SCO 2025-26 Programme
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s 2025-2026 programme announced last week is titled ’For the love of music.’ Their conductor, Maxim Emelyanychev, is looking forward to it. He says “I can hardly believe that 2025/26 will be my seventh season with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra! I love being in Scotland where I know I’ll always receive an enthusiastic welcome – and I’m excited to continue my musical relationships with the SCO’s musicians.” He is conducting or directing from the keyboard nine concerts starting with the season opener ‘From Darkness to Light’ which takes us from wartime grief in Strauss’s Metamorphosen to the blazing light of triumph in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In ‘Gloria’, a concert with the SCO Chorus, he contrasts Vivaldi’s baroque ‘Gloria’ with Poulenc’s cosmopolitan version. He celebrates Christmas with two concerts: Berlioz’s ‘L’Enfance du Christ’ with the Chorus and soloists including Roderick Williams, and Tchaikovsky’s full ‘Nutcracker’ music. Edinburgh and Glasgow get their chance to hear him conduct Mozart’s final three Symphonies as he did memorably in a BBC Prom in 2021. Other concerts see him working with pianist Steven Osborne in Shostakovich’s Piano Concert No1, with Nicola Benedetti in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and with SCO principal cellist Philip Higham in Schumann’s Cello Concerto. Maxim Emelyanychev concludes, ”and our Annual ‘Baroque Inspirations’ is always a highlight of my musical year!”
Principal Guest Conductor, Andrew Manze, presents eclectic repertoire in his four concerts. He joins pianist Yeol Eum Son for two Mozart Concertos, conducts the New Year’s Day concert with Scottish soprano Rachel Redmond, explores the music of John Adams in a New Dimensions concert in which SCO clarinettist Maximilano Martin plays ‘Gnarly Buttons,’ and, with Roderick Williams singing Butterworth, he conducts a programme of British Music which includes Jay Capperauld’s choral world premiere ‘The Language of Eden’.
The SCO Chorus under Gregory Batsleer goes from strength to strength. As well as the concerts mentioned above, highlights this year include their Christmas concert in Greyfriars Kirk, and an Usher Hall performance of Mozart’s Requiem with Louise Alder among the soloists, which is preceded by Haydn’s Pauken Messe (Mass in Time of War)
There are again three matinee concerts. These have attracted decent audiences including a full-house for this year’s January matinee with Rachel Podger playing in and directing Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. It makes sense that two of next season’s matinees are in the darkest days of the year, one in December, with former SCO bassoonist, Peter Whelan now conducting the Irish Baroque Orchestra, in an all-Mozart concert, and one in January directed by Lorenza Borrani in Haydn and Schubert.
Associate composer Jay Capperauld has three world premieres, two choral works, ‘The Language of Eden, already mentioned and ‘The Winter’s Brightening’ in the SCO Chorus’ Christmas concert. His ‘Stylus Scarlatti’ should prove an intriguing part of January’s ‘Baroque Inspiration’s. Meanwhile his ‘Great Grumpy Gaboon’ comes back to Edinburgh and Glasgow after delighting children around the country. Three of Jay Capperauld’s works which premiered in the last two years feature in the digital concert series: ‘The Origin of Colour’, ‘Bruckner’s Skul and ‘The Night Watch’, a lovely secular carol.
Before the main season, the SCO will take part in two of this year’s operas in the Edinburgh International Festival, with Maxim Emelyanychev, the orchestra and SCO Chorus continuing their Mozart opera series in the Usher Hall with ‘La Clemenza di Tito’ with Tara Erraught as Vitellia, and in the pit, dodging the acrobats, in the Opera Australia production of ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ at the Playhouse. With considerable experience in working with people with dementia, they also present the EIF’s first ever Dementia Friendly concert of Strauss and Scottish folk tunes for people living with dementia, and their caregivers.
Tickets for the new season (not including the EIF performances) are priced between £15 and £43, and excellent multi-buy deals are available for ticket purchases from 4 concerts upwards.
To find out more about the 30 concerts in 12 venues, pick up a Season brochure at concerts or follow the links here SCO 2025/26 Season: For the Love of Music
