With over 100 concerts a year and creative programming, it’s an orchestra constantly evolving. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has probably never been better.
The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is today among the most active streaming players worldwide. With its digital platform Konserthuset Play, the orchestra offers a comprehensive library of filmed performances which are available for free streaming anywhere in the world.
In the following sections, you can read more about the orchestra's history since 1902 – its historic chief conductors, guests and tours – and get acquainted with the members of the orchestra of today.
Seong-Jin Cho is piano soloist and the orchestra is led by Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft.
Thursday 18 April 2024 18.00Photo: Yanan Li
Ryan Bancroft. Photo: Yanan Li
Members from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Yanan Li
Seong-Jin Cho is piano soloist and the orchestra is led by Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft.
The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The Main Hall seating planSince winning the famous Chopin Competition in 2015, South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho has been one of the most in-demand soloists in the world. At this concert, he performs Saint-Saëns’ colourful Piano Concerto No. 5. Saint-Saëns himself remarked that this piece is reminiscent of a voyage on the sea. The concerto was composed in Luxor and because of those influences, it is often referred to as The Egyptian.
We also hear Rachmaninoff’s very last work: Symphonic Dances, in which he dreams of the Russia of his childhood. In addition, we hear American Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw’s dreamy and imaginative Entr’acte – music inspired by a string quartet by Joseph Haydn. Caroline Shaw describes how some music can transport the listener to another world, like the minuets of Haydn’s op. 77, “in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolour transition,” she says.
The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is led by award-winning American conductor Ryan Bancroft, who is chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra as of this season.
The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The Main Hall seating planThe extremes of emotion. Chief conductor Ryan Bancroft conducts and Isata Kanneh-Mason is piano soloist.
Wednesday 24 April 2024 19.00Isata Kanneh-Mason
Ryan Bancroft. Photo: Yanan Li
Members from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Mats Lundqvist
The extremes of emotion. Chief conductor Ryan Bancroft conducts and Isata Kanneh-Mason is piano soloist.
The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The Main Hall seating planBe prepared: this is a programme that traverses emotional extremes. It begins gently and melancholic – sorrow can be beautiful – and concludes with the emotional outbursts that arise when the thunderous blows of the orchestra's thirteen hammers resonate through history, to the bone and marrow. It’s music that shakes you to the core.
In between, entirely different music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. His first piano concerto is a musical fireworks display with dizzyingly fast runs across the entire range of the piano. At this concert, the rockets are ignited by the acclaimed British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason.
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was only seventeen when he wrote his wonderful overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Yet it is considered one of his first mature masterpieces, and the young composer manages to capture the full range of emotions that Shakespeare presents in his universally human comedy.
Emotions, indeed. British composer Anna Clyne composed the opening piece Within Her Arms in 2009, in memory of her mother. The music for string ensemble resonates with a tenderness and warmth reminiscent of for instance the Renaissance composer John Dowland.
Closing The Confession of Isobel Gowdie was composed in 1990 by the Scottish composer James MacMillan, who is featured in the International Composer Festival this autumn. Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft has testified to the transformative experience when he first heard the incredibly powerful work as a teenager.
Isobel Gowdie was burned at the stake during the Scottish witch trials in the 17th century. ”On behalf of the Scottish people, the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life”, writes MacMillan. In her memory, he composed an unforgettable and poignant ”requiem” for orchestra.
The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The Main Hall seating planThe Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The Main Hall seating planThe extremes of emotion. Chief conductor Ryan Bancroft conducts and Isata Kanneh-Mason is piano soloist.
Thursday 25 April 2024 19.00Isata Kanneh-Mason
Ryan Bancroft. Photo: Yanan Li
Members from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Mats Lundqvist
The extremes of emotion. Chief conductor Ryan Bancroft conducts and Isata Kanneh-Mason is piano soloist.
The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The Main Hall seating planBe prepared: this is a programme that traverses emotional extremes. It begins gently and melancholic – sorrow can be beautiful – and concludes with the emotional outbursts that arise when the thunderous blows of the orchestra's thirteen hammers resonate through history, to the bone and marrow. It’s music that shakes you to the core.
In between, entirely different music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. His first piano concerto is a musical fireworks display with dizzyingly fast runs across the entire range of the piano. At this concert, the rockets are ignited by the acclaimed British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason.
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was only seventeen when he wrote his wonderful overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Yet it is considered one of his first mature masterpieces, and the young composer manages to capture the full range of emotions that Shakespeare presents in his universally human comedy.
Emotions, indeed. British composer Anna Clyne composed the opening piece Within Her Arms in 2009, in memory of her mother. The music for string ensemble resonates with a tenderness and warmth reminiscent of for instance the Renaissance composer John Dowland.
Closing The Confession of Isobel Gowdie was composed in 1990 by the Scottish composer James MacMillan, who is featured in the International Composer Festival this autumn. Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft has testified to the transformative experience when he first heard the incredibly powerful work as a teenager.
Isobel Gowdie was burned at the stake during the Scottish witch trials in the 17th century. ”On behalf of the Scottish people, the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life”, writes MacMillan. In her memory, he composed an unforgettable and poignant ”requiem” for orchestra.
The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The Main Hall seating planThe Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The Main Hall seating plan