Hamburg

Hamburg's newest landmark states the city's oldest priorities: the Elbphilharmonie, a glass wave breaking over a brick warehouse, placed music literally on top of commerce — and its opening in 2017 gave the harbour city the most talked-about concert hall of the century. The gesture had seven centuries of preparation: the Free and Hanseatic City, still a sovereign state within Germany, built Europe's third-largest port, the copper-roofed merchant palaces around the Alster lakes, and the Speicherstadt — the world's largest warehouse district, UNESCO-listed, its neo-Gothic brick canyons rising from canals.

Hamburg's musical pedigree is aristocratic by any standard. Germany's first public opera house opened here on the Gänsemarkt in 1678; Telemann and C. P. E. Bach directed the city's church music for most of a century; and two of the greatest Romantics were born here — Mendelssohn and Brahms, the latter honouring his harbour-quarter origins all his life. The tradition continues through the Staatsoper — where Mahler once reigned as chief conductor — the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the Philharmonic State Orchestra.

And on the Reeperbahn, the port's sinful mile, another musical education took place: a young Liverpool band played its formative marathon nights here — "I was born in Liverpool," Lennon said, "but I grew up in Hamburg." Few cities can claim both Brahms and the Beatles as alumni. Hamburg can, with Hanseatic composure.