Santtu-Matias Rouvali 1 © Marco Borggreve

©Photo: Marco Borggreve

©Photo: Marco Borggreve

Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Conductor

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“The conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who is often drawn to Strauss’s orchestral epics in concert, doubled down in this blast of a performance. What a sound he drew from the Philharmonia — the strings were a blaze of scorching sunlight, the woodwind and brass bold and gleaming.”
The Times, June 2023

Principal Conductor: Philharmonia Orchestra
Chief Conductor: Gothenburg Symphony
Honorary Conductor: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra

In the 2023/24 season Santtu-Matias Rouvali starts his third year as Principal Conductor of Philharmonia Orchestra and continues as Chief Conductor of Gothenburg Symphony. He is Honorary Conductor of Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra close to his home in Finland.

In August 2023, Rouvali returned to the BBC Proms with Philharmonia Orchestra, performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Seong-Jin Cho and Strauss’s Aus Italien.

Rouvali continues to have regular relationships with top level orchestras across Europe, including Münchner Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as returning multiple times each season to New York Philharmonic. In December 2023 he conducts Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and as Artist in Residence at the Musikverein Wien he has concerts there throughout the season with Wiener Symphoniker as well as with his orchestras in London and Gothenburg on tour.

He works with many international soloists including Bruce Liu, Lisa Batiashvili, Seong-Jin Cho, Nicola Benedetti, Nemanja Radulović, Leif Ove Andsnes, Vadim Gluzman, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gil Shaham, Baiba Skride and Daniil Trifonov.

As well as his residency in Vienna, touring highlights of the season include a Residency in Salzburg with Gothenburg Symphony in November 2023 with music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Korngold, as well as extensive European touring with Philharmonia Orchestra with Rachmaninov, Beethoven and Shostakovich. Rouvali and Philharmonia Orchestra continue their important residencies together across the UK.

Rouvali also continues building an impressive discography. In January 2019 with Gothenburg Symphony, he released a celebrated first disc of an ambitious Sibelius cycle, pairing the Symphony No.1 with the early tone poem En saga. The album won the Gramophone Editor’s Choice award, the Choc de Classica, a prize from the German Record Critics and the prestigious French Diapason d’Or ‘Decouverte’. In February 2020 they released the second volume, which features Sibelius’ Symphony No.2 and King Christian II, which has also been immediately awarded a Choc de Classica award. The third disc — Sibelius’ Symphonies Nos. 3, 5 & Pohjola’s Daughter - was released in October 2022, awarded the Radio Classique ‘TROPHÉE’ the following month. Philharmonia Records first release – a double CD album Santtu conducts Strauss – was released in March 2023 following on from recent releases of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. In September 2023, a new series Musical Masterpieces is released on Sky Arts. It will feature Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture performed by Rouvali and Philharmonia Orchestra, opening up different aspects of the music, and sharing Rouvali’s insights and interpretation of the piece.

HarrisonParrott represents Santtu-Matias Rouvali for worldwide general management.

Santtu-Matias Rouvali - Also sprach Zarathustra © Philharmonia

Santtu-Matias Rouvali - Francesca da Rimini © Philharmonia

Santtu Matias Rouvali - Sibelius trailer © Gothenburg Symphony

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

“The conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who is often drawn to Strauss’s orchestral epics in concert, doubled down in this blast of a performance. What a sound he drew from the Philharmonia — the strings were a blaze of scorching sunlight, the woodwind and brass bold and gleaming.”

The Times, June 2023

“Rouvali proved a fine Straussian, measured in his approach, and careful in his attention to detail and colour. The escalating tension was beautifully controlled, the colossal forces superbly marshalled, the sheer volume of sound always integral to the drama, never an end in itself.”

(Tim Ashley, The Guardian, October 2021)

“In his first concert as the Philharmonia’s Principal Conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali brought a glowing string sound and irresistible elan to an all-Strauss programme.”

(Tim Ashley, The Guardian, October 2021)

“The orchestra’s first London outing under the baton of its new maestro was a triumph.”

(Evening Standard, October 2021)

“[…] a young but already compelling artist.“

(Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, November 2019)

“Rouvali made an impressive start as conductor designate of the Philharmonia, turning this relatively offbeat programme into party time.”

(Neil Fisher, The Times, June 2019)

“This was a deeply engaged and serious interpretation of a complex work, revealing impressive long-term concentration and attention to detail on Rouvali’s part that makes him a natural Straussian.”

(Curtis Rogers, Classical Source, December 2018)

“…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)