The Haydneum – Hungarian Centre for Early Music is organising the Haydneum Festival of Sacred Music for the fourth time between 30 May and 7 June 2025. Once again, the event series will showcase some of the most beautiful sacred music compositions of the Baroque, Viennese Classical, and Early Romantic periods, performed by world-class artists.

The Festival aims to present the most well-known masterpieces, as well as the hidden gems, of early music in the harmonic context of spiritual experiences and sacred spaces. This year’s programme focuses on the works of Joseph and Michael Haydn, Werner, Du Mont, Albrechtsberger, Händel, Mozart, and Mendelssohn.

Audiences at the opening concert can expect to be transported by the works of Haydn and Mendelssohn, among others, performed by the Genevan orchestra Gli Angeli Genève under the direction of Stephan MacLeod. The returning performance of the Festival, The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross by Haydn, will be brought to life by the world-renowned Salomon String Quartet, conducted by Simon Standage.

Other ensembles that will grace the event series with their performances include the Purcell Choir, the Orfeo Orchestra, the Savaria Baroque Orchestra, the Capella Du Mont Chamber Choir, and the Budapest Strings. The central venue of the Haydneum Festival of Sacred Music will be the University Church in Budapest but the programme series always encompasses a location outside the capital as well; this time, the Saint Maurice Monastery in Bakonybél will open its gates to the event of the Festival titled ‘Regina’, thus emphasising the sacred dimension of the programme series.

A rather prestigious list of soloists will also step on stage during the Festival, including Katalin Szutrély, Ágnes Kovács, Zoltán Megyesi, Jone Martínez, and Thomas Hobbs. The orchestral pieces will benefit from the direction of several excellent conductors, such as the already mentioned Stephan MacLeod, who will conduct the opening concert and even showcase his vocal talent, György Vashegyi, who will lead the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra during their performances of historical pieces, László Gesztesi-Tóth, who will take the helm during renditions of works by the French Baroque master, Henri Du Mont, and last but not least, Dániel Erdélyi, who will guide the Budapest Strings during the closing concert of the Festival.