Tickets for the 14th Chania Chamber Music Festival are now available online. The main website at www.chambermusicfestival.gr has not so far been updated and at the time of posting still carries information about last year’s Festival; however, details of the full programme can be seen on the Ticket Services website at www.ticketservices.gr, where there is also a link for purchasing tickets.

The format is the same as last year, with a preliminary event being held in Heraklion and two free concerts at Aptera to conclude the series, as well as a lecture during the week of concerts at the Minoa Palace Resort in Platanias. According to the Festival’s programme notes, published on the Ticket Services site: “This year’s Festival program is built around the concept of duality: each concert presents works representing both the ‘old’ (Classicism and Romanticism) and the ‘new’ (the 20th century), while the relationship between them becomes a dynamic dialogue of contrast, expansion, subversion and complementarity.”

Every concert this year includes chamber music works requiring a substantial number of performers, ranging from five musicians (quintet) to nine (nonet), a choice which stems from a desire “to illuminate with greater clarity, intensity and immediacy the ideas underlying each program, while also offering audiences the opportunity to experience remarkable masterpieces that are not often heard in live performance.” While many of the performers have a long-standing relationship with the Festival, there are also a number of new faces, artists of international distinction including the Italian pianist Enrico Pace and the Turkish violinist Veriko Tchumburidze, winner of the prestigious Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition in 2016.

Again, according to the programme notes, “this year’s Festival encompasses an exceptionally broad spectrum of composers, historical periods and aesthetic worlds. The string quintet occupies a central place, with four masterpieces by leading composers of the 18th and 19th centuries – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms – featured across four separate evenings. At the same time, the innovations of the 20th century are prominently represented through performances of imaginative works by Bohuslav Martinů, Francis Poulenc, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Nikos Skalkottas, Dmitri Shostakovich and Olli Mustonen.”

The programme in detail
The Festival’s opening concert (Concert 1) will also be presented as an “Avant première” in Heraklion on Sunday 23rd July. Admission is free on production of an entry pass, with reservations to be made through the Ticket Service website from a date to be announced.

Concerts I to V and the lecture will then be held at the Imperial Conference Centre of the Minoa Palace Resort in Platanias. Admission is €15.00 with a reduced price of €7.00 for students, young people up to 25 years of age, the unemployed and people with disabilities. A season ticket for the 5 main concerts and the lecture is available at €60.00 and €40.00 for concessions,

Concerts VI and VII (both presenting the same programme) will be held at the Ancient Theatre of Aptera. Admission is free on production of an entry pass, with reservations to be made through the Ticket Service website from a date to be announced.

Avant Première: Sunday 23 August 2026, 21:00,
Manos Hadjidakis Garden Theatre, Heraklion
Heraklion Concert: Origins & Transcendence
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
String Trio in G major, Op. 9 No. 1 (1797-1798)
GEORGE ENESCU (1881-1955)
Octet for Strings in C major, Op. 7 (1900)

Monday, 24 August 2026, 21:00
Concert I: Origins & Transcendence
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
String Trio in G major, Op. 9 No. 1 (1797-1798)
GEORGE ENESCU (1881-1955)
Octet for Strings in C major, Op. 7 (1900)

Wednesday, 26 August 2026, 21:00
Concert II: Emotion & Lyricism Across Centuries
FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)
From Années de pélérinage, Première année: Suisse, S.160:
No. 6 – Vallée d’Obermann (1855)
BOHUSLAV MARTINU (1890-1959)
Piano Trio No. 2 in D minor, H. 327 (1950)
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87 (1845)

Thursday, 27 August 2026, 21:00
Parallel Event: Lecture (subject to be announced)

Friday, 28 August 2026, 21:00
Concert III: Intimacy & Universality
FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963)
Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano (1932-1939)
FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
String Quintet in C major, D. 956 (1828)

Sunday, 30 August 2026, 21:00
Concert IV: Contrasts & Convergences
BELA BARTOK (1881-1945)
Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin and Piano, Sz. 111 (1938)
OLLI MUSTONEN (b. 1967)
Nonet No. 2 (2000)
CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786-1826)
Clarinet Quintet in B-flat major, Op. 34 (1815)

Monday, 31 August 2026, 21:00
Concert V: Tension & Balance
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1944)
NIKOLAI MEDTNER (1880-1951)
Sonata-Reminiscenza, Op. 38 No. 1 (1922)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)
String Quintet in D major, K. 614 (1791)

Thursday, 3 September and Friday, 4 September 2026, 21:00
Concerts VI & VII: Tradition & Memory
NIKOS SKALKOTTAS (1904-1949)
Sonata for Solo Violin (1925)
ZOLTAN KODALY (1882-1967)
Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 (1914)
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111 (1890)