Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Conductor

Home
Reviews
Gothenburg Symphony
Features
Discography

“… he is the real thing: music unmistakably flows from him.”
(Sunday Times)

Chief Conductor: Gothenburg Symphony
Artistic Director and Chief Conductor: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor: Philharmonia Orchestra

Hailed by The Guardian as “the latest sit-up-and-listen talent to emerge from the great Finnish conducting tradition,” the 2018/19 season will see Santtu-Matias Rouvali continuing his positions as Chief Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, alongside his longstanding Chief Conductor-ship with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra close to his home in Finland.

Rouvali has regular relationships with several orchestras across Europe, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. As well as making his debut with the Münchner Philharmoniker this season, he also returns to North America for concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Following a very successful Nordic tour with Hélène Grimaud last season, the Gothenburg Symphony is back on the road in February 2019 for a tour hitting major centres in Germany and Austria with pianist Alice Sara Ott, and percussionist Martin Grubinger who premieres a new percussion concert by Daníel Bjarnason. Rouvali looks forward to other ambitious touring projects with his orchestras in the future, including appearances in North America and Japan.

In addition to the extensive tour, Rouvali’s season in Gothenburg opens with Strauss’ Alpine Symphony accompanied by Víkingur Ólafsson Mozart Piano Concerto No.24, and he looks forward to collaborations with Janine Jansen, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Baiba Skride throughout the rest of the season.

As another cornerstone to his tenure in Gothenburg, he is adding his mark to the Orchestra’s impressive recording legacy. In partnership with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Baiba Skride, a recording featuring concertos from Bernstein, Korngold and Rozsa is released in autumn 2018.This continues his great collaboration with Baiba Skride following their hugely successful recording of Nielsen and Sibelius’ violin concertos with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in summer 2015.

Rouvali has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra since 2013. Highlights of the tenure so far include a Sibelius symphony cycle in autumn 2015, and the Orchestra’s first tour to Japan in spring 2017 where they were accompanied by an exhibition of original Moomin drawings by Tove Jansson to mark the opening of the new museum at the Tampere Hall. He opens the 2018/19 season with a Beethoven programme with pianist Javier Perianes.

Alongside an extremely busy symphonic conducting career, as Chief Conductor in Tampere he has conducted Verdi’s La forza del destino and most recently world premiere of Olli Kortekangas’s My Brother’s Keeper (Veljeni vartija) with Tampere Opera in spring 2018.

Santtu-Matias Rouvali - Strauss De Rosenkavalier Suite © Gothenburg Symphony

Santtu-Matias Rouvali - Sibelius Valse Triste © Gothenburg Symphony

Santtu-Matias Rouvali - Sibelius Symphony No.1 3rd movement © Gothenburg Symphony

“…he opened his account with the Philharmonia Orchestra as joint Principal Guest Conductor in a colourful all-Russian programme showing amazing physicality as he floated dance-like around the podium with clear, baton direction but with real intent and genuine musicality.”

(Bachtrack, Mark Thomas, October 2017)

“Rouvali was the bard and sage of the hour. He got a standing ovation, deservedly.”

(Classical Source, Ateş Orga, September 2017)

“Rouvali’s imaginative, often spectacular musicality is exceptional even in an era with a number of remarkable young conductors.”

(Los Angeles Times, November 2016)

“No wonder the applause was tremendous and that many afterward danced on light feet into the evening.”

(Göteborgs-Posten, April 2016)

“…he is the real thing: music unmistakably flows from him.”

(Sunday Times, January 2016)

“Rouvali conducts full of energy, and is a craftsman in the truest sense of the word.”

(Erlanger Nachrichten, December 2015)

“The Tampere orchestra sounds clean, supple and boisterous under its young chief conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. He, meanwhile, is the latest sit-up-and-listen talent to emerge from the great Finnish conducting tradition.”

(The Guardian, September 2015)

“Rouvali, 29, a product of the renowned Finnish conducting school in Helsinki, left a long-lasting impression on his Bern debut…Rouvali led the orchestra in a striking and gripping interpretation of Sibelius 1, which expressed the brusqueness and ruggedness of the work.”

(Berner Zeitung, January 2015)