Mirrors & Reflections

A Centennial Year for Swedish Radio and the Radio Choir

The year 2025 marks a grand centennial celebration for Swedish Radio and the Radio Choir. It’s a time for both tribute and reflection—on how the world has changed since the first radio broadcast and the choir’s very first note. This season’s theme, Mirror & Reflections, invites audiences to explore the past, present, and future through music.

Daniel Harding Ends an Era

After 18 remarkable years as Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding is stepping down. The 2025/2026 season will reflect the legacy he leaves behind, while opening the door to a new musical chapter.

Esa-Pekka Salonen Returns

Esa-Pekka Salonen, who concluded his tenure as Chief Conductor of the orchestra 30 years ago, returns as Artist in Residence alongside violinist Janine Jansen.

Guest Conductors and Musical Encounters

Maxim Emelyanychev assumes the role of Principal Guest Conductor and opens the season with pianist Francesco Piemontesi.
Thomas Adès leads the orchestra in a tender reflection on the music of Baroque composer François Couperin. South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son performs Lutosławski’s Paganini Variations, based on Niccolò Paganini’s famous Caprice No. 24 for solo violin.
Janine Jansen, together with Sir Antonio Pappano, presents Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1—a piece filled with echoes of the composer’s earlier works.
Eun-Sum Kim conducts the orchestra in Erich Korngold’s final Symphony in F-sharp major, dedicated to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and partly based on the film music Korngold wrote after fleeing Nazism and settling in Hollywood.

New Technology and Darker Soundscapes

The season also explores modern technology and bold sonic expressions through world premieres by Mirjam Tally and Olga Neuwirth, as well as Grand Guignol by Mikael Karlsson and Anna von Hausswolff—a work that, during the Baltic Sea Festival, celebrates the illuminating power of darkness.