On the heels of three North European festival appearances with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Gilbert launches their seventh season together with an Opening Night program, of which the second performance will stream live to home audiences around the globe. After joining Gilmore Artist Kirill Gerstein for Rachmaninoff’s “Paganini” Rhapsody and Richard Strauss’s youthful Burleske, they conclude the program with Mahler’s First Symphony, the “Titan” (Sep 5 & 6; livestream Sep 6). It was their recording of the same composer’s Seventh that prompted MusicWeb International to characterize Gilbert and the NDREO as “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 next season.

The conductor’s next program showcases NDREO Artist-in-Residence Martin Fröst as the clarinet soloist in Anders Hillborg’s Peacock Tales, flanked by Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony and Restless Oceans by Grammy-nominee Anna Clyne (Oct 9 & 12; livestream Oct 9). Gilbert then leads the NDREO in a pairing of two 20th-century Russian masterworks – Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony – 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 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 over the coming season, 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, this fall (Sep 27–Nov 12).