Karita Mattila and EP Salonen among the season performers.
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra begins its autumn season on 4 September under somewhat exceptional circumstances. Audiences are now permitted in the hall again, but to ensure sufficient distancing, only around 400 tickets will be sold.
Audiences will not be permitted to attend concerts by FRSO.
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra announced on March 12 that it would continue giving concerts in accordance with the spring season schedule. The concerts would be broadcast live on Yle channels but played to an empty hall. Over the weekend, the management nevertheless decided that a 100-player orchestra working in close proximity would constitute a risk to the musicians’ health Instead, the concerts will, until further notice, consist of music for small ensembles broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and Yle Areena.
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra has elected Britain’s Nicholas Collon as its next Chief Conductor. He will take over in autumn 2021, on the completion of present Chief Conductor Hannu Lintu’s agreed term.
The guest conductors will include Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The 2019/2020 season of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra opens with Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, a big coproduction by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) and the Helsinki Festival. Also enjoying a special status in the season’s varied symphonic offering are symphonies and concertos of Dmitri Shostakovich’s middle period.