Göteborgs Konserthus Dazzling French Elegance

The Gothenburg Symphony, called "one of the world's most formidable orchestras" by the Guardian, has toured the USA, Europe, Japan and the Far East and performed at major music centres and festivals throughout the world. Chief conductor is Santtu-Matias Rouvali who started his tenure in 2017. Barbara Hannigan and Christoph Eschenbach are principal guest conductors since 2019. Already at the orchestra's very first years, the great Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar was appointed principal conductor, contributing strongly to the Nordic profile of the orchestra by inviting his colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to conduct their own works. Subsequent holders of the post include Sergiu Comissiona, Sixten Ehrling and Charles Dutoit. During Neeme Järvi's tenure (1982-2004), the orchestra became a major international force. In 1997 it was appointed the National Orchestra of Sweden. During his celebrated tenure as music director (2007-2012), Gustavo Dudamel took the Orchestra to major music centres and festivals in Europe, making acclaimed appearances at BBC Proms and Vienna Musikverein. The list of prominent guest conductors has included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Pierre Monteux, Herbert von Karajan, Myung-Whun Chung, Herbert Blomstedt and Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra also runs extensive concert projects for children, and regularly releases digital live concerts free on gsoplay.se. The orchestra has been involved in many prestigious recording projects, the latest one the complete Sibelius Symphonies with Santtu-Matias Rouvali for Alpha Classics. Earlier, the orchestra has issued over 100 recordings on BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, Farao Classics and several other labels. The Gothenburg Symphony is owned by the Region Västra Götaland.

British hornist Alec Frank-Gemmill divides his time between orchestra, chamber music, concerts and conducting. He is known for pushing the boundaries of the horn, both by commissioning new music, making transcriptions of chamber music and through time-honored performances, so-called Historically Informed Performances. Alec appeared on the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist program 2014–2016 and frequently appeared as soloist with the BBC orchestras, including performances of rarely heard repertoire by Ethel Smyth, Malcolm Arnold and Charles Koechlin. He was first horn player in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for ten years and took up the corresponding position with the Gothenburg Symphony in 2019. With the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Alec Frank-Gemmill performed concertos by Mozart (on natural horn), Ligeti, Strauss and Schumann. His recording of Strauss's First Horn Concerto was named Record of the Week in the BBC's Record Review. He has also recorded three albums for BIS, thanks to support from the Borletti–Buitoni Foundation. In recent years, Alec has shifted his focus to conducting. He studies with Ulrich Windfuhr and is part of Donato Renzetti's conducting class in Saluzzo, Italy. Alec is the founder and director of Odin Ensemble, a Gothenburg-based group that performs on instruments from around 1900.