Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft

The Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian's music is familiar to many from the delightful Sabre Dance of the ballet Gayane, and the Adagio from the ballet Spartacus, from which the swooning theme music for the TV series The Onedin Line was borrowed. Khachaturian unquestionably wrote music that captivates listeners.

Unfortunately, his other works have rarely been performed at Konserthuset. Here, it is Jean-Yves Thibaudet who takes on the vibrant and powerful piano concerto, with a beautifully flowing and dreamlike middle movement where the strings are accompanied by a flexatone (imagine playing on a saw!). The distinguished French pianist Thibaudet has been a champion of Khachaturian's music for many years.

Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft then leads the orchestra in the classic Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss. This tone poem, with its powerful – not to mention iconic – opening, is inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical novel. It is well known, of course, that Strauss's music was used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Stanley Kubrick actually also placed music from Khachaturian's ballet Gayane in the same film.

The concert opens with the world premiere of a newly written work by the young Swedish composer Zacharias Wolfe (born 1996). Here begins a new collaboration with the Royal College of Music in Stockholm: each season a newly written work by a master's student will be performed. Wolfe's orchestral work Held by Threads is the first.

Learn more about Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft

The Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian's music is familiar to many from the delightful Sabre Dance of the ballet Gayane, and the Adagio from the ballet Spartacus, from which the swooning theme music for the TV series The Onedin Line was borrowed. Khachaturian unquestionably wrote music that captivates listeners.

Unfortunately, his other works have rarely been performed at Konserthuset. Here, it is Jean-Yves Thibaudet who takes on the vibrant and powerful piano concerto, with a beautifully flowing and dreamlike middle movement where the strings are accompanied by a flexatone (imagine playing on a saw!). The distinguished French pianist Thibaudet has been a champion of Khachaturian's music for many years.

Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft then leads the orchestra in the classic Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss. This tone poem, with its powerful – not to mention iconic – opening, is inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical novel. It is well known, of course, that Strauss's music was used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Stanley Kubrick actually also placed music from Khachaturian's ballet Gayane in the same film.

The concert opens with the world premiere of a newly written work by the young Swedish composer Zacharias Wolfe (born 1996). Here begins a new collaboration with the Royal College of Music in Stockholm: each season a newly written work by a master's student will be performed. Wolfe's orchestral work Held by Threads is the first.

In connection with the concert, the Friends of the Philharmonic presents this year’s scholarships.

Learn more about Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has never before performed Gustav Mahler’s major early work Das klagende Lied – The Song of Lamentation – for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra. Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft is thrilled to finally take on Mahler’s youthful masterpiece. “It’s a rare and remarkable piece that should be a real draw for Mahler lovers out there,” says Bancroft.

Mahler began composing the work while still a student at the Vienna Conservatory. The composition took just over a year, and he was 20 when he completed it. However, it would be several decades before the music was performed, and Mahler made several revisions along the way. The text of Das klagende Lied is based on a folk tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.

The soloists are Swedish soprano Miah Persson, Irish mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy, Welsh tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas and Swedish baritone Arvid Fagerfjäll, together with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

The concert opens with the world premiere of a new work by this season’s composer, Tebogo Monnakgotla, followed by the imaginative Fairy Tale Poem by Sofia Gubaidulina (1931–2025). “Gubaidulina’s music has become something of an obsession for me. Fairy Tale Poem is a truly beautiful piece,” says Ryan Bancroft, who now begins his third season as Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has never before performed Gustav Mahler’s major early work Das klagende Lied – The Song of Lamentation – for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra. Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft is thrilled to finally take on Mahler’s youthful masterpiece. “It’s a rare and remarkable piece that should be a real draw for Mahler lovers out there,” says Bancroft.

Mahler began composing the work while still a student at the Vienna Conservatory. The composition took just over a year, and he was 20 when he completed it. However, it would be several decades before the music was performed, and Mahler made several revisions along the way. The text of Das klagende Lied is based on a folk tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.

The soloists are Swedish soprano Miah Persson, Irish mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy, Welsh tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas and Swedish baritone Arvid Fagerfjäll, together with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

The concert opens with the world premiere of a new work by this season’s composer, Tebogo Monnakgotla, followed by the imaginative Fairy Tale Poem by Sofia Gubaidulina (1931–2025). “Gubaidulina’s music has become something of an obsession for me. Fairy Tale Poem is a truly beautiful piece,” says Ryan Bancroft, who now begins his third season as Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft