In Xian’s sophomore season as music director, she starts the Symphonic Series with a dose of Romantic-era firepower in Bruch and Berlioz. The program opens with brilliant soloist James Ehnes joining the orchestra for Bruch’s soaring First Violin Concerto, famed for its hypnotic and tender adagio. Bruch provided no cadenzas for any of the movements, believing the concerto’s “virtuosity” was inherent in its shimmering beauty. Then, the ultimate orchestral fever dream: Berlioz’s darkly autobiographical Symphonie fantastique. Originally titled Episode in the Life of an Artist, its dynamic spectrum of moods and adventurous orchestration was unprecedented at the time. Berlioz said he composed it in “a mental boil” and it’s filled with unforgettable moments, including our first reference to this season’s “nature” theme in the third movement’s Scene in the country.
Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot returns for a program featuring three orchestral works from three different centuries that continue our season-long exploration of the natural world. British composer Frank Bridge brings a dissonant, fluttering zest to his 1920s-era Enter Spring, an ecstatic reawakening of the English countryside with all its color and birdsong. Pianist and contemporary music advocate Conor Hanick performs Samuel Adams’ No Such Spring piano concerto, a work that dramatizes spring’s violent conflicts as much as its flowering beauty. And Robert Schumann’s jubilant, Romantic Symphony No. 1, “Spring,” was written in the middle of winter, evoking anticipation for the turning of the season and reveling in the fleeting blooms that finally burst forth.
In between The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky completed yet another work for ballet, Petrushka, quoting Russian folk songs and a French ditty amid original melodies, shimmering orchestral textures and masterful instrumentation. In this lively work, a flute-playing showman charms three puppets to life — among them, the awkward clown Petrushka. The traditional folk music of southern Poland pervades Szymanowski’s Second Violin Concerto, performed by expressively dazzling violinist Leila Josefowicz. Jonathan Stockhammer conducts the program, which opens with Unsuk Chin’s Rocaná (Room of Light), a musical “translation” of light phenomena, meant to depict the behavior of beams of light: their distortion, refraction, reflections and undulations.
Feel the full might of the orchestra as Music Director Xian Zhang brings two monumental pieces from the classical canon to the Benaroya Hall stage. Rising piano superstar Tony Siqi Yun makes his Seattle Symphony debut with one of the most iconic piano concertos ever composed, Tchaikovsky’s First. This beloved masterpiece is a grand display of Romantic virtuosity that draws on Ukrainian, French and Russian folk and popular song. Then, the orchestra tackles Strauss’ still-ubiquitous, landmark tone poem, Also sprach Zarathustra. Based on Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical work of the same name, it pushed the boundaries of music and is indelibly associated with Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Seattle Symphony Chorale joins Xian and the orchestra for Mozart’s majestic Requiem, moving from fiery to fragile, from towering drama to heartache and tenderness. Though the work was left incomplete when he died, the compositional sketches Mozart made were faithfully completed posthumously. The resulting work is a showpiece for chorus and soloists that has been featured in film soundtracks ranging from Amadeus to The Big Lebowski. Opening the concert, our very own Principal Timpani Eric Schweikert takes center stage for the world premiere and Seattle Symphony co-commission of a Timpani Concerto by acclaimed percussionist Joseph Pereira.
The Seattle Symphony pays homage to two iconic composers of the Classical era. The program includes the first and last of Franz Joseph Haydn’s six Paris Symphonies, which overflow with wit, good humor and panache: his Symphony No. 82 (known as the “Bear” for its rollicking finale) and Symphony No. 87, the latter receiving its Seattle Symphony premiere performance. In between is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at his most elegant in the Piano Concerto No. 25, featuring world-renowned soloist Emanuel Ax, followed by the beloved, effervescent, all-strings serenade, Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), which, in the 21st century, remains among the most frequently performed of all classical compositions.
Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony is an epic “Symphony in Four Scenes” based on a Gothic poem by Lord Byron. Tchaikovsky broodingly dramatizes Manfred’s guilty torment over an unnamed sin. In an attempt to forget his past, Manfred seeks solace in nature, wandering the Swiss Alps, witnessing the majesty of the mountain landscapes and meeting its inhabitants, mortal and imagined. Will these visions help him to find peace? A paean to individualism and a rarely performed masterpiece full of drama and emotional turbulence, the Manfred is one of Tchaikovsky’s most awe-inspiring works. In contrast are two shorter pieces featuring brilliant saxophonist Steven Banks, who first made his Seattle Symphony debut in 2025 with Xian conducting. Banks reunites with Xian and the orchestra to perform Ibert’s sprightly 1935 Concertino da camera for alto saxophone and Banks’ own composition, Come As You Are, a moving ode to family, spirituality and Black sacred music.
Music Director Xian Zhang conducts a celebration of scintillating Spanish and South American dance rhythms. Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, featuring Concertmaster Noah Geller as the soloist, explores flamenco and other dance motifs of the Iberian Peninsula. Originally a ballet, but heard here as a suite, Alberto Ginastera’s Four Dances from Estancia utilizes sophisticated folk rhythms to evoke various aspects of life in the Argentinian countryside. Lastly, we hear from Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose brief and only visit to southern Spain during a naval tour captivated his senses; the vibrant music he heard on the streets of Andalucía inspired his Capriccio espagnole.
Charlie Chaplin directed and starred in the madcap silent film Modern Times, widely considered to be his greatest work due to its razor-sharp wit, comedic timing and of course, the music. In Chaplin’s final “Little Tramp” adventure, he plays a hapless factory laborer who clings to the hope of a brighter tomorrow alongside his beloved "Gamin" (Paulette Goddard). A self-taught musician with no formal training in composition, Chaplin also dictated the film’s score; his most famous song, “Smile,” accompanies the film’s last moments. Timothy Brock, a Seattle-born world authority on early 20th century works and silent film score preservationist, conducts the Seattle Symphony as the 1936 part-talkie comedy is projected above the stage in perfect synchronicity.
Orchestral virtuosity abounds in this expressive program conducted by Music Director Xian Zhang. To begin, The Moldau finds Bedřich Smetana capturing the beauty of his native Czech countryside and culture in a sonic voyage along the Moldau River. Then, GRAMMY-winning, rock-informed composer Steven Mackey’s new Concerto for Orchestra showcases the power of the Seattle Symphony from one corner of the stage to the other. Finally, in Scheherazade, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov utilizes the concertmaster’s violin as an evocative and stirring narrator while the orchestra whirls through tales of romance, betrayal, adventure and tragedy, all inspired by folklore from One Thousand and One Nights.
Conductor Hugh Wolff returns to the Seattle Symphony for the first time in over 25 years, joined by international star and beloved Tacoma-area mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and the Seattle Symphony Chorale to perform Berlioz’s exquisite musical rendering of the most famous play about star-crossed lovers, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Written as a “dramatic symphony” with chorus and soloists, it was indirectly inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth; the chorus is meant to represent the two warring families, solo voices the secondary characters, while the lovers themselves are represented purely by the orchestra, combining the immediacy of sung words with the expressive power of instrumental music. Rather than being a literal retelling, his musical depiction of the tragedy focuses on the intense emotions, love and death, and is rooted in Berlioz’s passionate response to Shakespeare and actress Harriet Smithson, who acted in the first and only version of the play that he experienced, and later became his wife.
Music Director Xian Zhang opens her three-week Nature in Music Festival with musical visions of nature, from the literal to the symbolic. Vaughan Williams’ serene Lark Ascending attempts to capture the feeling of a bird soaring on the wind and features Associate Concertmaster Helen Kim on solo violin. Next come Xian’s own selections from Grieg’s bucolic Peer Gynt, which begins with the most famous of all musical sunrises, Morning Mood. Webern’s Im Sommerwind (In the Summer Wind) reveals the composer at his most exultant and lush. Then, it’s on to Scriabin’s exotic Poem of Ecstasy, an adventure in luxuriant harmonies.
In the second weekend of our Nature in Music Festival, our musical tour takes us into the countryside. Composers have often found inspiration in nature and one of the great outdoor musical portraits is Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, which depicts an idyllic day in the countryside. Beethoven gives us one of his most buoyant melodies in the first movement, then takes us along a babbling brook, recreates bird songs, depicts a rollicking peasant dance and the fright of a thunderstorm before ending the work with the calm of a Shepherd’s Song of Thanksgiving. GRAMMY-winning soloist Gil Shaham opens the program with Antonín Dvořák’s seldom-played Violin Concerto, a model of the composer’s Slavic period and a work of subtle sensuality.
Music Director Xian Zhang presents the third weekend of our Nature in Music Festival, which finds Venezuelan-born composer and pianist Gabriela Montero performing her own effervescent Piano Concerto No. 1, a rhythm-driven rumination on Latin America that showcases the region’s charms and sensuality while making the statement, “Not everything that glitters is gold.” Ottorino Respighi takes us to Rome, exploring the harmonious relationship between Italy's “Eternal City” and the natural world. The Pines of Rome are one with the skyline, taking root in ancient ruins, shading the catacombs and standing in silhouette against the full moon. Animals, nymphs and even Neptune’s chariot pass by and play in the water of various Fountains of Rome.
Tragedy, despair, terror and violence come to a triumphant conclusion in Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony, written in the wake of Stalin’s death after it became clear that a more liberal era was dawning in the Soviet Union. It is widely considered to be an indictment of Stalin’s dictatorship and is one of the composer’s most expressive and inventive works, unencumbered by his existential fear of government retribution. Conductor David Afkham returns to our stage for this exciting program, which also features Seattle audience favorite Steven Osborne performing Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto, marked by its capricious, light-infused sections and beloved by pianists due to the composer’s deep understanding of the piano’s solo voice against the orchestra. Opening the program is Kaija Saariaho’s twinkling, airy Lumière et Pésanteur (Light and Gravity).
Two British stars — conductor Alexander Shelley and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor — return to the Seattle Symphony for a program of moody, triumphal magnificence. Grosvenor plays Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, a darkly Romantic piece that marked a resounding and much-needed success for the composer after the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony. Shelley then conducts Sibelius’ dramatic Second Symphony, long associated with Finland's struggle for independence from Russia but also for its composer, a “confession of the soul.” The evening opens with contemporary Canadian Indigenous (Métis) composer Ian Cusson’s musical depiction of Haruki Murakami’s mystical, alternate history sci-fi novel, 1Q84.
Conductor Nicholas Carter reunites with the orchestra to conduct Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, nicknamed “The Heavenly Life” and inspired by a child’s version of the delights of heaven, full of dancing and playing, good music and food. Australian composer Brett Dean's arrangement of a song cycle by Debussy, Forgotten Songs, is a Seattle Symphony premiere, and uses poignant texts by French visionary poet Paul Verlaine. The densely layered, emotional words are complemented by the composer's trademark impressionistic lightness, and feature guest soprano Patricia Westley, who also sings in the last movement of the Mahler. Strauss' ecstatic Dreaming by the Fireside takes its cue from another “dream,” the music evoking a dreamer's love and yearning for her faraway husband.
Of the four symphonies by Johannes Brahms, the Third is the shy child of the family, and the only Romantic-era symphony in which all four movements end quietly, without triumphant fanfare. But beneath this restraint lies some of the composer’s richest melodies and most irresistible warmth. Join Music Director Xian Zhang and the Seattle Symphony on a lyrical journey that encourages us to hear Brahms in a new way, especially the breathtaking third-movement scherzo. The young virtuoso Daniel Lozakovich makes his Seattle debut in another Brahms masterpiece, the Violin Concerto, an epic dialog between a heroic protagonist and orchestra, often called a "symphony for the violin."
If you prefer to experience Richard Wagner's epic music in appetizing bites at the concert hall rather than as a full course meal at the opera house, the Seattle Symphony offers The Ring Without Words, an arrangement of the operatic tetralogy for orchestra alone. Distilling 18 hours of music into a digestible 60 minutes, this chronological adventure includes such highlights as the Ride of the Valkyries, Wotan’s Farewell, Siegfried's Funeral March, Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene and Forest Murmurs. Viewed as a symphonic journey stripped of any literary program, the music expresses the nuance and power of Wagner as an orchestrator. Soloist George Li balances the program with the one-movement Piano Concerto No. 2 by Franz Liszt, a close friend and advocate of Wagner. Together, these two composers helped shape the "music of the future."
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