The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) has announced its 2012-13 season. Donald Runnicles opens his fourth season as chief conductor with the first act of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, launching the orchestra’s celebration of the bicentenary of the composer’s birth. The BBC SSO’s home base at Glasgow City Halls sits at the heart of its most significant projects, particularly major explorations of Polish composers, and a centenary celebration of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with music inspired by and created for dancing.

Associate Guest Conductor Andrew Manze continues his cycle of Vaughan Williams Symphonies, and begins his cycle of Beethoven Piano Concertos, featuring Scottish pianist Steven Osborne. Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov will curate and conduct projects to innovators John Cage and John Zorn.

The orchestra is delighted to welcome distinguished international artists including soprano Nina Stemme,tenors Ian Storey and Robert Dean Smith and violinist Julian Rachlin. Following his acclaimed Prokofiev Piano Concerto cycle last season, the orchestra welcomes back Russian Denis Kozhukhin to play Rachmaninov, and the distinguished artists Angela Hewitt and Garrick Ohlsson perform the two piano concertos by Chopin. Scottish artists include Nicola Benedetti, who performs Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto, the work with which she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2004: and the outstanding young Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe plays Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto. The orchestra will also be joined by the BBC Singers, the Men of the RSNO Chorus and guest conductors, Andrew Litton, Thomas Dausgaard and Martyn Brabbins.

Tristan and Isolde, Edinburgh & Glasgow: Celebrating the bicentenary of Wagner’s birth in 2013, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Donald Runnicles will bring some of the world’s greatest singers to Scotland to perform Richard Wagner’s epic opera Tristan and Isolde. 

Staged over three concerts between September 2012 and April 2013 at both Edinburgh’s Usher Hall and Glasgow’s City Halls, the casts are spearheaded by Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, who has sung the role across the world and recorded it with Plácido Domingo, and the English tenor Ian Storey who was rocketed to operatic stardom when he sang the part of Tristan at La Scala, Milan. Peter Rose and Matthew Best will sing King Mark, Bayreuth’s current Tristan, Robert Dean Smith performs the heroic third act, and Petra Maria Schnitzer brings the opera to its ecstatic close with Isolde’s famous aria, the Liebestod or "Love Death".

Muzyka Polska, City Halls, Glasgow: The BBC SSO celebrates a distinctive group of Polish composers who helped give voice to a nation that suffered under successive regimes. Chopin is a touchstone of this survival instinct, and is represented by his two piano concertos, composed before he fled Poland in 1831. The series also includes post-romantic visionaries including Karłowicz, Lutosławski, Bacewicz and Szymanowski whose first Violin Concerto has found an able champion in Scottish virtuoso Nicola Benedetti. Post-war modernism is represented by Krzysztof Penderecki, whose 1961 Polymorphia was later used to great effect in horror films such as The Exorcist andThe Shining.

An Invitation to the Dance, City Halls, Glasgow: The BBC SSO explores the rhythmic influence of dance music, from the waltzes of Johann Strauss to the jazz-inspired rhythms of Bernstein’s West Side Story. The series also includes Turina’s Danzas Fantásticas, the suite from Bartok’s ballet The Miraculous Mandarin and the swirling rhythms of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. This series, and the season, culminate in a centenary celebration of Stravinsky’s riot-inducing ballet score The Rite of Spring, and the UK Premiere of a special companion piece composed and conducted by the BBC SSO’s Artist-in-Association Matthias Pintscher.

Across Scotland: In addition to the orchestra’s home season at Glasgow City Halls, the orchestra also presents a full series of six concerts at the Music Hall in Aberdeen, all three acts of Tristan and Isolde at the Usher Hall Edinburgh, as well as appearances at the Edinburgh International Festival. The orchestra will also perform as part of the Ayr Concert Series, The Scottish Orchestra’s Series at Perth Concert Hall, the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness and at the Lammermuir Festival in Haddington.

New Music: In May 2013, Ilan Volkov will conduct and curate Tectonics, a festival of New Music crossing genres and styles to include new orchestral and chamber music, electronic music, improvisation and sound installations. At the heart of these two days of concerts are collaborations with Scottish improvising musicians, music by British Experimentalists including Cornelius Cardew, and the World Premiere of BBC Commissions from Frank Denyer, Scottish composer Martin Suckling and Glasgow-based composers David Fennessy andJohn de Simone.

Volkov will also conduct the music of John Cage as part of Glasgow’s 2012 Merchant City Festival. The BBC SSO furthers its commitment to Scottish composers throughout the season with a World Premiere from Stuart MacRae, and works from Alasdair Nicolson and John Maxwell Geddes.

The Saturday night contemporary music series at Glasgow City Halls, Hear and Now, continues with music from European modernists Magnus Linderg and a 60^th birthday tribute to Kaija Sariaaho. The orchestra and Ilan Volkov will also present the first ever retrospective of the orchestral compositions of New York-based composer John Zorn. The Glasgow concert season also includes a UK Premiere from Matthias Pintscher, commissioned to mark the centenary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Pintscher will also conduct the orchestra in two performances at the 2012 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Edinburgh International Festival: The BBC SSO continues its long association with the Edinburgh International Festival with two festival performances at the Usher Hall. Renowned for his interpretations of the late Romantic repertoire, Donald Runnicles conducts Richard Strauss’s massive Alpine Symphony, and Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov conducts Tchaikovsky’s complete ballet The Nutcracker in a concert performance featuring the National Youth Choir of Scotland.

Film Music: Increasingly acclaimed for its sophisticated and authentic interpretations of classic film scores, this season the BBC SSO celebrates the 70^th anniversary of Casablanca, one of Hollywood’s best-loved films, with a concert screening featuring Max Steiner’s exotic score performed live. For its annual festive celebration of film music Christmas at the Movies, the orchestra celebrates songs and scores from Academy Award winners.

Donald Runnicles Weekend: From 4 to 7 May, Glasgow Life and the BBC SSO present a weekend of broadcasts, chamber recitals, film, interviews and concerts that celebrate Donald Runnicles’s position as Scotland’s greatest living conductor. Spanning a wide breadth of musical worlds, this is a chance to experience Runnicles and his passionate commitment to music making in Scotland as accompanist and chamber musician and interpreter of the great symphonic works, as well as hearing his thoughts and insights about music and performing in the world’s great venues.