Holst: The Planets
Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir / Giancarlo Guerrero
Performers
- Conductor
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Gulbenkian Choir
Coro Gulbenkian was founded in 1964 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as a full symphonic body of around 100 singers. The choir joins the Orquestra Gulbenkian and other orchestras to perform Classical, Romantic and Contemporary choral-symphonic repertoire, but can also perform a cappella. It has performed – and often premiered – many 20th century works by Portuguese and international composers.
Coro Gulbenkian has been invited to collaborate with major international orchestras, under the direction of conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis, John Nelson, Emmanuel Krivine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Frans Brüggen, Franz Welser-Möst, Gerd Albrecht, Michael Gielen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, René Jacobs and Leonard Slatkin, among others.
Besides its regular season of concerts in Lisbon and frequent national tours, Coro Gulbenkian has repeatedly toured Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macao, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay.
Coro Gulbenkian has recorded extensively for Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Erato, Cascavelle, Musifrance, as well as FNAC-Music, performing a wide range of repertoire, from Early-Renaissance polyphony to Xenakis. Several of these albums received international awards.
Michel Corboz was the Principal Conductor between 1969 and 2019. Jorge Matta and Inês Tavares Lopes are currently the Associate and Assistant conductors, respectively.
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Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 1962, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral ensemble. Originally with only twelve musicians (strings and continuo) it was named “Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian”. This collective was successively enlarged and today the “Orquestra Gulbenkian” (the name it has adopted since 1971) has a permanent body of sixty instrumentalists, a number that can be expanded depending on the repertoire.
This structure allows the Gulbenkian Orchestra to interpret works from the Baroque and Classical periods, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century, including works belonging to the current repertoire of the traditional symphonic orchestras. In each season, the orchestra performs on a regular series of concerts at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, where it has had the opportunity of working together with some of leading names of the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, in an effort to decentralize music and culture.
The orchestra has been constantly expanding its activities in the international level, performing in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Americas. In the recording field, Orquestra Gulbenkian is associated to labels as Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Teldec, Erato, Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone, among others, and this activity was recognized with several international prizes.
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Giancarlo Guerrero
Conductor
Giancarlo Guerrero is a six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor whose imaginative programming and “curatorial and interpretive creativity” (Chicago Tribune) draw out of his orchestras “exceptionally powerful and enchanting performances” (BBC Music Magazine). His contagious enthusiasm on the podium has led critics to praise his “clear and exacting beat and a gift for shifting between ferocity and tenderness” (San Francisco Chronicle) and his style that is “at once vigorous, passionate, and nuanced” (BachTrack).
2025 marks Guerrero’s first season as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. Guerrero also takes on the role of Music Director of Sarasota Orchestra in the 2025-26 season, becoming the seventh conductor to hold the appointment since the Orchestra’s founding in 1949.
Guerrero transitions this season to the position of Music Director Laureate with the Nashville Symphony after a sixteen-year tenure, during which he championed the works of prominent American composers through commissions, recordings, and world premieres. Under Guerrero’s direction, the Nashville Symphony commissioned and premiered nearly two dozen pieces – including works by Béla Fleck, Ben Folds, Jennifer Higdon, Hannibal Lokumbe, and Terry Riley – and released twenty-one commercial recordings, which have garnered thirteen GRAMMY® nominations and six GRAMMY® Awards across multiple categories. He also guided the creation of the Symphony’s biannual Composer Lab & Workshop alongside Aaron Jay Kernis.
In the 2025-26 season, Guerrero adds to his extensive discography with the Nashville Symphony with the release of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Conquest Requiem and a recording of concertos by Jennifer Higdon, Brad Warnaar, and Chick Corea, out in November and December 2025, respectively on Naxos American Classics. He also conducts the Symphony in three programs and a gala concert featuring Renée Fleming.
Guerrero’s guest appearances this season include engagements with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the symphonies of Eugene and Grand Rapids, with international engagements including the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, and the Romanian National Orchestra in Bucharest, where he conducts a concert performance of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
In recent seasons, Guerrero has been seen with prominent North American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and those of Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Montréal, Philadelphia, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Houston. Internationally, he has worked with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in Saarbrücken, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, and New Zealand Symphony as well as Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony in Australia.
Guerrero also conducts concerts with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic this season, where he recently completed a six-season tenure as Music Director. With that orchestra, Guerrero made several recordings, including the Billboard chart-topping Bomsori: Violin on Stage on Deutsche Grammophon and albums of repertoire by Szymanowski, Brahms, Poulenc and Jongen.
Guerrero previously held posts as the Principal Guest Conductor of both The Cleveland Orchestra, Miami Residency and the Gulbenkian Symphony in Lisbon, Music Director of the Eugene Symphony, and Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.
Born in Nicaragua, Guerrero immigrated during his childhood to Costa Rica, where he joined the local youth symphony. He studied percussion and conducting at Baylor University in Texas and earned his master’s degree in conducting at Northwestern. Given his beginnings in civic youth orchestras, Guerrero is particularly engaged with conducting training orchestras and has worked with the Curtis School of Music, Colburn School in Los Angeles, The Juilliard School, National Youth Orchestra (NYO2) and Yale Philharmonia, as well as with the Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando program, which provides an intensive music education to promising young students from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Programme
Gustav Holst
The Planets, op. 32
1. Mars, the Bringer of War
2. Venus, the Bringer of Peace
3. Mercury, the Winged Messenger
4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
5. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
6. Uranus, the Magician
7. Neptune, the Mystic
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