Europe's best classical music festivals

While the UK's festival season is drawing to a close, the warmer climes of mainland Europe mean there's plenty of opportunities left to catch some alfresco tunes. Here's our pick of the shows to catch in the coming months.

The Puccini Festival

Where and when: Lucca, Italy, July–late August

In my mind’s eye, I’m in ‘Fitzcarraldo’, battling natives along the Pachitea river on a struggling steamship en route to building an opera house in Peru, the gorgeous arias drifting across the water doing their best to placate a raging Klaus Kinski. In reality, the arias are being played on a small boat chugging gently across the gorgeous Massaciuccoli lake en route to Torre del Largo to watch ‘Madame Butterfly’, just one of the productions featuring at this year’s friendly, unstuffy Puccini festival. Dress up or down, a la Italiana, either way you’ll enjoy top productions in a stunning setting for much less than you’d pay in most European cities. Lucca was home to the man behind it all – legendary composer Giacomo Puccini – and celebrates the fact with not just the annual festival, but also three museums in three very different parts of the region – they’re a great excuse to sample this beautiful (and relatively quiet) part of Tuscany, in particular the deeply underrated walled city of Lucca. While you’re here, it’s worth taking in the Pietrasanta in Concerto festival too. Held in a breathtakingly pretty cloister in an elegant, arty town, it attracts prestigious names – this year for example saw the likes of Michael Guttman, Karin Lechner and Nigel Kennedy play – and if you wander in during the late afternoon and early evening, you can often catch a rehearsal for free. Best of all, once you’ve done the culture, the beaches around Viareggio and super-posh Forte dei Marmi are some of the loveliest on the Med.
€33-129, concessions available www.puccinifestival.it

Lucerne Festival

Where and when: Lucerne, Switzerland, 8 August-15 September

This prestigious festival draws some of the biggest names in classical music. The setting of mountains, lakes, fanciful bridges and gorgeous vistas makes it a hugely appealing destination in its own right, but add in an eclectic programme (this year themed around the idea of faith) that’s as inventive as it is star-studded and it becomes a must for fans of everything from quartets and concertos to piano sonatas and symphony concerts. Highlights this year include appearances from pianists Murray Perahia, Maurizio Pollini, Radu Lupu, Andras Schiff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, conductors Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, Valery Gergiev, Simon Rattle and Philippe Herreweghe, and the LSO, Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Away from the main attractions, there are films, recitals and talks, too.
CHF30-320 www.lucernefestival.ch

Bayreuth Festival

Where and when: Bayreuth, Germany, July 25-August 28

Never one to undersell himself, German composer Richard Wagner conceived of a festival in which to perform his works early in his career, and in 1876 the Bayreuth Festival was born in a purpose-built theatre which Wagner helped design, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. It’s been held almost every year since then, is run by Wagner’s two great-granddaughters, and attracts huge names. This year’s productions include Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde, with conductors Christian Thielemann, Andris Nelsons, Philippe Jordan and Peter Schneider. Tickets are booked years in advance by die-hard Wagner fans, but later in the run it’s often possible to get tickets on the day that have been returned to the box office.
€15-280 www.bayreuther-festspiele.de

Festival de Wallonie

Where and when: Wallonia, Belgium, June 9-October 14

It might sound like something out of Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Scoop’, but Wallonia is the French-speaking southern region of Belgium, and rather confusingly, the Wallonia Festival, located across seven towns in the region, takes us on a musical journey around Spain and Latin America. More than a hundred concerts take in every form of Spanish music imaginable – from Arabic-Andalusian to Sephardic songs of the Middle Ages and, of course, tango and flamenco. The festival’s remit takes in the influence of Latin American music on international styles too, and while the emphasis is on 20th century classical events, there should be enough improvisational and experimental music and singing to keep modernistas happy too. And the settings are a dream, utilising old chateaux, abbeys, monasteries and cloisters across the region as wonderfully romantic backdrops to the music.
Various prices www.festivaldewallonie.be

MITO SettembreMusica

Where and when: Milan and Turin, Italy, September 5-23

Named for the two cities involved in programming and hosting this festival – Milan and Turin (Torino in Italian), MITO has expanded on the latter’s original and well-regarded SettembreMusica festival to offer a tantalising array of live concerts and events across theatres, piazzas, churches and courtyards in both cities. Prices are low and with an average of two or three events each day there’s lots to choose from. The original Turin event was the first to take classical music outside of theatres and into public spaces in Italy, and it now attracts a lively mix of Italians, from young families to teenagers on dates and well-heeled empty nesters – though this being Italy, they’re all well-dressed. A wide mix of events includes Get Well Soon, aka Konstantin Gropper, the young Berlin polyinstrumentalist likened to a German Thom Yorke, playing from a new album that draws on pop, orchestral, electronic, folk and classical.
Various prices www.mitosettembremusica.it

The Helsinki Festival

When and where: Helsinki, Finland, 17 August-2 September

Finland’s largest arts festival has an extremely strong music programme, with a lot of events free of charge. Classical, world and experimental music are the main genres, but all sorts of weird and wonderful things pop up – like Antti Sarpila’s tribute to Benny Goodman, in which the Great Helsinki Swing Band assist this beloved Finnish jazzmeister in celebrating 30 years of playing dance music, while everyone in the pretty Huvila festival tent goes bananas on the dance floor. Equally arresting are Metallica tribute band turned cello quartet Apocalyptica and indie rapper Blitz the Ambassador, while venues including a church crypt play host to chamber music concerts.
Various prices www.helsinginjuhlaviikot.fi

Steirischer Herbst Festival

Where and when: Graz, Austria, 21 September-14 October

This avant garde performing arts festival has been going for 40 years, offering a strong mix of theatre, dance, architecture, film, music, art and literature in unusual venues that artists occasionally respond to with site-specific performances – past locations for events have included abandoned factory buildings, swimming pools and underground mine tunnels. The city’s position in the eastern Styria region of Austria means that a lot of artists are drawn from Eastern European countries like Slovenia and Croatia, offering a rare chance to see emerging music and arts from former Eastern bloc countries. A highlight this year is the premiere of a new piece by the Slovenian female choir Carmina Slovenika composed by Heiner Goebbels, in which the composer mashes together the traditional choral music of this Maribor choir with classical and pop music, and partisan songs from the country’s recent past.
Various prices, from €14 www.steirischerherbst.at