Following a highly successful tour of Asia with the NDR Elbphlharmonie Orchestra, Alan Gilbert is back in Stockholm where he will lead the orchestra of his home company, the Royal Swedish Opera, in a concert performance of A Faust Symphony, Liszt’s epic choral and orchestral setting of the Goethe tragedy, on November 14th. He and the Royal Swedish Orchestra, which will celebrate its 500th anniversary in 2026, will be joined on the venue’s main stage by a men’s chorus and Swedish tenor Michael Weinius.
Ever in high demand as a guest conductor, Gilbert soon returns to the podiums of two of Germany’s foremost orchestras. With the Staatskapelle Berlin, he pairs Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony with Britten’s Cello Concerto featuring Alisa Weilerstein as soloist on November 25. Then on December 4 & 5, the conductor leads the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in a program of Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps, Mahler’s Symphony No 1, “Titan,” and Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, featuring the Dutch piano duo of brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen. 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).
