Season Opening with Blomstedt

Season opening with Vladimir Jurowski

Christina Bock falls ill, Fleur Barron replaces her.Christina Bock unfortunately had to cancel her participation in the season opening concert of the RSB on September 9th at the Philharmonie Berlin due to illness. We are delighted that Fleur Barron has agreed at short notice to take on the vocal part in Arnold Schönberg’s “Vier Lieder für Gesang und Orchester op. 22”.It began as an association of radio ensembles in a united Berlin and has grown into a solid cultural unit. Celebrate with us at the anniversary concert at the Philharmonie.The concert will be broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur on 16 September 2024 at 8.03 pm.

Season opening in Bamberg

»This must be love!« These words were heard at the joyous announcement that the journey with Jakub Hrůša will continue for several more wonderful years. And he sums it up perfectly, because our Chief Conductor is completely happy with his »friendly and harmonious home«: he loves the city Bamberg, the amicable atmosphere in the orchestra and the whole team behind the scenes, the magnificent hall and the enthusiastic audiences – who return his love in such a way that the concerts with him have been constantly sold out for years. And since fate has been particularly kind to this close relationship since 2016, Jakub Hrůša has fittingly included the Beethoven symphony on the programme for our season opener, with its world-famous tones revolving around the much-invoked Fatum – and about which it was said early on that it is a »living image of great passion«. This symphonic blockbuster is combined with favourites from the heart of our Chief Conductor: With compositions from his and our Bohemian homeland, which he regularly familiarises us with on our journey together. And in doing so, we are always moving on to lesser-known repertoire. Dvořák's Violin Concerto, for example, is not heard very often, even though it is in no way inferior in quality to the great Romantic concertos of his colleagues: it is »original, full of cantilenas and written for accomplished violinists« – including Isabelle Faust, whose wish it was to play the solo part with us one day. However, before that, we should first congratulate this year's birthday boy, Smetana: With his fascinating tone poem »Wallenstein's Camp«, which for Jakub Hrůša is a »fantastic opener« for concerts – which makes the piece a perfect opening for the new season themed »What we love«.

Season opening with the Orchestra Academy

Since 2016, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has hosted an ”Orchestra Academy”. The international RSPO Orchestra Academy is a one-year, advanced academic programme for young musicians. Under the guidance of the section leaders from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Piteå School of Music, the musicians receive intensive training individually, in chamber music, and orchestral playing. They also showcase their talents through a series of public chamber music concerts – such as this one featuring this year’s academy students.The Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz was 23 years old when she wrote her Wind Quintet in 1932, the same year she graduated in composition and violin from the Warsaw Conservatory. The music from this period is in a neoclassical style, and the quintet is a fine example of this.Elizabeth Maconchy was a composer of great versatility and unfailing integrity, amply deserving of a British critic’s description of her as one of the most substantial composers these islands have yet produced. She studied at the Royal College of Music with Vaughan Williams, but she was attracted less by English pastoralism than by the central European modernism of Bartók and Janáček. The prize-winning quintet featured here is an early work, composed in 1932 when she was 25 years old. The Czech-born Antoine Reicha was a contemporary and friend of Beethoven and was primarily active in Paris, where he became a professor at the Conservatoire (with students including Hector Berlioz). Reicha is particularly known for his writings on music theory, but his chamber music is also regularly performed. Here, we hear the Octet in a finale that brings together all the musicians.

Herbert Blomstedt conducts

Herbert Blomstedt is Sweden's internationally most recognized conductor – ever. Among the orchestras he has worked with are the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, and notably the San Francisco Symphony, where Blomstedt was chief conductor for ten years. Blomstedt has also conducted the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra on well over 200 occasions, and on the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2017, Konserthuset named its grand conductor's dressing room after him.As he makes another cherished visit to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, it is with two favorites, Franz Berwald and Brahms. Memories from the Norwegian mountains came to him after a visit to Norway, and Berwald described the Nordic-sounding music as orchestral tonal painting. The restlessly bustling Sinfonie capricieuse is surrounded by mystique, for shortly after Berwald's death, the score disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The music was later reconstructed by Nils Castegren based on Berwald's remaining sketches.Johannes Brahms's first symphony is undoubtedly a masterpiece. The symphony was crafted over many years, with Brahms at times almost paralyzed by the performance demands of his idol Beethoven. However, the end result is magnificent and shaped with precision, intense emotion, and great beauty.

Summer Concert with Wagner

Helena Munktell’s romantic Suite for large orchestra is a piece that the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has never before performed in its entirety. The music was composed in 1895, and like the now often performed Bränningar, this suite was premiered in Monte Carlo in the late 19th century.Next, we hear the young Swedish soprano Jessica Elevant tackle Wagner's Wesendonck Songs – music filled with burning longing and celestial beauty. Jessica Elevant has recently gained attention for her participation in Daniel Nelson's opera Pride and Prejudice at the Norrlandsoperan. This marks her debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.Another debutant is Sergej Bolkhovets – as a conductor, that is. He has previously been a violin soloist with the orchestra. He leads the orchestra in Shostakovich's first symphony. Already in this symphony, Shostakovich demonstrates his phenomenal ability to handle the orchestra. It's personal music with humorous twists and great finesse. A remarkable symphonic debut by a 19-year-old composer.

In Passau Cathedral with Herbert Blomstedt

In Bamberg Cathedral with Herbert Blomstedt

Philharmonic Day – Sing-along with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Have you always dreamt of singing in some of the greatest hits of classical music? This is your chance! With the help of our luxurious ”backing band”, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, it’s time for you to participate and sing along in well-known music pieces. We dare to promise you a powerful experience.The sing-along is led by Emilie Power, organist and choir leader of the Katarina parish. Lyrics will be handed out ahead of the concert.Strollers and prams cannot be brought into Konserthuset Stockholm and are best left at home. A designated stroller tent is set up outside the entrance, where prams can be left, subject to space availability.

In St. Florian Monastery with Herbert Blomstedt

SZ-Charity-Concert with Herbert Blomstedt | Schubert

A milestone in the 19th-century symphonic repertoire: even Robert Schumann waxed ecstatic at the “heavenly lengths” of Schubert’s Great C-major Symphony. Schubert’s path-breaking achievement was to compose, only one year after Beethoven’s Ninth, a similarly ambitious work that nonetheless struck out on paths all its own. Mozart’s virtuoso motet Exsultate, jubilate, sung by the Russian coloratura soprano Julia Lezheva, provides stunning opening to our annual benefit concert, held for the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Advent Calendar. The programme will open with two of the Four Psalms for a cappella chorus by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Herbert Blomstedt, a Swedish conductor highly esteemed by the Munich public, will lend these pieces a delightful Scandinavian tinge.