Focus artist Sol Gabetta, Creative Chair Thomas Adès and Music Director Paavo Järvi characterised the start of the new season.
The 2025/26 season opened last Wednesday: with a warm welcome from the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors Hedy Graber and Executive and Artistic Director Ilona Schmiel, with three very different works - and with interpretations that were acclaimed not only by the audience but also in the press.
"A cry for freedom" was the title of the review of our opening concert in the NZZ, which focussed on Shostakovich's 2nd Cello Concerto from 1966, which still has the effect of "a shock" today. The solo part was performed by cellist and this year's focus artist Sol Gabetta under the direction of Paavo Järvi. Together with the orchestra, they drew a portrait of a torn composer, according to the NZZ: "Time and again, the cello heads for a light, prayer-like formula - time and again, the hopeful gesture collapses under the pressure of the other instruments." The AZ media also raved about the "colossal effect" and a "deep shock".
Before that, the audience was able to get to know the British composer and new Creative Chair Thomas Adès in the nine-minute piece "Dawn". And then there was Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2, a work that was not least a celebration for the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich: to quote the NZZ once again, it made the music "glow, not waver".
In keeping with tradition, there was also a nightcap after this season-opening concert. Although it was more of a celebratory drink: the audience certainly didn't seem tired - instead, they engaged in lively discussions about what they had heard and all sorts of other things.
On the Sunday after the opening of the season, Thomas Adès performed once again in the Literature and Music series (together with actor Robert Hunger-Bühler) - not only as a composer, but also as a speaker and pianist. You can see how intensively he and our musicians prepared for this concert in this final photo gallery.
