Sakari Oramo trains his focus on firmly established international guest conducting relationships throughout the 2026-27 season
Conductor’s carefully constructed schedule includes world premiere of Brett Dean’s Phantoms and Sibelius with the Berliner Philharmoniker, revival of music by Heidi Sundblad-Halme, Busoni’s Piano Concerto in Hamburg, Bacewicz and Nielsen in Stockholm and concert performances of Berg’s Lulu in Cologne
‘Mahler’s richly composed works were performed with an exceptional palette in multiple variations by Oramo. He conducted … in total command, allowing plenty of room for each cluster of orchestral sound to reach its full range of expression,’ OperaWire, review of all-Mahler programme with the Berliner Philharmoniker, 16 May 2025
Sakari Oramo’s schedule of international guest conducting dates during the 2026-27 season is distinguished by the closeness of his relationships with a select group of world-class orchestras. It also reflects his determination to build compelling programmes and introduce audiences to new or rarely performed repertoire. He is set to give the world premiere of a new work by Brett Dean with the Berliner Philharmoniker, direct Ferruccio Busoni’s monumental Piano Concerto with the NDR Elbphilharmonie, return to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for its centenary celebrations and continue his fruitful association as the Gürzenich Orchestra’s Artistic Partner with concert performances of the two-act version of Alban Berg’s Lulu.
The Finnish conductor’s choice of repertoire and orchestras complements his ongoing work as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, consistently praised for its defining qualities of artistic gravitas and excellence. “This season fully implements a strategy that I’ve been thinking about and working towards for several years,” says Sakari Oramo. “It places the emphasis on quality over quantity, so it’s about doing better programmes with the orchestras I want to work with and only pieces that I want to do.”
His strategy begins with a return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie for two performances of Busoni’s Piano Concerto, with Kirill Gerstein as soloist, and Debussy’s Trois Nocturnes on Thursday 10 & Friday 11 December. “This combination of compositions works very well,” says Oramo. “Kirill and I performed the Busoni in Paris, Berlin and London for the centenary of Busoni’s death in 2024, and now we will do it again 160 years after he was born.” The five-movement Piano Concerto, completed in 1904, oscillates between vivid Romantic expression and austere counterpoint culminating in a transcendent finale complete with a setting for male voices of Adam Oehlenschläger’s ‘Hymn to Allah’ from his 1805 play Alladin, or the Wonderful Lamp.
Oramo will join the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and soprano Anu Komsi early in the new year to record a song cycle by the little-known Finnish composer, Heidi Sundblad-Halme (1903-73), founder-conductor of the Helsinki Women’s Orchestra. “Her works are now being rediscovered. I love her music, most of which dates from the 1930s to the late 1960s and was written for her own orchestra. It falls into the category of Naïvism and, while it sounds like it could have been written for children, it is very intricate. We will record several of her smaller orchestral pieces to go with her song cycle for soprano, flute and a compact orchestra.”
The new year also sees Oramo’s return to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in his role as its Conductor Laureate. Their programme, to be given on Thursday 28 & Saturday 30 January, opens with Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture, a short work for symphony orchestra that contains a striking breadth of contrasting musical ideas. It will be followed by Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Nielsen’s Symphony No.5. “These concerts are part of the orchestra’s centenary season,” he notes. “They’ve invited all their surviving former chief conductors back to help them celebrate this important anniversary. I look forward to being with them again after quite a long time away.”
Sakari Oramo has conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker on several occasions since making his debut with the orchestra in 2001. Their next programme together, to be given at the Berlin Philharmonie on Thursday 11, Friday 12 & Saturday 13 February, includes the first performance of Brett Dean’s Phantoms, set alongside Britten’s Violin Concerto, with Vilde Frang as soloist, and Sibelius’ Symphony No.5. “I’ve been entrusted with the premiere of this new piece by Brett Dean, who was a violist with the Berlin Phil for many years. It will be good to do more Sibelius with the orchestra, having already performed the Lemminkäinen Suite and Second Symphony with them in recent years.”
Sibelius in the form of Finlandia is on the bill for Oramo’s next round of concerts as Artistic Partner of Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra. The composer’s rousing tone poem will be followed by Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with Senja Rummukainen as soloist, and Nielsen Fifth Symphony (Sunday 21, Monday 22 & Tuesday 23 February). Their partnership resumes the following month for three concert performances of Lulu on Sunday 14, Monday 15 & Tuesday 16 March, to be given at the Cologne Philharmonie in the two-act version that Alban Berg completed between 1929 and 1934 and with Anu Komsi in the title role.
“My relationship with the Gürzenich Orchestra is going really well. I really love this orchestra and it’s always inspiring to be with them. They are an excellent opera orchestra, of course, and very fine in concert. I did a staged production of the two-act Lulu for Finnish television with West Coast Kokkola Opera and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki fifteen years ago, with Anu Komsi as the driving force behind it. I look forward to returning to it again in Cologne next year.”