HK Phil unveils 2024/25 season

Looking ahead to the 51st season and beyond, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on Thursday announced its 2024/25 season line-up, presenting 30 mainstage programs with internationally renowned conductors and soloists. The announcement also saw internationally recognized conductor Daniele Gatti appointed as the HK Phil’s Artistic Partner.

Other highlights include the launch of HK Phil String Instruments Circle and the remastering program of HK Phil’s performances with Spatial Audio for Apple Music and Apple Music Classical.

In the season opener, Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski reunites with the HK Phil to present the Ninth Symphony of Bruckner, in time for the composer’s 200th birthday week.  Joining Tarmo is the highly anticipated debut of the young Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich, bringing Hong Kong audiences Sibelius’ ethereal Violin Concerto. (September 5 & 6, 2024).

The commemoration of Bruckner’s legacy continues with Vasily Petrenko returning to conduct the composer’s Seventh Symphony. The masterpiece will be complemented with Grieg’s Piano Concerto, performed by premier Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova. The concert will open with an orchestral showpiece by Kazakhstani composer Erkegali Rakhmadiyev. (September 27 & 28, 2024).

As the orchestra’s new Artistic Partner, Gatti will conduct the HK Phil for three weeks. He will make his debut with a program intertwining the beauty of nature with the genius of Mendelssohn and Beethoven. (December 6 & 7, 2024).

He will then lead the HK Phil in a performance of Gustav Mahler’s monumental Third
Symphony at the 53rd Hong Kong Arts Festival (March 13, 2025), before conducting his last HK Phil program with a powerful ensemble of over 100 musicians to bring two musical legends to life - Wagner’s epic Götterdämmerung Suite and the iconic “Siegfried’s Funeral March”. (May 2 & 3, 2025).

The HK Phil will also collaborate with a number of highly acclaimed conductors and soloists in the new season.

New York-based Chinese composer Huang Ruo reimagines four handpicked, beloved folk songs into Folk Songs for Orchestra with his vibrant and inventive voice; Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck returns to the HK Phil with Dvorák’s Eighth Symphony; Praised by The Sunday Times as “a rare example of a young conductor at once brilliant and not in the least showing off”, Elim Chan returns to her hometown for Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony and a world premiere commissioned by the HK Phil under The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Hong Kong Composers Scheme.

Meanwhile, Maestro Jaap van Zweden is back on the podium to conduct four programs in the 2024/25 season. Pianist Niu Niu also makes a welcome return, taking on the rarely performed Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto.

2024 is the 50th anniversary of the HK Phil becoming fully professional. On the occasion of this milestone and in collaboration with a group of fine instruments’ collectors, the HK Phil is launching the HK Phil String Instruments Circle.

The Circle is an instrument lending program for high-quality string instruments which are typically inaccessible to musicians due to their high value. It is formed by members who own, or would like to own, fine string instruments and who want to support the HK Phil by lending them to the orchestra through a professionally managed program.

The Circle currently comprises a selection of 10 violins by Italian and French luthiers made in the XVIII and XIX centuries, including two striking examples by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (Parma, c. 1757 and 1760).

Separately, the HK Phil announced a remastering program of some of its finest performances for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, now exclusively available on Apple Music and Apple Music Classical.

The initial releases of three albums are remastered by Anthony Yeung, award-winning sound engineer and master producer. The HK Phil noted it expected to record upcoming major performances with Spatial Audio, and present these recordings on Apple Music and Apple Music Classical to provide an immersive audio experience with true multi-dimensional sound and clarity for music enthusiasts worldwide.