NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover makes a welcome return to the UK this autumn for a five-concert tour with Chief Conductor, Stanislav Kochanovsky
Tour itinerary comprises dates in Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, London and Basingstoke (Monday 12 to Friday 16 October)
Ingrid Fliter and Nikolai Lugansky join as soloists respectively in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Rachmaninov’s youthful Piano Concerto No.1
‘The NDR Radiophilharmonie is itself a fine ensemble, excellent in all departments and with a particularly impressive, firm and even-toned brass section,’ Seen and Heard International, review of BBC Proms concert, 14 September 2019.
Beethoven Night at the BBC Proms provided the perfect platform for the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover’s UK debut in 2019. The orchestra, based in Hannover, the capital city of Lower Saxony, is set to return to Britain this autumn for a five-concert tour under the direction of its Chief Conductor, Stanislav Kochanovsky. They will be joined by pianists Ingrid Fliter and Nikolai Lugansky, soloists respectively in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Maestro Kochanovsky has chosen to pair the concertos with Brahms’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 4, with programmes in Manchester and Birmingham opening with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, and those in Nottingham, London and Basingstoke with Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony.
The tour opens on Monday 12 October at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester before continuing to Symphony Hall Birmingham on 13 October, with Ingrid Fliter as soloist for both concerts. Nikolai Lugansky will join the touring party for performances at the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham (14 October), London’s Cadogan Hall (15 October) and The Anvil, Basingstoke (16 October). The partnership between Stanislav Kochanovsky and the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover has already drawn high praise from UK critics, with Gramophone selecting their debut album of works by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tcherepnin as one of its prestigious Editor’s Choice recordings in May 2025.
“It's a great pleasure as well as a certain responsibility to come to Britain with my dear colleagues,” says Stanislav Kochanovsky. “I am proud of the results of our creative work together and look forward to sharing them with our audiences on tour. The mix of Austro-German and Russian repertoire on this tour sums up the focus of our cooperation. We’ve joined forces and woven together our different musical traditions and cultural backgrounds through intensive work on projects like our Tchaikovsky recordings and recent Schumann-Tchaikovsky Festival. Our British audience will witness the orchestra's wonderful signature German sound as well as the shared vision we’ve created in the Russian repertoire.”
“We’re honoured to have fantastic soloists with us on this autumn’s tour,” notes Stanislav Kochanovsky. “Both Ingrid and Nikolai are incredible musicians. This will be my first time performing with Ingrid on stage. I am very excited about making music with her. I have performed often with Nikolai. For me he is one of the most reliable partners you could ever wish for on stage: technically brilliant and aristocratically elegant.”
The digital-only releases of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.1 ‘Winter Daydreams’ (28 August) and The Snow Maiden (9 October) are set to further underline the strengths of Kochanovsky’s work with the NDR Radiophilharmonie ahead of their UK performances. Collaborating with soloists Bella Adamova and Sergey Radchenko as well as the Capella St. Crucis Hannover, The Snow Maiden was recorded live in February 2026 during the opening concert of the orchestra’s Schumann-Tchaikovsky Festival and follows shortly after their release of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 ‘Winter Daydreams’.
Matthias Ilkenhans, Manager of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, stresses the importance of this year’s UK tour and the opportunity it offers to introduce British audiences to the flourishing creative alliance between Stanislav Kochanovsky and his Hannover band. “The orchestra has undergone a process of renewal since we last visited England and is performing at a new artistic level,” he says. “We have celebrated our 75th anniversary in style this season; amongst other things, we commissioned three major works and undertook some fantastic projects with our Artist in Residence, Matthias Goerne. It feels good and right to present ourselves to UK audiences again at this moment.”
The NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, which was formed in May 1950 as the Rundfunkorchester in Hannover, presents well over 100 concerts a year, including those given as part of its regular series at the NDR Konzerthaus in Hannover, as a guest at major German festivals, and on tour at home and abroad. The orchestra has built an impressive discography, which embraces everything from rarities by Atterberg, Graener and Röntgen to mainstream works by Brahms, Mozart and Prokofiev and reflects the striking breadth of the orchestra’s repertoire. In 2014 Hannover was appointed a UNESCO City of Music, the title an acknowledgement of the city’s vibrant music scene and cultural policy which offers exceptional conditions for music and artistry to thrive. The Hanoverian orchestra comes to the UK having celebrated its 75th anniversary across the 2025-26 season.
“Here in Hannover, we are naturally proud of our historic, albeit somewhat fortuitous, connection to Great Britain,” observes Matthias Ilkenhans, referring to connections forged after the accession of George I, ruler of the Electorate of Hanover, to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714. “In other respects, such as music, we still consider our home city to be a well-kept secret. Cities such as Munich and Berlin are regarded worldwide as centres of high culture. The rich and vibrant musical life of the city of Hannover receives far too little recognition; through international networking with the other UNESCO Cities of Music and tours, such as our upcoming one to England, we aim to change that.”