Former Gramophone Young Artist of the Year, Vasily Petrenko has extended his contract with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra until the end of the 2019-20 season. The partnership has not only worked 'at home', but has raised the orchestra's international profile with, in 2015 alone, visits to the BBC Proms, the Edinburgh Festival and a 10-concert tour to Japan. 'After two seasons with me at the reins, I think we have freshened up the orchestra and introduced some great music that hasn’t been heard in Oslo for many years. The idea is that we should always embrace the audience and be embraced in return by the audience, to be part of one large family and break down the artificial barrier between musicians on stage and the public in the hall. Creating this special energy between orchestra and audience, I think, can play a vital role in society today,' he commented.

The Oslo Philharmonic return to the UK in the spring with a programme that combines the fifth symphonies of Shostakovich and Mahler. The tour begins in Manchester with a concert at Bridgewater Hall (March 7) with dates at The Anvil, Basingstoke (March 9), London’s Cadogan Hall (March 10), Colston Hall, Bristol (March 11), Symphony Hall Birmingham (March 12) and Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden (March 13). Later next year, the orchestra and Petrenko will visit Germany, Switzerland and Austria.  

Petrenko and the Oslo PO has recorded Szymanowski violin concertos (with Baibe Skride) for Orfeo, Shostakovich's cello concertos (with Truls Mørk) for Ondine and, to launch a new relationship with the Norwegian Lawo label, Scriabin's Third and Fourth symphonies (the start of a proposed cycle).