Alan Gilbert this fall/winter: recording, livestreams, & Asian tour with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra; Rusalka, Magic Flute, & 500th anniversary at Royal Swedish Opera; & guest dates in Leipzig, Berlin, & Paris

(September 2025) — The new season marks Alan Gilbert’s seventh as Chief Conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (NDREO). Over the next six months, he and the orchestra join Joshua Bell for a five-city Asian tour, expand their OneGate Mediarecording series, perform Elektra in concert, and explore repertoire ranging from recent works by Anders Hillborg and Anna Clyne to the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Dvořák, and Prokofiev, with three of their programs streaming live to home audiences worldwide. As Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera, Gilbert helms the company premiere of Dvořák’s Rusalka, a seasonal staging of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and a concert celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra. The Grammy-winning conductor completes his fall/winter lineup with returns to the Berlin Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Asian tour, new recording, and more with NDREO

On the heels of three North European festival appearances with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Gilbert leads the orchestra’s Opening Night program, of which the second performance will stream live. Gilmore Artist Kirill Gerstein joins them for Rachmaninov’s “Paganini” Rhapsody and Richard Strauss’s youthful Burleske, and they complete the program with Mahler’s First “Titan” Symphony (Sep 5 & 6; livestream Sep 6). Their recording of the same composer’s Seventh prompted MusicWeb International to call Gilbert and the NDREO “selfless ambassadors for Mahler,” in a review that concluded: “Thanks to the expert pacing of Alan Gilbert, … we are in good hands.” Timed to coincide with the opening night, September 5 also brings the release of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite. Captured live at Gilbert’s 2022 New Year’s Eve concert with the NDREO, this marks the newest addition to their ongoing digital recording series, available from OneGate Media on all major streaming platforms. Further titles in the series are planned for release later this season.

NDREO Artist-in-Residence Martin Fröst is the clarinet soloist in Anders Hillborg’s Peacock Tales, alongside Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony and Restless Oceans by Grammy-nominee Anna Clyne (Oct 9 & 12; livestream Oct 9). Gilbert then leads the NDREO in two 20th-century Russian masterworks – Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony – together with two late-Romantic classics: Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan, and Saint-Saëns’s Third Violin Concerto (Oct 16 & 17). Their soloist is superstar violinist Joshua Bell, with whom Gilbert and the orchestra previously got their 2023-24 season “off to a dream start” (Die Welt, Germany). The violinist then partners them on an Asian tour (Oct 22–29), their first in two years. In Taiwan’s Kaohsiung and South Korea’s Seoul and Daegu, they reprise their first October program, now with Bell’s account of the Brahms Violin Concerto in place of Peacock Tales. In Taipei, they revisit their second October program and, in Shanghai, they undertake both programs at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival.

Early next year, Gilbert and the NDREO perform and record Britten’s sole Cello Concerto with MacArthur Fellow Alisa Weilerstein. Their concert program couples the concerto with the Second Symphony by Brahms (Jan 22–25), of whose Third Symphony their interpretation was recently chosen as one of Gramophone’s five “unmissable new classical recordings.” After joining members of the orchestra on violin for a chamber concert of quintets by Mozart and Brahms (Feb 2), Gilbert leads Beethoven’s mighty “Eroica” Symphony and choral settings of the Orpheus myth from Germany’s Hans Werner Henze, Finland’s Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Iceland’s Jóhann Jóhannsson, all featuring the NDR Vocal Ensemble (Feb 4 & 7; livestream Feb 4). Finally, the conductor and orchestra give concert performances of Strauss’s expressionist opera Elektra, starring Swedish dramatic soprano Ingela Brimberg in the title role, with Karita Mattilaas Klytaemnestra, Christina Nilsson as Chrysothemis, Benjamin Bruns as Aegisthus, and Andreas Bauer Kanabas as Orestes (Feb 13 & 15). The production follows their acclaimed stagings of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Dvořák’s Rusalka, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and, most recently, Berg’s Wozzeck, of which the Hamburg Abendblatt reported:

As Germany’s Klassik Begeistert affirmed, “Hamburg hasn’t heard such a brilliant Wozzeck for a long time.”

“Gilbert confidently navigates the rapids and cliffs of the horrendously demanding score. … The conductor proves himself to be the shrewd operatic conductor he is. … He lets the orchestra sometimes blossom in sound, sometimes vanish into nothingness, and then explode again at a volume for which even the term ‘forte-fortissimo’ is far too weak. Above all, however, he gives the solo voices the space they need.”

Rusalka, Magic Flute, and 500th anniversary concert at Royal Swedish Opera

The winner of a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, Gilbert has been Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera since spring 2021. He was subsequently appointed as Royal Court Kapellmeister by the King of Sweden, and his past company highlights include Wagner’s Parsifal, of which Opera magazine declared: “Musically, the performance was outstanding.” Gilbert leads two productions at the Stockholm house this fall/winter, starting with the company premiere of Dvořák’s Rusalka. Starring Australian soprano Lauren Fagan and Swedish tenor Daniel Frank, the Czech fairy tale opera receives a new production from Netia Jones, Associate Director of London’s Royal Opera (Sep 27–Nov 12). Over the holiday season, Gilbert helms a revival of Ole Anders Tandberg’s folksy, Swedish-language take on Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Danish tenor Jonathan Koppel sings Tamino, with Finnish soprano Emma Kajander as Pamina, Swedish baritone Helgi Reynisson as Papageno, Swedish bass-baritone John Erik Elebyas Sarastro, and Ukrainian coloratura soprano Tetiana Zhuravel as the Queen of the Night (Dec 18–Jan 29). Between the two operas, Gilbert leads a concert performance of A Faust Symphony, Liszt’s epic choral and orchestral setting of the Goethe tragedy. He and the orchestra will be joined on the venue’s main stage by a men’s chorus and Swedish tenor Michael Weinius (Nov 14).

Next year marks the landmark 500th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra, also known as Kungliga Hovkapellet. Founded in 1526, the ensemble is one of the world’s oldest active orchestras, and has a long history of performing both opera and symphonic works. During The Magic Flute’s festive run, Gilbert takes time out to kick off the orchestra’s year-long fifth centennial celebrations. Their star-studded concerts showcase the world premiere of a new commission from Sweden’s Torbjörn Helanderand the conductor’s interpretation of Beethoven’s incomparable Ninth Symphony, featuring vocal soloists Matilda Sterby, Miriam Treichl, Michael Weinius, and Ola Eliasson (Jan 17 & 18).

Guest engagements in Berlin, Leipzig, and Paris

Ever in high demand as a guest conductor, Gilbert returns to the podiums of two of Germany’s foremost orchestras this fall. With the Staatskapelle Berlin, he pairs Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony with Britten’s Cello Concerto, again with Alisa Weilerstein as soloist (Nov 24 & 25). Next, he leads the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestrain a program of Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps, Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, featuring Dutch brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen, and Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony, much of which was composed in Leipzig (Dec 4 & 5). It was in a previous collaboration with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, at a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at London’s BBC Proms, that Gilbert “found Beethoven’s fire, with clear and controlled playing in the earlier movements giving way to an explosive choral finale” (The Guardian).

To complete his lineup, Gilbert joins the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris for the French premiere of No! by Israeli-American composer Chaya Czernowinand for Honegger’s dramatic oratorio Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, or “Joan of Arc at the Stake” (Feb 20). The work is one that Gilbert has previously performed with both the New York Philharmonic, when The New York Times praised his “clear artistic and intellectual mission,” and the Berlin Philharmonic, with which he impressed Seen and Heard International with his “superb account” of the oratorio last year.

Alan Gilbert: fall/winter engagements

Sep 5 & 6*
Hamburg, Germany
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Opening Night Concerts
R. STRAUSS: Burleske in D minor (with Kirill Gerstein, piano)
RACHMANINOV: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (with Kirill Gerstein, piano)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1 in D, “Titan”
* The Sep 6 performance will be livestreamed.

Sep 27 & 30; Oct 4 & 10; Nov 4, 8, & 12
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Swedish Opera
DVOŘÁK: Rusalka

Oct 9* & 12
Hamburg, Germany
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Anna CLYNE: Restless Oceans
Anders HILLBORG: Peacock Tales: Clarinet Concerto (with Martin Fröst, clarinet)
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 7
* The Oct 9 performance will be livestreamed.

Oct 16 & 17
Hamburg, Germany
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
R. STRAUSS: Don Juan
SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No. 3 (with Joshua Bell, violin)
PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 1, “Classical”
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite (1919 version)

Oct 22–29: Asian tour with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

   Oct 22: Seoul, South Korea
   Oct 23: Daegu, South Korea
   Oct 26: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
   Oct 29: Shanghai, China
Anna CLYNE: Restless Oceans
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto (with Joshua Bell, violin)
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 7

   Oct 25: Taipei, Taiwan
   Oct 28: Shanghai, China
R. STRAUSS: Don Juan
SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No. 3 (with Joshua Bell, violin)
PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 1, “Classical”
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite (1919 version)

Nov 14
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Swedish Opera
Royal Swedish Orchestra
LISZT: A Faust Symphony

Nov 24 & 25
Berlin, Germany
Staatskapelle Berlin
BRITTEN: Symphony for Cello & Orchestra (with Alisa Weilerstein, cello)
MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 3, “Scottish”

Dec 4 & 5
Leipzig, Germany
Gewandhaus Orchestra
L. BOULANGER: D’un matin de printemps
POULENC: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (with Lucas & Arthur Jussen, piano)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1 in D, “Titan”

Dec 18, 20, & 26; Jan 6, 8, 15, 26, & 29
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Swedish Opera
MOZART: The Magic Flute

Jan 17 & 18
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Swedish Opera
The Royal Swedish Orchestra & Opera Chorus
500th Jubilee Concert
BERWALD: Estrella de Soria Overture
Torbjörn HELANDER: new work (world premiere)
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 (with vocal soloists Matilda Sterby, Miriam Treichl, Michael Weinius, & Ola Eliasson)

Jan 22–25: concerts with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
   Jan 22 & 25: Hamburg, Germany
   Jan 23: Lübeck, Germany
BRITTEN: Symphony for Cello & Orchestra (with Alisa Weilerstein, cello)
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2

Feb 2
Hamburg, Germany
NDR Chamber Concert
MOZART: String Quintet in G minor
BRAHMS: String Quintet in G
Alan Gilbert, violin; with members of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

Feb 4* & 7
Hamburg, Germany
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
NDR Vocal Ensemble / Klaas Stok
JÓHANNSSON: Orphic Hymn
RAUTAVAARA: Orpheus singt
HENZE: Orpheus behind the Wire
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
* The Feb 4 performance will be livestreamed.

Feb 13 & 15
Hamburg, Germany
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
NDR Vocal Ensemble
R. STRAUSS: Elektra in concert

Feb 20
Paris, France
Maison de la Radio
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Chaya CZERNOWIN: No! (French premiere of Radio France co-commission)
HONEGGER: Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher