Franz Welser-Möst conducts

In 2018, conductor Franz Welser-Möst received the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s Eric Ericson Honorary Chair, and beginning in autumn 2020 he will lead the orchestra for two weeks each season. The collaboration is based on the excellent relationship that arose between the orchestra and conductor following their first concerts together, and which has deepened throughout the years.

Richard Strauss composed several pieces that described phenomena or environments that were beyond music. He called them tone poems. Aus Italien is one of the first and he referred to it as a symphonic fantasy. On a trip to the countryside, he was utterly overcome, which is evidenced in the music as we take a tour of the rural scenery, visit Roman ruins, behold the ocean from the shore of Sorrento and are fascinated by Neapolitan public life.

Composer, clarinettist and conductor Jörg Widmann often uses elements of older classical music in his imaginative compositions. He is one of Germany’s most acclaimed names in music and was tasked with composing a large oratorio for the opening of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg in 2017. The Babylon Suite is a version for large orchestra with music from his opera Babylon, which was a huge success at the Bavarian State Opera in 2012.