Summers are always rather packed in my classical calendar. For the last three years now, summer means contacting the world’s major ensembles and opera houses to prepare Gramophone’s official preview of the season ahead; you can read this in the newly published October issue of Gramophone and on this website.

As I present the Classical Music show for British Airways in-flight entertainment, I find it incredibly helpful to give myself advance warning of where to be looking in an increasingly noisy and saturated world. I’m certainly travelling more widely as a composer and broadcaster; I’ve recently come back from trips to the US and Switzerland, visits which memorably included seeing a New York Philharmonic open-air concert in Central Park, coaching young performers for Classeek and hosting UNLTD artist interviews at the Verbier Festival; as I’ve made my early steps in my career, I’ve seen more of the world – and it’s a joy to reflect that in the Season Preview.

Perhaps most importantly, though, compiling the Season Preview is a way of checking the pulse of classical music; it allows me to spot trends worldwide, working out what’s new, what’s changing and what isn’t. So, what have I noticed?

It's rewarding to spot specific pieces and composers creep towards more regular repertoire status; Florence Price, looking at you (Randall Goosby tours her Second Violin Concerto this coming season). Mentioning Goosby, it’s doubly exciting to see specific young names gaining increasing traction worldwide, as each year passes.

Perhaps most notable this time is Yunchan Lim; he’s making his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, plus performing alongside the Royal Philharmonic and Minnesota Orchestras and the Orchestre de Paris.

Esther Yoo is another soloist I note appearing in more and more programmes, joining the Shanghai Symphony, Hong Kong and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras this coming season.

But perhaps most ubiquitous of all is Klaus Mäkelä, who’s on stage even on Christmas Day; he’s conducting the RCO Amsterdam in Strauss, Wagner and Unsuk Chin. Jingling bells an orchestration necessity.

There’s a continued sense of boldness and breadth to programming, too. In 2024/25, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra present Busoni’s Piano Concerto, enlisting the help of Esa-Pekka Salonen and Igor Levit; the West Australian Symphony Orchestra share Berio’s orchestral arrangement of the First Clarinet Sonata; the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra pair Tan Dun’s Double Bass Concerto with Hans Rott’s First Symphony; The Sixteen’s Choral Pilgrimage continues to pair Lassus with madrigals by Maddalena Casulana, the first female composer in Western Classical Music history to have a whole book of her works printed; the Iceland Symphony Orchestra champion other women writers like Lotta Wennäkoski, Louise Farrenc and Doreen Carwithen; while the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra underline how an ensemble can cement a sense of local and national identity by championing home-grown talent including Artur Lemba, Heino Eller and Helena Tulve. Indeed, far from hiding more obscure talent into the corners of the programme, they’re launching their entire season with Artur Kapp’s oratorio Hiiob, complete with a mixed, male and children’s choir.

Since classical music is an indicator of the period in which it’s created – a kind of social litmus test of the issues, concerns and feelings of the time – then compiling the Season Preview gives a pretty good sense of what we’re thinking about most these days.

It’s no shock that the environment and climate change figure high up the agenda for many ensembles. The Berlin Philharmonic’s February biennial will be called ‘Paradise Lost?’, exploring the beauty of and threat to nature, from Debussy’s La Mer to Brett Dean’s Fire Music, which was written in response to bushfires.

In the UK, as Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia, Santtu-Matias Rouvali will lead an autumn series theme of ‘Nordic Soundscapes’ exploring the link between music and the climate crisis from a Nordic perspective; three concerts will be accompanied by underwater footage of the Nordic coast. 

Speaking of the here and now, it wouldn’t be a programme without an anniversary; as a radio man, I can tell you an anniversary is a programmer’s dream! This season has plenty. Deep breath… the Leipzig Gewandhaus help mark 50 years since the death of Shostakovich; the centenary of Puccini’s death will be marked by Chicago Opera Theater; the 150th anniversary of Bizet’s death will be represented by Palazzetto Bru Zane; the Seattle Symphony perform eight pieces by Ravel in what will be his 150th anniversary; Schoenberg 150 will be celebrated at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie; the Hong Kong Philharmonic mark 200 years since Bruckner’s birth; and perhaps chief of the anniversary headlines, Pierre Boulez’s centenary in 2025 will be marked in style by the Boulez Saal Berlin and the New York Philharmonic (poignantly remembering their former Music Director in January by mounting one of the programmes he curated back in 1975).

Of all the anniversaries, I was especially pleased to see one composer getting major attention (it is a double anniversary, after all…). 2025 marks 125 years since the birth, and 75 years since the death, of Kurt Weill. Britain’s Opera North will showcase the musical he wrote with My Fair Lady lyricist-librettist Alan Jay Lerner; Love Life has been cited as a major inspiration to Stephen Sondheim and the genesis of the concept musical. The Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra will perform Weill and Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins, while the Deutsche Oper Berlin offers a new production of their Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Ditto the Teatro alla Scala, who present both pieces in a Weill triptych that also features Happy End.

All of this points to the continued creativity and vitality of classical music today. A single ensemble or venue recognises the many audiences they can reach. In October alone, London’s Smith Square Hall – formerly St John’s Smith Square – will host the Blue Light Symphony Orchestra, the world’s only orchestra for emergency services, followed by a Halloween night and even a wine tasting event paired with music courtesy of the London Mozart Players.

In Germany, a single venue like the Aalto Music Theatre Essen can present My Fair Lady, Berio, Stockhausen and Ferde Grofe’s Mississippi Suite in the space of three months.

All these programmes represent the ever-varied colours of classical music and throw caution to the myth that classical programming is a safe set of repertory familiars and risk aversion. No, classical equals creative and contemporary.

Gramophone might be all about celebrating the wonders of recorded music, but don’t forget to go and support your local musicians performing live, too. There’s a lot to see… Here are my global highlights.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

This programme caught my eye for one of its series themes, which feels especially important at this time of increasing global conflict. ‘Lights in the Dark’ will bring music of resistance and hope composed during wartime, a reassuring reminder of the resolute constancy of music. Alongside Shostakovich and Beethoven will be Dorothy Howell’s Lamia and Kurt Weill’s Four Whitman Songs.

There’s a musical relevance, too. Given we live in an age of increasing freedom of genre and labels, it feels especially important to remember Weill, the man who in many ways helped ask the question of what differentiates a musical from an opera.

Taught by Busoni, Weill believed that for theatre to refresh itself, the continuous music of Wagner’s operatic model needed to be replaced by separate musical numbers broken by spoken dialogue, while continuing the use of leitmotifs. He wanted an audience, pointing out how all ‘the great classical composers wrote for their contemporary audiences.’ So, he was not averse to writing a catchy tune; Mack the Knife was covered by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra.

Yet simultaneously he added sophistication and daring to Broadway musicals; he collaborated with the finest writers, from Maxwell Anderson to Ogden Nash, and his Broadway scores frequently ran to two full hours of music (Love Life’s score was a 738-page brick).

A show like Street Scene anticipates West Side Story in subject and musical daring (Weill’s muse Lotte Lenya once said that ‘Leonard Bernstein is the closest to Kurt Weill’). Both its dramatic leads were cast straight from the Met Opera and the pit band was 35-strong; it was described as ‘the most important step towards significantly American opera’.

Similarly visionary were the vaudeville choruses of Love Life, which look ahead to the role of the Emcee in Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret. At a time of increasing collaboration and cross-fertilisation in music, it feels especially important to remember Kurt Weill this season. Forget the Prius, Weill was the original hybrid.

Find out more: rpo.co.uk

Wigmore Hall

Top marks for sheer volume of great work, as ever. This season features over 550 concerts and 2600 musicians. Expect classical heavyweights in the form of residencies from Nicky Spence and Vilde Frang, and a unique Gabriel Fauré centenary celebration from Joshua Bell, Brad Mehldau and Steven Isserlis. There’s plenty of the new too, with over 30 world and UK premieres for the likes of Caroline Shaw and Dame Judith Weir.

Then, underlining the sheer range of the Hall’s work, joining Daniel Pioro in September will be Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on the Ondes Martenot. After all, he is a multi-instrumentalist, having started on the viola and progressed to guitar, recorder, harmonica and this, perhaps his favourite instrument; among his own classical compositions are smear, for two Ondes Martenots and ensemble.

Find out more: wigmore-hall.org.uk

Munich Philharmonic

Every ensemble boasts at least one star visitor, but in Munich they have a coach load. 2025 will see Alice Sara Ott perform Bryce Dessner’s Piano Concerto, John Adams conduct his Harmonielehre, Zubin Mehta conduct Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and Hilary Hahn perform Brahms’s Violin Concerto.

The Mahler is especially appropriate, since the composer himself directed the orchestra from 1901 to 1911, and it was they who premiered his Das Lied von der Erde under Bruno Walter, just six months after the composer’s death. Mehta, too, is no stranger; 20 years ago, he was named the first conductor laureate in their now-130-plus-year history.

Find out more: mphil.de/en/

Palau de la Música

Variety aplenty here, which is natural when you present over 100 concerts a season. What’s especially satisfying is the range in scale, from intimate song recitals to the seismically symphonic. On the one end, Philippe Jaroussky and Jérôme Ducros bring art songs by Schubert, Hahn and Fauré in November, and in April Jonas Kaufmann shares a stage with Diana Damrau in concert; on the other side of scale, January will see the Philharmonia Orchestra and Marin Alsop perform Jessie Montgomery, Prokofiev and Korngold.

It's always welcome to hear the latter’s beloved Violin Concerto, famously drawing on melodies he penned for Hollywood movies. Korngold helped point film scores in a more classical, operatic direction, arguing that they were simply opera without the singing; he read film scripts in advance of composition as he viewed them as the equivalent of an opera libretto, and even dubbed Tosca ‘the best film score ever written’!

I’m a heartless romantic when it comes to my listening and my own composing inclinations – not to mention an admirer of creatives who helped introduce one world to another, crossing spaces – and so it’s especially pleasing to see Korngold well represented in programmes worldwide, from Sofia to Boston to Barcelona.

Find out more: palaumusica.cat/en

Palazzetto Bru Zane

For those of you who have joined me on Scala Radio, you’ll know I love little-known gems; the joy of classical music is it’s a gift that keeps on giving. It’s an eternal lesson and discovery. Based in Venice, Palazzetto Bru Zane are especially strong at championing the lesser performed in the region of French Romantic repertoire.

Our starting lens this season will be the cello, the focus of the opening cycle, with seven Venetian concerts showcasing the instrument in sonata, quintet and wider ensemble form. Expect string quintets from Onslow and Gouvy, and music that cello professors Auguste Franchomme and Félix Battanchon wrote for multiple cellos as a means of bringing together their students.

But also listen out for neglected gems by well-known composers. 150 years since the death of Bizet and the premiere of Carmen will be marked by ‘Georges Bizet, ‘l’oiseau rebelle’, an overview of his diverse output, from opera to piano works. We should avoid pigeon-holing Bizet solely as an opera composer; he penned 150 pieces for the piano (having been a child prodigy on the instrument, entering the Paris Conservatoire aged nine) and he wrote his first symphony aged seventeen.

Find out more: bru-zane.com/en/

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Two years ago, I created, curated and co-presented a series called ‘Jazz Meets Classical’, which explored the area where the two genres come together and aired jointly on Scala Radio and Jazz FM. Joined by the likes of Nigel Kennedy and Angel Blue, it became clear that the two genres have much in common; Baroque singers were adept at improvisation, just as jazz masters like Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea have recorded classical piano concertos.

Where better to celebrate what I have dubbed ‘jazzical’ music than the US? In Detroit, there’s a season-wide celebration of jazz, including one of my all-time favourites: The Nutcracker put through a Duke Ellington blender. Ellington was no stranger to classical. Will Marion Cook used to give him composing advice while the pair took a taxi around Central Park (Cook memorably advised ‘don’t try to be anybody else but yourself’). Ellington penned a number of extended orchestral pieces, including concertos to showcase the players in his band. In 1932, his Creole Rhapsody won the New York Schools of Music’s annual award for best new piece by an American composer.

This diversity of genre is mirrored in Detroit’s PNC Pops series, where their October ‘Music of the Knights’ concert will perform Elton John, Paul McCartney and Andrew Lloyd Webber. As Ellington himself allegedly said, ‘there’s only two types of music: good and bad’.

They’re also championing great women writers, with their ‘Fanfare for Uncommon Women’ series. The theme title is a nod to a piece by Joan Tower, who’s among the six women represented, joining the likes of Camille Pépin and Leokadiya Kashperova.

Find out more: dso.org

The Metropolitan Opera

Having been in New York City for the TONY Awards this summer, I was doubly curious to discover their latest season: and it’s as packed and colourful as the city itself. Composer Jeanine Tesori is well-represented in the US this season, with Blue – a tale of police violence – getting a Chicago premiere at the Lyric Opera, following its London appearance with ENO last year. Her latest stage work tackles an equally contemporary theme; Grounded is based on librettist George Brant’s celebrated play about an Air Force Reaper drone pilot, exploring the ethical dilemmas and psychological damage of warfare in the modern age. Commissioned by the Met, this premiere will be conducted by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and features Emily D’Angelo alongside Ben Bliss, with LED screens topping off a hi-tech staging from Michael Mayer.

Tesori is well known in NYC for her five Broadway stage musicals, including Kimberly Akimbo, Caroline, or Change and Shrek: The Musical. I was somewhat surprised (and delighted) to discover that, when interviewing her this year, she herself didn’t know that she is the most honoured female theatrical composer in history, with six TONY nominations and two wins. She began aged three and her teacher told her: ‘don’t ever judge music. You must love it in all its forms. Judge it at your peril. You are in service to the story and your imagination.’ This open-mindedness has fed her wide-ranging projects. But, as she told me, it all comes back to one thing: ‘I feel that the world is tuned. The world feels quite out of tune right now; it’s like when a piano is just out of tune, and you want to crawl out of your skin. When we as musicians can present the world in its greatest form, when it’s in tune, it’s an unbelievable gift.’

Grounded is not the only new piece this season. There are four Met premieres and six new productions, including Met premieres of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick and John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra, and new stagings of Verdi’s Aida and Strauss’s Salome.

Find out more: metopera.org

National Symphony Orchestra

Speaking of the new, there’s plenty of it in Washington, DC. Carlos Simon joins Ravel and Mel Bonis on the opening programme; hot on the heels of its Boston Symphony premiere last year, the NSO give another outing to his Four Black American Dances, an orchestral study of dance types that have proven socially significant in Black communities, from the religious ecstasy of a Ring Shout to the percussive Tap Dance.

The natural world inspires October’s new music offering. Joshua Bell will perform The Elements, for which he has commissioned composers Kevin Puts, Edgar Meyer, Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon and Jessie Montgomery for pieces inspired by earth, water, fire, air and space. These will be paired with impressive onscreen visuals.

Then, come spring 2025, the all-female vocal group the Lorelei Ensemble will join the NSO to perform the minimalist Her Story, Julia Wolfe’s theatrical work for ten women’s voices and orchestra. It was written to commemorate the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which in effect gave women the right to vote; its words are inspired by the letters of suffragettes and the words of their opponents.

Find out more: nso.co.uk

Hong Kong Philharmonic

I turned 25 this year, a subject of ever-increasing shock for me … Yes, I know, I’m being over-dramatic (I work in theatre, dahling), but truly it feels that only a second ago I was a teenager. This makes me extra aware of the number of young artists on the global scene – and even more alarmingly aware of the many who are younger than me …

Take Tarmo Peltokoski. The fact he’s 24 shouldn’t be important, but I’ve said it now. In 2022 he made history as the first Principal Guest Conductor of The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in the orchestra’s 42-year history. That same year, he completed his first Wagner Ring Cycle … aged 22. 2024 has proven an equally exciting year, seeing the release of his debut album for Deutsche Grammophon. He’s currently the Music and Artistic Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director Designate of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. With them this season, he will help mark 200 years since the birth of Bruckner.

There are other fine young talents visiting Hong Kong too, including 30-year-old Esther Yoo and 23-year-old Daniel Lozakovich. Plus, a Hong Kong debut for a chap called Jonas Kaufmann (apparently, he’s still making debuts).

Find out more: hkphil.org

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

I’ve left this ensemble until last because I feel they help make perhaps the most important point of all: which is, classical music can make important points. It can reflect on significant and difficult issues, be they periods of our past or aspects of feeling; it offers a space for conversation and reflection, and a chance for an ensemble to be rooted both in their locality and their planet.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Melbourne, where at the end of October the Orchestra and Chorus will poignantly join the Young Voices of Melbourne for a special Holocaust Memorial Concert to mark 80 years since the liberation of the first concentration camps. Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony is the familiar musical heart of the programme, alongside a world premiere for Elena Kats-Chernin and William Barton’s The Night of Broken Glass; this new piece honours William Cooper, leader of the Australian Aboriginal League's protest against Kristallnacht.

The concert will also be an opportunity to hear music written by those killed in the Holocaust, sounds ‘almost lost’, written by the likes of Gideon Klein, Hans Krása and Viktor Ullmann. These individuals underline the necessity of music as expression; parts of the libretto to Ullmann’s opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis were written on the backs of deportation lists to Auschwitz, and the piece itself was penned in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. As Ullmann said, he was forced ‘to wrestle art from life.’

Find out more: mso.com.au