Tchaikovsky & Vaughan Williams
Tarmo Peltokoski returns to lead Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, an awe-inspiring monument of ingenious lyricism and technical experimentation, performed by renowned Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan. The program opens with Sibelius's Pohjola’s Daughter, a vivid musical tale inspired by Finnish legend, capturing the mystery and enchantment of Nordic mythology. Finally, Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 4, a deeply compelling work that captures a spectrum of human emotions, from tumultuous intensity to profound serenity.
Enhance your concert experience by arriving early for exquisite performances by the TSO Chamber Soloists, thoughtfully curated by Jonathan Crow. There will be a pre-concert performance at 6:15pm included with the price of your ticket to the Friday, January 31 performance.
Program
Program NotesSibelius
Pohjola's Daughter, Opus 49
Tchaikovsky
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
Intermission
Vaughan Williams
Symphony No. 4 in F Minor
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Performers
Tarmo Peltokoski
Sergey Khachatryan
Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski will become the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s Music Director beginning in the 2026/27 season, after serving as Music Director Designate in 2025/26. Peltokoski is currently the Music and Artistic Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and will become Music Director of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse from the 2025/26 season. He is also the Principal Guest Conductor of both the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the first conductor to hold this position in the orchestra’s 42-year history.
Peltokoski has made recent débuts with leading orchestras, including Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
In 2022, at age 22, Peltokoski completed his first Wagner Ring cycle at the Eurajoki Bel Canto Festival; he returned in 2023 to conduct Tristan und Isolde. In 2023, he conducted Siegfried with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and Don Giovanni at the Finnish National Opera.
This August Peltokoski will conduct Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in Riga. In September he will make his BBC Proms début at Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony, and later in the fall will conduct Filarmonica della Scala and Philharmonia Zürich, as well as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
In the spring of 2025 he will tour Germany with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, make his début with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Bayerisches Staatsorchester, and make his Japan début conducting the NHK Symphony. In the summer of 2025 he will conduct Parsifal with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.
He has worked with soloists including Yuja Wang, Asmik Grigorian, Matthias Goerne, Julia Fischer, Golda Schultz, Martin Fröst, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Leonidas Kavakos, Camilla Nylund, and Sol Gabetta.
Peltokoski began his studies with renowned conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula at the age of 14. Also an acclaimed pianist, he has soloed with the major Finnish orchestras. In addition, Peltokoski has studied composition and arranging, and he especially enjoys music comedy and improvisation.
In October 2023 Peltokoski signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and his début album was released in May 2024.
Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Sergey Khachatryan won First Prize at the VIII International Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 2000, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the competition. In 2005 he claimed First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.
In the 2023/24 season, Khachatryan’s international presence was sustained by performances with Dresdner Philharmonie (Emmanuel Tjeknavorian), Korean National Symphony Orchestra (Oksana Lyniv), Ulster Orchestra (Daniele Rustioni), Orchestre National de Belgique (Michael Schønwandt), Queensland Symphony (Otto Tausk), Auckland Philharmonia (Chloé van Soeterstède), and Bochumer Symphoniker (Kahchun Wong), and two major tours: an extended Spanish tour with the Euskadiko Orkestra/Basque National Orchestra conducted by Stanislav Kochanovsky, and a North American tour with the Armenian National Philharmonic to Roy Thomson Hall, Montreal’s Maison symphonique, and New York’s Carnegie Hall, among other destinations.
Khachatryan’s recent appearances in the US include the Seattle Symphony (Ludovic Morlot), Cleveland Orchestra (Jakub Hrůša), and National Symphony Orchestra (Vasily Petrenko). He has also visited the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony, as well as the Ravinia, Aspen, Blossom, and Mostly Mozart Festivals.
Khachatryan and his sister Lusine’s most recent album, My Armenia, released by naïve and dedicated to the 100th commemoration of the Armenian genocide, was awarded the Echo Klassik Award for Best Chamber Music Recording (20th & 21st Century/Mixed Ensemble). The two have also recorded Brahms’s three sonatas for violin and piano. Khachatryan’s discography on the label also includes the Sibelius and Khachaturian concerti with Sinfonia Varsovia and Emmanuel Krivine, both Shostakovich concerti with the Orchestre National de France and Kurt Masur, the Shostakovich and Franck sonatas for violin and piano, and the complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin by J.S. Bach.
Highlights of previous seasons include Khachatryan’s residency with Orquesta de València, comprising concerts conducted by Alexander Liebreich, and his residency at the Bozar in Brussels, comprising recitals and a concert with Orchestre National de Belgique and Hugh Wolff. Repeat invitations have included the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rotterdam and Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestras, and Cleveland Orchestra. Khachatryan embarked on a tour of US and Europe with Alisa Weilerstein and Inon Barnatan, and a tour of Japan with the Nippon Foundation. In 2015, as the recipient of the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, he performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at the Lucerne Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel.