»Rarities of Piano Music« at Husum Castle
Under the artistic direction of pianist Peter Froundjian, the one-week festival has been taking place in August in Husum Castle every year since 1987. The aim is to draw the public’s attention to works that, despite their high quality, have not found their way into the current piano repertoire. The “Rarities of Piano Music” consist of nine concerts, a matinee and an exhibition. Through the production of a live CD (at the Danish label “Danacord”) a selection of the works played is distributed worldwide.
News
Date: 13th of March 2026
Festival program 2026
The 40th Rarities of Piano Music, August 22-29
The 2026 festival program is now available. Look forward to many newly discovered treasures of piano literature, the popular Husum Piano Quiz, an exhibition about the composer, pianist, and author Walter Niemann, and a film about the pianist and inventor Josef Hofmann. Subscriptions are available from March 17. Ticket sales for members of the Friends of the Festival Association begin on April 14. Single tickets are available online and at all known Reservix ticket outlets from April 27.
You´ll find the programme here.
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Date. 16th of January 2026
Death of Jonathan Powell
Photo: Malcolm Crowthers
It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of pianist Jonathan Powell, who passed away in December 2025. He was a frequent guest at our festival and gave concerts at Husum Castle in 2004, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2015.
Our deepest condolences go out to his family.
Here you will find a link to an interview with Jonathan Powell from 2013.
Unfortunately, he left us far too soon. The interview, however, remains a precious memory of him.
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Date: 19th of September 2025
40 Years of “Rarities of Piano Music” – Anniversary Festival August 22-29, 2026
In 2026, “Rarities of Piano Music” will celebrate its 40th anniversary. The anniversary festival will take place from August 22-29, 2026.
The program will be published in mid-March 2026. Ticket sales for the festival will begin in spring 2026. The exact dates for subscription sales, for members of the Friends’ Association, and for individual ticket buyers will be announced on the website.
On the occasion of the anniversary festival, we ask you, as visitors, to participate in the following survey:
Is there a moment from the past 40 years of the festival that has stood out in your memory?
Which (musical) event moved you the most?
You can take the survey online here.
Where connoisseurs respect experts.
Le Paradis du pianophile est en Allemagne. – Un festival certainement unique au monde.
In not one of its recitals will you hear a note of the Standard repertoire. It’s not that the great masters are not revered – far from it. The people who come to Husum love the piano in all its guises.
Find out more about the festival in the book "Beyond the mainstream"
It would be superficial to consider the “Rarities of Piano Music” as “just another festival”, since from the start it understood itself as a necessary addition to the seasonal musical life in the cities. When Bryce Morrison writes in “Gramophone”: “What would we do without the annual Husum Festival?” it expresses the status of indispensability that has now been achieved.