After completing his current run of The Marriage of Figaro at the Royal Swedish Opera, Alan Gilbert remains at the Stockholm house for eight performances of Die Walküre, the second of the four operas in Wagner’s “Ring” cycle (March 22–April 21).

Back in Hamburg, he leads multiple spring programs with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. The first combines Richard Strauss’s autobiographical tone poem Ein Heldenleben with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, for which the conductor and orchestra join long-time collaborator Emanuel Ax (March 27–30). Next, Gilbert and the NDR give two programs at this year’s Hamburg International Music Festival, a five-week exploration of “The Future” (May 1–June 5). Both programs feature works that were ahead of their time. The first presents celebrated Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes in a pair of rarities – Debussy’s Fantaisie and Franck’s Symphonic Variations – alongside Dutilleux’s Second Symphony, “Le Double” (May 8–11). The second comprises Berg’s opera Wozzeck in concert, with a stellar cast headed by Matthias Goerne and Christine Goerke (May 23 & 25). Festivalgoers can also see Gilbert trade his baton for a viola, when he joins the Elphier Quartet for an evening of chamber works by Britten, Bruch, and Schulhoff (May 10). He and the NDR complete their Hamburg season with the world premiere of Venus in the Mirror, a new double concerto for cello and kamancheh by Iran’s Kayhan Kalhor. Featuring the composer and Yo-Yo Ma as soloists, this is the vehicle for the NDR’s season-closing concerts (June 27–29), of which the third will stream live to home audiences worldwide.

Beyond Hamburg, Gilbert leads two programs with the NDR on tour in Istanbul, Turkey, where they pair Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony with Brahms’s Violin Concerto, featuring Frank Peter Zimmermann (June 19), followed by a coupling of Brahms’s First Symphony and Chopin’s First Piano Concerto, with Rafał Blechacz as soloist (June 20).

Meanwhile, home audiences can enjoy Gilbert’s NDR partnership on a series of streamed recordings, captured live at the orchestra’s home. Already available are Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, the world premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Frontispiece, and Ravel’s La Valse, released just last week to celebrate the French composer’s 150th anniversary. Their interpretation of Brahms’s Third Symphony is due for release on April 18, and additional spring releases will be announced shortly.

To complete his spring lineup, Gilbert returns to another great German orchestra: Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony. He and the BRSO combine two works by Sibelius – the Finnish composer’s tone poem Night Ride and Sunrise and soaring Fifth Symphony – with the European premiere of a new cello concerto by Austria’s Thomas Larcher. A Bavarian Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Vienna Philharmonic co-commission, this will feature its dedicatee, MacArthur fellow Alisa Weilerstein, as soloist (June 5 & 6).