14th Chamber Music Festival – Platanias 23rd August – 4h September 2026
The Minoa Palace invites you to this year’s Chamber Music Festival “Dialogues through Time”.
Where: Minoa Palace Resort Conference Centre, Platanias
When: Concerts 24th – 31st August, at 21.00
Tickets available online here.
!!! For the concerts on Thursday, 3rd and Friday, 4th September 2026 at 21:00
at the Ancient Aptera Theatre, the Ticket Services Platform is not open yet.
“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.”
(Source: program notes, ticketservices.gr )
The 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.” (Programme notes)
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)
Source: Ticketservices.gr ( The Minoan Festival website has not been updated yet)
