“The conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who is often drawn to Strauss’s orchestral epics in concert, doubled down in this blast of a performance. What a sound he drew from the Philharmonia — the strings were a blaze of scorching sunlight, the woodwind and brass bold and gleaming.” The Times, June 2023
In the 2023/24 season Santtu-Matias Rouvali starts his third year as Principal Conductor of Philharmonia Orchestra and continues as Chief Conductor of Gothenburg Symphony. He is Honorary Conductor of Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra close to his home in Finland.
In August 2023, Rouvali returned to the BBC Proms with Philharmonia Orchestra, performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Seong-Jin Cho and Strauss’s Aus Italien.
Rouvali continues to have regular relationships with top level orchestras across Europe, including Münchner Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as returning multiple times each season to New York Philharmonic. In December 2023 he conducts Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and as Artist in Residence at the Musikverein Wien he has concerts there throughout the season with Wiener Symphoniker as well as with his orchestras in London and Gothenburg on tour.
He works with many international soloists including Bruce Liu, Lisa Batiashvili, Seong-Jin Cho, Nicola Benedetti, Nemanja Radulović, Leif Ove Andsnes, Vadim Gluzman, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gil Shaham, Baiba Skride and Daniil Trifonov.
As well as his residency in Vienna, touring highlights of the season include a Residency in Salzburg with Gothenburg Symphony in November 2023 with music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Korngold, as well as extensive European touring with Philharmonia Orchestra with Rachmaninov, Beethoven and Shostakovich. Rouvali and Philharmonia Orchestra continue their important residencies together across the UK.
Rouvali also continues building an impressive discography. In January 2019 with Gothenburg Symphony, he released a celebrated first disc of an ambitious Sibelius cycle, pairing the Symphony No.1 with the early tone poem En saga. The album won the Gramophone Editor’s Choice award, the Choc de Classica, a prize from the German Record Critics and the prestigious French Diapason d’Or ‘Decouverte’. In February 2020 they released the second volume, which features Sibelius’ Symphony No.2 and King Christian II, which has also been immediately awarded a Choc de Classica award. The third disc - Sibelius’ Symphonies Nos. 3, 5 & Pohjola's Daughter - was released in October 2022, awarded the Radio Classique ‘TROPHÉE’ the following month. Philharmonia Records first release – a double CD album Santtu conducts Strauss – was released in March 2023 following on from recent releases of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. In September 2023, a new series Musical Masterpieces is released on Sky Arts. It will feature Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture performed by Rouvali and Philharmonia Orchestra, opening up different aspects of the music, and sharing Rouvali’s insights and interpretation of the piece.
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
