did. This was a majestic performance, and a glorious conclusion to another fine outing from the LPO, Gardner continuing to impressively raise their game.”
From June 26, home audiences worldwide can enjoy that same performance, when the orchestra issues Gardner’s live recording of Strauss’s monumental tone poem and elegiac Metamorphosen on its dedicated LPO Label. A prolific recording artist, the conductor has already been recognized with a Grammy nomination and multiple Gramophone Awards.
Gardner and the LPO also reprise their interpretation of An Alpine Symphony for their annual summer appearance at London’s BBC Proms. Their program opens with the UK premiere of Between Trees by Norwegian Grammy winner Kristine Tjøgersen, followed by Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne, featuring British soprano Louise Alder, a prize-winner at both BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the International Opera Awards (July 27). The concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Orchestral concert at Norwegian Opera
Heralded as “the finest British opera conductor of his generation” (The Telegraph, UK), Gardner has just completed his second season as Music Director of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet. By way of an upbeat to their next season together, he returns to the house for an orchestral concert showcasing Grammy-winning Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. Having been honored last year with the 2025 Sibelius Prize, Gardner bookends the program with works by two great Scandinavians: the Lyric Suite by Grieg and Fourth Symphony by Nielsen (Aug 21), of whose music his four-volume series with the Bergen Philharmonic has been called “outstanding” (The Guardian).
Returns to three European festivals
Before his return to the Oslo house, Gardner appears at three European festivals. At Austria’s Tyrolean Festival Erl, he reunites with British director Deborah Warner, Artistic Director of New York’s Park Avenue Armory in New York, with whom he previously collaborated on acclaimed English National Opera treatments of Britten’s Death in Venice and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. This time they join forces for new productions of a one-act opera double bill: Puccini’s Suor Angelica, with Oper! Award-winning American soprano Corinne Winters in the title role and Berlioz’s La mort de Cléopâtre, starring Gramophone Award-winning French soprano Véronique Gens (July 3, 10, & 19). It was Gardner’s season-opening account of the latter with the LPO that prompted The Times of London to declare: “You couldn’t ask for a more spectacular rendition of Berlioz’s cantata.”
Between Erl dates, Gardner heads to Germany’s Ruhr Piano Festival to lead the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne in a program of Debussy’s Prélude à L’après-midi d’un faune, Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps, and Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto, for which they will be joined by Grammy-winning French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard (July 9).
A month later, Gardner conducts the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in a pair of back-to-back programs at Switzerland’s Klosters Music festival. Their first features Glazunov’s Fourth Symphony and Gramophone Award-winning Soviet-born Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto (Aug 8). After showcasing German violinist Veronika Eberle, known for the “breathtaking beauty of [her] playing” (Classic Review), and British violist Timothy Ridout, gold medalist at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, as soloists in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante, their second concludes with Elgar’s iconic Enigma Variations (Aug 9). Recorded with Frank Peter Zimmermann and the LPO, Gardner’s account of the same composer’s Violin Concerto is an Editor’s Choice in this month’s issue of Gramophone, which pronounced the recording “superlative” and praised the way it “glows with honesty and insight.”
Successful collaborations with orchestra of Chicago, D.C., Dallas, Pittsburgh, & San Francisco
Gardner’s summer dates follow the success of his recent collaborations with five major U.S. orchestras, all with programs prominently featuring music by his compatriots. His return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra drew a five-star review from Bachtrack, which found that “impressive and subtle details teemed throughout this stupendous concert.” The reviewer appreciated the way “the easy mastery of Gardner’s conducting became manifest” in Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with Joyce DiDonato, while Walton’s First Symphony “showed an orchestra fully in tune with the conductor.”
Gardner made “a distinctive debut” with the Pittsburgh Symphony, where his “fresh takes on the familiar revealed a fruitful and sympathetic collaboration” (Bachtrack). After his return to the San Francisco Symphony, Seen and Heard International concluded: “Gardner certainly knows his way around English music … and a motivated San Francisco Symphony responded with vitality.” Similarly, with the Dallas Symphony, the Texas Classical Review admired his “savory performance of British works that highlighted the orchestra’s wide palette of instrumental and vocal colors.” Singling out their “searing Britten and Lutosławski,” the Washington Classical Review remarked that his visits to the National Symphony Orchestra “always reward the listener with electrifying performances and unusual repertoire.”
All told, Gardner proved himself “an ideal ambassador for British music,” as The New York Times observed in a dedicated feature under the headline: “A Conducting ‘Force to Be Reckoned With’ Comes Into His Own.”
Edward Gardner: summer engagements
July 3, 10, & 19
Erl, Austria
Tyrolean Festival Erl
Orchestra and Choir of the Tyrolean Festival Erl
BERLIOZ: La mort de Cléopâtre
PUCCINI: Suor Angelica
July 9
Essen, Germany
Ruhr Piano Festival
WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne
DEBUSSY: Prélude à L’après-midi d’un faune
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano)
STRAVINSKY: Le sacre du printemps
July 27
London, UK
Royal Albert Hall
BBC Proms
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Kristine TJØGERSEN: Between Trees (UK premiere)
CANTELOUBE: Songs of the Auvergne (with Louise Alder, soprano)
R. STRAUSS: An Alpine Symphony
Aug 8 & 9
Klosters, Switzerland
Klosters Music
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Aug 8
SCHUMANN: Ouverture, Scherzo and Finale in E
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Boris Giltburg, piano)
RACHMANINOFF: Scherzo in D minor
GLAZUNOV: Symphony No. 4
Aug 9
WAGNER: Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
MOZART: Sinfonia concertante (with Veronika Eberle, violin; Timothy Ridout, viola)
ELGAR: Enigma Variations
Aug 21
Oslo, Norway
Oslo Opera House
Norwegian Opera and Ballet
Norwegian National Opera Orchestra
GRIEG: Lyric Suite
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5 (with Vikingur Ólafsson, piano)
NIELSEN: Symphony No. 4