Göteborgs Konserthus Contrasts with Streich and Bruckner

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Göteborgs Konserthus, the funk gem at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2017-2018 season, Santtu-Matias Rouvali has been Chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony. Since the 2019-2020 season, Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor. We are also a proud partner of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium mentoring program focusing on young singers at the start of their careers. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra's chief conductor from 1907 to 1922. He gave the orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra. Under the direction of conductor Neeme Järvi from 1982-2004, the orchestra made a series of international tours as well as a hundred disc recordings and established themselves among Europe's leading orchestras. In 1996, the Swedish Riksdag appointed the Gothenburg Symphony as Sweden's National Orchestra. In recent decades, the orchestra has had prominent chief conductors such as Mario Venzago and Gustavo Dudamel, following Kent Nagano as Principal Guest conductor. Anna-Karin Larsson is CEO and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi chief conductor emeritus. The orchestra's owner is the Västra Götaland Region. The Gothenburg Symphony works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

Jukka-Pekka Saraste is one of the most prominent conductors of our time with deep insights into both romantic orchestral works and contemporary music by composers such as Dutilleux, Lindberg and Saariaho. In the spring of 2022, Jukka-Pekka was appointed chief conductor and artistic director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, starting in the summer of 2023. Saraste has been chief conductor of the WDR Orchestra in Cologne (2010-2019), the Oslo Philharmonic (2006-2013), the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1994-2001) and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1987-2001). Among his many acclaimed disc recordings are all of Sibelius and Nielsen's symphonies with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as Mahler's fifth and ninth symphonies with the WDR orchestra. With the latter, he has also recorded all of Brahms and Beethoven's symphonies. In recent years, Jukka-Pekka Saraste has developed a strong profile in opera. After concert performances of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, Schönberg's Erwartung and Bartók's Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, he has had great success at the Theater an der Wien with a new stage production of Mendelssohn's Elijah, directed by Calixto Bieito, and Korngold's Die tote Stadt at the Finnish National Opera. In the 2020-2021 season he conducted a new staging of Reimann's Lear at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich which will resume in January 2023. Saraste has made a number of appearances with the Gothenburg Symphony over the years. On his last visit in October 2021, he conducted B Tommy Andersson's new organ concerto Poseidon.