Throughout the tour, the Philharmonic will perform highlights from "Brahms the Romantic: A Philharmonic Festival," its ongoing event. A work by Brahms will be performed at each of the 14 concerts on the tour: the lineup includes the Symphony No. 1, the Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, the Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Violin Concerto.

Additional tour repertoire includes Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole and Daphnis et Chloé, Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, Stravinsky's Le Chant du rossignol and Firebird Suite, and the Boccherini/Berio Quattro versioni originali della Ritirata Notturna di Madrid.

The Philharmonic tour marks a return to Mannheim for the first time in more than 30 years; the orchestra's only other visit to the city took place in 1975 with then-music director Pierre Boulez. The Philharmonic last appeared in Budapest in 1993, Cologne in 2002, and Warsaw, Vienna, and Paris during its 2000 tour of Europe — all with music director emeritus Kurt Masur. The orchestra's most recent performances in Frankfurt and Luxembourg were in 2005 under Maazel.

On May 3 the Philharmonic will launch a "virtual tour" (accessible from the homepage of its website) which will provide details on the Europe concerts, including a regularly updated online photo album.