New concert season 2024 -2025
A new concert season with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir in Berwaldhallen is coming up, with theme of “Love and Death” running like a common thread throughout. Daniel Harding makes his last season as Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Swedish Radio Choir celebrates its 100th jubilee.
The season begins with the Baltic Sea Festival, featuring world-renowned artists such as pianist Yuja Wang, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Visions and dreams are recurring themes in the festival programme.
The theme of “Love and Death” includes Pelléas and Mélisande, whose passionate but forbidden love has a fatal outcome; in musical settings by both Debussy and Sibelius; Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé fortunately ends with the lovers finding each other in the end, in spite of their ordeals; in The Ring of Fire and Love, Outi Tarkianen describes with music how a small child is brought to life in great agony.
During the season, Daniel Harding will conduct several exciting performances, including the world premiere of composer Jesper Nordin’s Silhouettes and Shadows.
For the new season, Daniel Harding has collaborated with French music journalist, Aliette de Laleu, whose book “Mozart was a woman” discusses women in the history of classical music. In Berwaldhallen, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Swedish Radio Choir will perform music by Valborg Aulin, Lili Boulanger, Mel Bonis, Kaija Saariaho, Britta Byström, Stacy Garrop, Missy Mazzoli, and a world premiere by Emmy Lindström .
The Swedish Radio Choir celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025 with a number of jubilee concerts, starting in February 2025. The ensemble was founded in 1925 as an important part of the Swedish Radio’s music offering and has for decades been regarded as a world-class choir.
In the 2024/2025 season, the Swedish Radio Choir will perform noteworthy works including Britta Byström’s Another Part of the Wood and Alfred Schnittke’s 12 Penitential Psalms. The next Eric Ericson Award finals await in October 2024. Out of nearly 100 candidates from 30 countries, eight will come to Stockholm to compete for the grand prize in one of the most prestigious competitions for young choral conductors. In the final, the three finalists will lead the Swedish Radio Choir in Berwaldhallen.
Jazz legend Nils Landgren has been the jazz radio’s Artistic Director since 2023. In the upcoming season, he will guest the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert featuring new and old jazz stars such as Joe Sample, Kurt Weill, and Michael Wollny.
Baritone David Risberg has been appointed the next Classical Artist in P2 for the 2024/2025 season. This involves participating in several concerts with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir during the year. In addition, the young singer will have a unique opportunity to commission a musical work by a composer active in Sweden together with P2.
Berwaldhallen is hosting some of the foremost international soloists of our time: violinist Joshua Bell, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, pianist Anna Vinnitskaya, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, cellist Gautier Capuçon, and violinist Daniel Lozakovich are just a few of them.
Children’s favourites Niklas & Radioapan, who introduce classical music to children in thrilling adventures, return, as do the sing-along concerts for the youngest. During the season, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s close collaboration with Stockholm’s El Sistema music school and the Stockholm Youth Symphony Orchestra (SUSO) continues.
During the 2024/2025 concert season, both the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir will perform cross-genre concerts with some of the country’s hottest artists. First Aid Kit and Seinabo Sey will perform their songs in a symphonic setting under the direction of Erik Arvinder and Jonas Nydesjö respectively. Superstar Lana Del Ray is the focus of a concert with the Radio Choir, which meets singers Moto Boy and Jennie Abrahamson, conducted by Hans Ek. The popular video game music concert SCORE with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and cicerone Orvar Säfström is also back in Berwaldhallen next year.
Several of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s own musicians will appear as soloists during the season, including flutist Laura Michelin in Jaques Ibert’s flute concerto, bassoonist Daniel Handsworth in Mozart’s bassoon concerto, and violinist Henrik Naimark Meiers in Ravel’s Tzigane.
See all concerts here.
This year’s Baltic Sea Festival opens the season in Berwaldhallen with a program where visions and dreams is a common thread.
Festival dates August 23-31.