With a history steeped in tradition, the courage to take its own stance and an enduring joy of discovery, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra is the beating heart of the classical music metropolis of Vienna. For more than 120 years, the orchestra has been shaping and shaping the unique sound culture of its home city and manages to combine the past, present and future like no other. In 2025, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will celebrate its 125th birthday.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 125th anniversary with a very special concert season, which is also the first season of its new chief conductor Petr Popelka . In numerous concerts, the orchestra will revisit its history, including works premiered by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Former chief conductors such as Philippe Jordan and Fabio Luisi will also return. The list of anniversary guests alongside Petr Popelka and Principal Guest Conductor Marie Jacquot is international and diverse. Among others, the French conductor Natalie Stutzmann will make her orchestral debut, the Russian conductor and music director of the Munich State Opera Vladimir Jurowski will appear, as will the Chinese conductor Elim Chan, the British conductor Robin Ticciati, the French conductor Alain Altinoglu, the German conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the young Czech conductor Václav Luks. The season's major soloists include violinists Isabelle Faust and Renaud Capuçon, pianists Martha Argerich, Rudolf Buchbinder and Anna Vinnitskaya and cellists Kian Soltani and Edgar Moreau.
Petr Popelka at Spring in Vienna 2023 © Julia Wesely
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra was founded 125 years ago as the "Wiener Concert-Verein", whose purpose was "the organization of symphony concerts at moderate admission prices, as well as popular orchestral concerts, at which classical works are to be performed in appropriate combination with works of a lighter nature, but of musical value."
Artistic Director Jan Nast explains that the anniversary season is all about renewing these values in the present: "The Vienna Symphony Orchestra is a modern orchestra for everyone in the city, an orchestra that every Viennese should come into contact with at least once a year, an orchestra that is just as successful in its breadth as it is in its musical quality." The anniversary season under the motto "Orchestra of the City" has been prepared in recent years with the themes "Pulse of the City", "In the Heart of the City" and "Echo of the City".
"For me, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra is a modern orchestra that touches everyone with its passion and quality," says Petr Popelka. "It is such a great pleasure that in the anniversary season we are able to commemorate the pioneering spirit of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on the one hand and carry on the flame of a cosmopolitan and participatory orchestra whose message speaks to people on the other."
"Our journey to the anniversary season began four years ago with a major rebranding process in which the musicians were actively involved," explains Jan Nast. "Visually, we took our cue from the turn of the century, when the Vienna Symphony Orchestra shaped modern music. In the anniversary season, we are commemorating the legendary premiere at the Musikverein with the opulent Gurre-Lieder. Schönberg himself conducted the world premiere of his symphonic poem Pelleas and Melisande, and The Book with Seven Seals by Franz Schmidt was also a groundbreaking world premiere, which we are commemorating in the anniversary season." The Vienna Symphony Orchestra will also play Bruckner's 9th Symphony, which they premiered in a version by Ferdinand Löwe, and Gustav Mahler's 6th Symphony, at whose Austrian premiere the composer himself once conducted the orchestra. The commission to Marcus Nigsch for a new cello concerto continues the great tradition of world premieres.
Tours will take the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with Petr Popelka through Europe and to China, with Marie Jacquot through Germany and with Patrick Hahn through Austria. Petr Popelka will also conduct the new "Spring from Vienna" format, in which the orchestra will take up residency for the first time with four concerts on the Adriatic.
Guest conductor Marie Jacquot © David Payr
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra as opera orchestra
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra will once again be performing as an opera orchestra at the Bregenz Festival this year, including a new production of Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber (conducted by Enrique Mazzola), and at the MusikTheater an der Wien, where they will perform Mozart's Idomeneo (with David Bates), Vincenzo Bellini's Norma (with Francesco Lanzilotta) and the children's opera The Little Prince (conducted by Gábor Káli).
Chamber music at the Wien Museum
The six chamber music concerts are taking place this season at the reopened Wien Museum, where they are traditionally based on the individual exhibitions, admission to which is included in the concert price, along with a guided tour.
200 years of Johann Strauss
Naturally, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra is also involved in the anniversary year celebrating the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss (son). In cooperation with Johann Strauss 2025 Vienna, three projects will be realized, and so the orchestra will open the anniversary year with Petr Popelka on 1 January 2025 at zero o'clock with An der schönen blauen Donau at the Wiener Konzerthaus. The program also includes a concert performance of his operetta Carnival in Rome and the birthday concert on 25 October 2025 under Manfred Honeck.
New formats in the city
In addition to concert and opera performances, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will once again be performing in special venues with special formats this season. In addition to the Prater Picnic at the end of the school year, the Vienna Advent in St. Stephen's Cathedral is also back on the program, and there will once again be a cage concert and school projects. The Beisl concerts will move to the Karmeliterviertel in 2025 and the Im Klang and Fridays@7 formats also promise very special concert experiences. The film music concert Cinema:Sound brings James Newton Howard to the Musikverein - with his music for the films Pretty Woman, Fantastic Beasts, The Hunger Games and King Kong.
Pupils discover the world of classical music! © Julia Wesely
Open Symphony
With more than 30 concerts, 60 workshops, 10 open dress rehearsals and numerous other activities, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra offers thousands of children, schoolchildren , families and adults their first, in-depth or even unexpected contact with classical music every year. With the MusikTheater an der Wien, a family opera is once again on the program with The Little Prince. Chloé Dufresne conducts the family concert Love is in the Air and Katharina Wincor conducts Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals with dAnia and Sophie Druml at the piano. The cage concerts in Vienna's soccer and play cages, which are organized in collaboration with the cultural association ARGE Henriette, will also continue in the 2024-25 season. For the fourth time, the WSY Talent Prize will be awarded, which, in cooperation with the youth music competition "prima la musica", gives outstanding young musicians the opportunity to rehearse solo works with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and perform them at the ORF Radio Kulturhaus together with conductor Christoph Koncz.
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