Programme for the 2025-2026 season of the Netherlands Philharmonic & Netherlands Chamber Orchestra has been announced

In the 2025-2026 season, the Netherlands Philharmonic & Netherlands Chamber Orchestra will present a beautiful mix of great orchestral masterpieces and intimate chamber music. Lorenzo Viotti, who is leaving as chief conductor this season, will return to the Netherlands Philharmonic with Mahler's Second Symphony , among others. Gordan Nikolić, who is celebrating his twentieth anniversary as musical director of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra this season, will be shining in Beethoven's Triple Concerto . It is also the anniversary of both our orchestras! The Netherlands Philharmonic is turning forty and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra is blowing out seventy candles.

Lorenzo Viotti
The Netherlands Philharmonic does not have a new chief conductor for 2025-2026, but Lorenzo Viotti, our departing chief conductor, will return four times. With Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances , Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben , Mahler's Second Symphony and Elysium by the contemporary Canadian composer Samy Moussa.

Guest conductors
The interim phase without a permanent chief conductor provides the opportunity to strengthen the bond with guest conductors such as Dima Slobodeniouk and Sir Mark Elder. In addition, honorary conductor Hartmut Haenchen continues his Bruckner series with the Fifth Symphony , known for its otherworldly finale. We are also looking forward to three new faces. We expect an interesting chemistry with the orchestra from conductors Eva Ollikainen, Aziz Shokhakimov and Pierre Bleuse.

Soloists with the Netherlands Philharmonic
We are also looking forward to new collaborations with well-known international talents, such as violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and pianist Alexander Malofeev, and to the return of great soloists such as pianist Kirill Gerstein, who impressed during the coronavirus era in Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments and can now be heard together with Lorenzo Viotti in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 . Nelson Goerner, who once shone together with former chief conductor Marc Albrecht in Schumann's Piano Concerto , is back with Liszt's Totentanz. Former artist-in-residence Isabelle Faust plays Dvořák's Violin Concerto and piano great Maria João Pires closes the season with Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto .

Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra's musical director Gordan Nikolić, who has been with us for twenty years, can be heard together with cellist Quirine Viersen and pianist Alasdair Beatson in Beethoven's Triple Concerto . Sietse-Jan Weijenberg, leader of the cello section of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, will play the double concerto Violoncelles, vibrez! by the high-profile Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima with the talented Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekina. Kobekina will also be the soloist in Vivaldi's Cello Concerto .

Guests with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
One of the highlights of the coming season for the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra is Mozart's Requiem, conducted by Roberto González-Monjas. We will also continue our regular collaboration with Cappella Amsterdam and look forward to our first meeting with violinist and concertmaster Shunske Sato.

Back to the origins of the St Matthew Passion
This season, Bach's St Matthew Passion will be given a twist: for the first time, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra will perform the work with a choir of children and young adults, with whom Bach would have performed it in his time. Under the direction of René Jacobs and together with the National Mixed Youth Choir, we will bring the St Matthew Passion back to its origins.

The National Opera
The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra are the regular orchestra partners of the Dutch National Opera. Next season, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Puccini's Tosca conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann (Sept ‘25), Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans conducted by Valentin Uryupin (Nov “25), Bellini's I Capuleti e I Montecchi conducted by Antonia Fogliani (Dec ”25) and Mieczysław Weinberg's The Passenger conducted by Adam Hickox (Apr ’26). The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra will play Steef de Jong's Operetta Land conducted by Aldert Vermeulen (Oct ‘25) and Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Francesco Corti (May ’26).