Love List: Sydney Symphony Orchestra

To celebrate the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s return to our Concert Hall with their 2022 season, we asked the Orchestra to make a Love List with their season highlights. Read on for their warm welcome to what awaits you in their season of new beginnings.

Our season marks a year of new beginnings for all of us. We have some great concerts and must-see live experiences, including concerts with our new Chief Conductor Simone Young and some brilliant guest artists.

We celebrate our return to the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall with Simone Young conducting Mahler’s Symphony No.2. In August, Simone Young is our guide through Brahms’ epic choral masterpiece A German Requiem and leads us as we join forces with Belvoir St Theatre to perform Mendelssohn’s magical music and scenes from Shakespeare’s enchanting A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Finally, we end with Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, a love story, but also a tale of rebellion against injustice and the struggle for individual freedom.

Our Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles joins us in two special concerts conducting Berlioz’s revolutionary Symphonie fantastique and Debussy’s colourful La Mer, a portrayal of the sea in all its shifting moods, excitement, and splendour.

We’re also looking forward to welcoming some brilliant guest artists. Hilary Hahn makes her long-awaited return to Sydney with Prokofiev’s powerful Violin Concerto No.1 and Grammy-award winning violinist Augustin Hadelich makes his Sydney debut with Brahms’ gorgeous Violin Concerto. One of the world’s greatest cellists, Daniel Müller-Schott, performs Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, Alexander Gavrylyuk performs Rachmaninov’s passionate Piano Concerto No.2, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet performs Ravel’s jazz-infused Piano Concerto in G. James Ehnes returns to Sydney to perform Beethoven’s monumental Violin Concerto, and brilliant Australian violinist Ray Chen performs Mendelssohn’s uplifting and enduringly popular Violin Concerto and Max Richter’s reimagined Four Seasons of Vivaldi’s masterpiece.

“Max Richter’s reimagined Four Seasons draws on the best aspects of Vivaldi’s original music, his incredibly famous violin concertos The Four Seasons. Richter captures all the drama and excitement of Vivaldi’s music but makes the familiar into something fresh and new. We’ll be joined for our performances by the incredible Ray Chen whose vivacious playing will bring this music to life.”

Sydney Symphony Orchestra on Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons: Spring 1