After a summer both criss-crossing Scotland and at times travelling farther afield, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is coming home; they are returning to Glasgow to kick off a new season that promises to be great. Ranging from Beethoven and Bach to some of the most adventurous contemporary classical music going, there is a lot to be excited about.
By James Dixon
Their 2026 tour was pretty intense. It took a full 11 programmes to 26 venues across Scotland, as well as making multiple festival performances. Among its summer highlights was its continuing collaboration with Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev on Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh International Festival, alongside a rather different collaboration with Icelandic post-rock giants Sigur Rós, including a performance at Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo.
It all follows an impressively varied 2025/26 season. Audiences were treated to everything from Mozart’s final three symphonies and Requiem to Nicola Benedetti playing Mendelssohn, while the SCO’s New Dimensions strand continued to push at the boundaries of what a chamber orchestra – and a classical concert – might look and sound like.
Classical Diversity
This appetite for variety is apparently still unsated. It’s at least very much still intact going into the 2026/27 season, kicking off on September 25th with Berlioz’s feverish Symphonie fantastique, conducted by Emelyanychev, before Bach’s monumental St Matthew Passion arrives at Glasgow City Halls on October 2nd. First performed almost 300 years ago, the Passion will be one of the major choral events of the SCO’s year.
Beethoven continues to loom large over the SCO’s output, as one might expect. 2027 will mark the 200th anniversary of the great composer’s death (he died aged only 56 on March 26th, 1827, in Vienna, following a prolonged illness). The SCO are devoting a lot of energy to his work this coming season, devoting a major strand of its programme to reconsidering his work and legacy. Pianist Sunwook Kim plays two of his piano concertos in October, with further programmes including his symphonies, Violin Concerto and, in April, the mighty Missa Solemnis. There is even a New Dimensions concert, Beethoven Deconstructed, taking the composer apart and examining his continuing influence from a contemporary perspective. It promises to be very interesting.
This isn’t to say that the traditional canon is all. Far from it, as one would expect of the SCO. For example, October’s Max Richter+ will explore the hugely popular composer’s blurring of classical music, electronica, and minimalism.
With Special Guests…
We’ve also got a lot of visiting guests coming to Scotland to play with the SCO. November will see cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason come to Glasgow to play Haydn. We will also see violinist Rachel Podger, soprano Carolyn Sampson and violist Timothy Ridout making appearances throughout the season.
The SCO has undergone a few changes, too. Most notably, violinist Bogdan Božović has been appointed SCO Leader, sharing the position with Stephanie Gonley, after first playing with the orchestra during its 2024 Summer Tour.
And, perhaps most characteristic of the SCO, is how much happens beyond simply putting on evening concerts. The SCO works with schools and communities throughout Scotland, whilst its partnership with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will see young musicians perform alongside SCO Wind Soloists in Glasgow in November. Family programming continues too, including the return of The Great Grumpy Gaboon in February (to which I’m taking my daughter!) and Big Ears, Little Ears, an enchanting, multisensory musical adventure for children under the age of five and their grown-ups.
I’ve barely covered half of it. The SCO has had a whirlwind year, moving from Mozart opera’s to Sigur Rós without pausing for thought, and it’s worked wonderfully. Long may this kind of programming continue – as, indeed, it looks set to do in the coming season.
Full details on the upcoming season at: www.sco.org.uk/whats-on
