New Music and Contemporary Music This Season

A morning in the forest that cannot last, and a love so violent it still resonates today. We open the season with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducting a programme that ranges from Torvund's depiction of nature to Prokofiev's ballet music from Romeo and Juliet.

• Øyvind Torvund  Symphonic Poem no. 1: Forest Morning
• Sergei Prokofiev  Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet

A chord that functions as a passport. A morning in the forest that cannot last. And a love so violent that it still resonates today. In this concert, you are get a programme that stretches from Stravinsky's Violin Concerto via Torvund's depiction of nature to Prokofiev's ballet music from Romeo and Juliet. Patricia Kopatchinskaja is the soloist and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts.

• Øyvind Torvund  Symphonic Poem no. 1: Forest Morning
• Igor Stravinsky  Violin Concerto
• Sergei Prokofiev  Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet

• Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla,  Conductor
• Patricia Kopatchinskaja,  Violin

From Finnish forests to Italian Mediterranean sun: the Oslo Philharmonic and conductor Dalia Stasevska invite you on a musical journey from a parallel world, via Finland, to Italy. Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Archora opens doors to the unknown, before Veronika Eberle interprets Sibelius' Violin Concerto, written during the composer's most turbulent period. The concert concludes with Mendelssohn's sun-drenched musical travelogue from Italy: Symphony No. 4.

• Anna Thorvaldsdottir  Archora
• Jean Sibelius  Violin Concerto
• Felix Mendelssohn  Symphony No. 4

• Dalia Stasevska,  Conductor
• Veronika Eberle,  Violinc

When wolves take over a Wagner opera, a Bavarian mythical creature is transformed into sound, and Stravinsky's nightingale sings in a symphonic poem, the stage is set for an extraordinary concert. We open the Ultima Festival with two Norwegian premieres: Øyvind Torvund's dreamlike electronic universe and Kristine Tjøgersen's Wolpertinger, inspired by German taxidermists and the strange creatures of the Alpine forest.

• Øyvind Torvund  Two Pieces for Orchestra and Electronics (commission)
• Igor Stravinskij  Le chant du rossignol
• Kristine Tjøgersen  Wolpertinger (commission)

• Ilan Volkov,  Conductor

Vivi Vassileva is the soloist in the Norwegian premiere of Sauli Zinovjev's percussion concerto A Savage Beat, inspired by Indigenous peoples' ritual use of drums and rhythms. Samuel Barber's Essay No. 2 was written shortly before he was called up for service in the Second World War. Musicians from Ung Filharmoni sit side by side with the orchestra's musicians in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. Marin Alsop conducts this concert marking the Ung Filharmoni's 10th anniversary.

• Samuel Barber  Essay No. 2
• Sauli Zinovjev  A Savage Beat
• Dmitri Shostakovich  Symphony No. 5

• Marin Alsop,  Conductor
• Vivi Vassileva,  Percussion
• Ung Filharmoni, 

What happens when one of history's most performed works is taken apart and reassembled by one of the most streamed living composers? Max Richter has done precisely that with Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, and when Baroque virtuosity meets the hypnotic drive of minimalism, something entirely new emerges. With Eldbjørg Hemsing as soloist, past and present merge in a musical journey that breathes new life into Vivaldi's most famous work.

• Max Richter  Seasons Recomposed

• Eldbjørg Hemsing,  Violin

This concert features the world premiere of Kristine Tjøgersen's new orchestral work Ambra. Dinis Sousa conducts the concert, which concludes with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, in which the choir and soloists sing of peace and community.

• Kristine Tjøgersen  Ambra
• Ludwig van Beethoven  Symphony No. 9

• Dinis Sousa,  Conductor
• Marita Sølberg,  Soprano
• Marianne Beate Kielland,  Mezzosoprano
• Daniel Frank,  Tenor
• Vladyslav Buialskyi,  Bass
• Oslo Philharmonic Choir, 
• Håkon Matti Skrede,  Chorus master

From Hollywood pioneer Korngold via Star Wars maestro Williams to the Russian romantic Rachmaninoff: Here, three composers meet who all mastered the art of creating powerful emotions through music.

• Erich Wolfgang Korngold  The Sea Hawk
• John Williams  Piano Concerto
• Sergei Rachmaninoff  Symphonic Dances

• Cristian Măcelaru,  Conductor
• Emanuel Ax,  Piano

It was in Paris in the spring of 1910 that a young, relatively unknown Russian composer would become part of music history. Igor Stravinsky was only 28 years old when his first major ballet premiered with the legendary Ballets Russes. The Firebird became the composer's international breakthrough. In his first concert with the Oslo Philharmonic, Pablo Heras-Casado conducts Stravinsky's legendary ballet.

• Igor Stravinsky  The Firebird

• Pablo Heras-Casado,  Conductor

In this concert, Pablo Heras-Casado presents three works that all revolve around light and darkness, but in entirely different ways. From Tjøgersen's flickering LED choreography, via Schumann's forgotten violin concerto with Vilde Frang as soloist, to Stravinsky's legendary ballet.

• Kristine Tjøgersen  Bioluminescence
• Robert Schumann  Violin Concerto
• Igor Stravinskij  The Firebird

• Pablo Heras-Casado,  Conductor
• Vilde Frang,  Violin

In this concert we hear Jörg Widmann's distinctive arrangements of music by his musical hero Felix Mendelssohn. We are treated to an unexpected dialogue across time, from the dreamy andante movement he played as a child to an ironic paraphrase on the wedding march. Together with Mendelssohn's majestic depiction of nature from Fingal's Cave and the powerful Reformation Symphony, the evening becomes one where reverence and innovation go hand in hand.

• Felix Mendelssohn  Andante (arr. Jörg Widmann)
• Jörg Widmann  Paraphrase über Mendelssohns Hochzeitsmarsch
• Felix Mendelssohn  The Hebrides
• Jörg Widmann  Danse macabre für Orchester
• Felix Mendelssohn  Symphony No. 5, “Reformation”

• Jörg Widmann,  Conductor
• Sarah Christian,  Violin

Few film composers have left as great a mark on film history as Hans Zimmer. From his beginnings on MTV as a keyboardist with The Buggles, he has – since his breakthrough with Rain Man in 1988 – contributed as composer to more than two hundred films and TV series. Among these are some of Hollywood's biggest films, such as Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, and The Dark Knight trilogy. Welcome to a concert dedicated to film music by the legendary composer.

• Klaus Badelt  Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Hans Zimmer  Driving Miss Daisy
• Hans Zimmer  And then I Kissed Him, from Pearl Harbor
• Hans Zimmer  The Crown
• Hans Zimmer  Inception Suite
• Hans Zimmer  The Lion King: Orchestral Suite
• Hans Zimmer  The Dark Knight Trilogy: Concert Suite
• Hans Zimmer  Maestro, from The Holiday
• Hans Zimmer  Chevaliers de Sangreal, from The Da Vinci Code
• Hans Zimmer  Gladiator
• Hans Zimmer  Up Is Down, fra Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
• Harold Faltermayer  Anthem, from Top Gun: Maverick

• Nick Davies,  Conductor
• Martin Holmen,  Host

Rolf Wallin has pushed boundaries throughout his career, and now we are invited to the world premiere of his new commissioned work for the Oslo Philharmonic. The programme also includes Anders Hillborg's Violin Concerto No. 2 with Ava Bahari as soloist. The evening concludes with Sibelius's beloved Symphony No. 5.

• Rolf Wallin  Commissioned work
• Anders Hillborg  Violin Concerto No. 2
• Jean Sibelius  Symphony No. 5

• Jukka-Pekka Saraste,  Conductor
• Ava Bahari,  Violin