Fabio Luisi celebrates Danish National Symphony Orchestra’s 100th with Langgaard’s Music of the Spheres (Oct 23) and new Scriabin album on DG (Oct 24)
(October 2025) — Grammy- and ECHO Klassik Award-winning conductor Fabio Luisi, now in his ninth season as Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO), celebrates the orchestra’s 100th anniversary season this month with an ambitious concert featuring Danish composer Rued Langgaard’s Music of the Spheres for soprano, mixed choir, and two orchestras, along with Hans Abrahamsen’s orchestration of three of Langgaard’s Gitanjali Hymns for piano, and Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte and A Survivor from Warsaw (Oct 23). The next day, following up on the resounding success of their 2023 release of the complete Nielsen symphonic cycle, Deutsche Grammophon releases Luisi and the DNSO’s newest album, Scriabin: Orchestral Works, a complete survey of the composer’s works for orchestra featuring pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Julius Asal, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, tenor James Ley, and the Danish National Concert Choir, along with the orchestra (Oct 24). The anniversary celebrations continue the following week with live performances of Mahler’s monumental Eighth Symphony (Oct 30 & 31), and Luisi’s subsequent performances with the DNSO this season are highlighted by Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 along with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter (Nov 6 & 7), and a program comprising Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande and Wagner songs featuring soprano Sara Jakubiak (April 24 & 25).
Scriabin: Orchestral Works on DG
When Luisi and the DNSO released a three-volume Nielsen symphonic cycle in 2023, Gramophone declared the performances to be “quite marvellous – and in the case of the Fourth Symphony, incendiary”; the first volume was also named Gramophone’s Recording of the Year. The Classic Review likewise found the set to be “a nearly perfect mix of energy, exactitude, songfulness and comprehensive realization of the music’s complex moods and emotions.” Later this month, Luisi and the orchestra follow up on that success with the digital release of Scriabin: Orchestral Works, with the composer’s complete works for orchestra represented by live recordings from Copenhagen’s DR Koncerthuset. Guest artists on the album include pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing Prométhée, le Poème de feu (“Prometheus, The Poem of Fire”), pianist Julius Asal in the Piano Concerto in F-sharp, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and tenor James Ley as soloists for the Symphony No. 1, and the Danish National Concert Choir in both that work and Prométhée. The album also includes Rêverie (“Daydream”), Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3, and Le Poème de l’extase (“The Poem of Ecstasy”).
Also an accomplished perfume maker, Luisi has created a special fragrance as his personal anniversary gift to the musicians of the DNSO, inspired by the music by Scriabin and titled “Joie Éclatante” after a musical direction in the final movement of the composer’s Symphony No. 3: “avec une joie éclatante” (“with a bursting joy”).
Danish National Symphony Orchestra season
Last fall, Luisi and the DNSO released a recording of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, the first album in a projected long-range recording project encompassing Schoenberg’s complete orchestral works on Deutsche Grammophon, to be completed in 2030. Two more key Schoenberg works – the Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte and A Survivor from Warsaw – are featured in the upcoming performance along with the music of Rued Langgaard. The Danish composer’s magnum opus, Music of the Spheres for soprano, mixed choir, and two orchestras, was composed from 1916–18, but the first complete performance in Denmark was not until 1980, when it was performed by the DNSO under the baton of Thomas Dausgaard. The same orchestra and conductor performed the British premiere at the BBC Proms 30 years later, and the DNSO has recorded the work twice, along with all 16 of Langgaard’s symphonies. For the upcoming performance, Luisi complements the piece with Hans Abrahamsen’s orchestration of three of Langgaard’s Gitanjali Hymns for piano, inspired by Indian poetry, along with the Schoenberg works (Oct 23).
The following week, Luisi and the DNSO perform another towering masterpiece, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. They will be joined by the Danish National Concert Choir, the BBC Singers, the Copenhagen Boys Choir, sopranos Jacquelyn Wagner, Valentina Farcas, and Liv Redpath; mezzo-sopranos Wiebke Lehmkuhl and Jasmin Jorias; tenor David Butt Philip; baritone Christoph Pohl; and bass David Steffens (Oct 30 & 31).
Luisi led a season-opening performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Copenhagen in December, and his upcoming concerts include soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto on a program with Brahms’s Second Symphony (Nov 6 & 7). The conductor’s final Copenhagen performance of the season returns to Schoenberg with Pelleas und Melisande, along with Wagner’s Wesendonck Songs featuring soprano Sara Jakubiak (April 24 & 25).
Fabio Luisi: 2025–26 DNSO performances
Oct 23
Copenhagen, Denmark
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
LANGGAARD/Hans ABRAHAMSEN: 3 Pieces From Gitanjali Hymns
SCHOENBERG: Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte
SCHOENBERG: A Survivor From Warsaw
LANGGAARD: Music of the Spheres
Oct 30 & 31
Copenhagen, Denmark
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Jacquelyn Wagner, soprano
Valentina Farcas, soprano
Liv Redpath, soprano
Wiebke Lehmkuhl, mezzo-soprano
Jasmin Jorias, mezzo-soprano
David Butt Philip, tenor
Christoph Pohl, baritone
David Steffens, bass
Danish National Concert Choir
BBC Singers
Copenhagen Boys Choir
MAHLER: Symphony No. 8
Nov 6 & 7
Copenhagen, Denmark
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2
“Extra number” In the foyer after the concert
April 24 & 25
Sara Jakubiak, soprano
WAGNER: Wesendonck Songs
SCHOENBERG: Pelleas und Melisande