Judith Weir | The Welcome Arrival of Rain

Saint-Saens | Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103

(Piano: Bertrand Chamayou)

Mendelssohn | The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26

Stravinsky | The Firebird Suite (1945)

 

*Program is subject to change

 

 

Chief Conductor of BBC Symphony Orchestra, Conductor Laureate of Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Honorary Conductor of Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Partner with Gürzenich-Orchester Köln a guest conductor at the highest international level and a prolific recording artist, Sakari Oramo’s performances combine crystalline structural cohesion with authority, elegance and passion.

 

Sakari Oramo celebrates the extension of his contract as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, leading them up to their centenary year in 2030 with a captivating season including the UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s HUSH, a focus on works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Britta Byström, and Dora Pejačević, and Busoni’s Piano Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, and Orchestre national de France.The 2024/25 season sees Oramo, newly announced as Artistic Partner with Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, embark on their tour to Japan. He returns to NDR Elbphilharmonie, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra amidst his ongoing collaborations with BBC Symphony Orchestra. Notable engagements from previous seasons include those with Wiener Symphoniker, Tokyo Symphony
Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

 

Throughout his career, Oramo has held numerous prestigious positions; Music Director of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1998-2008, Chief Conductor of Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2012, Principal Conductor of West Coast Kokkola Opera from 2004-2018, and Chief Conductor of Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008-2021. An accomplished violinist, Oramo was originally concertmaster of Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Oramo continues to champion new and rarely performed works with BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducting works by Carlos Simon, Kaija Saariaho Dora Pejačević, Grażyna Bacewicz, Doreen Carwithen and Grace Mary Williams. Oramo is a regular conductor at the BBC Proms – during the summer of 2024, he presented several Proms with BBC Symphony Orchestra including The Last Night of the Proms and a collaboration with the Sibelius Academy Helsinki and Royal College of Music London alongside performances of Holst’s Cloud Messenger, Kaija Saariho’s Mirage and An
Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss.

 

 

Bertrand Chamayou is one of today’s most strikingly brilliant pianists, recognised for his revelatory performances at once powerfully virtuosic, imaginative and breathtakingly beautiful. A leading interpreter of French music, his vast repertoire includes major bodies of work such as the complete piano works of Ravel, Liszt’s Etudes and Années de pèlerinage, and Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus. At the same time, the French pianist possesses a deep passion for new music, having worked with composers including Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, György Kurtág, Thomas Adès, Bryce Dessner and Michael Jarrell.

 

This past season saw him appear with the London Symphony Orchestra in Gstaad and La-Côte-Saint-André, playing a chamber music evening at Wigmore Hall, performing with Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Les Siècles Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Belgian National Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. A tour with Barbara Hannigan took the two musicians to Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, La Jolla, Rochester, Philadelphia, New York, Ottawa, Washington and Paris with duo recitals. Duo recitals with Sol Gabetta took place at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Gewandhaus Leipzig, De Doelen Rotterdam, Trieste and Bologna. This season, Bertrand Chamayou gives solo recitals in Clermont-Ferrand, Metz, Bordeaux, Poitiers, Perth, Paris, Dijon, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Toulouse, Lille and Oeiras.

 

 

BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO), British symphony orchestra, based in London and founded in 1930 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The BBC SO has long been renowned for its championing of 20th-century and contemporary music. Through concerts, recordings, and radio broadcasts, the orchestra has introduced contemporary works, presented programs of all-British music, and performed seldom-heard compositions. It also has offered a range of works by Romantic and post-Romantic composers.

 

Notable music directors (and chief conductors) have included Sir Adrian Boult (1930–50), Sir Malcolm Sargent (1950–57; also chief conductor of the annual Promenade Concerts summer music festival [called “the Proms”]), Antal Dorati (1963–66), Sir Colin Davis (1967–71), Pierre Boulez (1971–75), Sir John Pritchard (1982–89), Andrew Davis (1989–2000), and Jirí Belohlávek (2006–12). In 2013 Sakari Oramo assumed the post of chief conductor. Boult began the tradition of inviting contemporary composers to conduct and perform their own works in concerts. Arnold Schoenberg, Richard Strauss, Olivier Messiaen, Sergey Prokofiev, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, and Karlheinz Stockhausen have been among the most prominent of these composers. Some of the works were commissioned by the BBC SO; others were British premieres.