SF Symphony Recordings Led by Esa-Pekka Salonen Nominated for Three 2025 Grammy® Awards

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony’s recordings of Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird and Kaija Saariaho: Adriana Mater have been nominated for three 2025 Grammy® Awards. Salonen and the SF Symphony’s live-concert recording of The Firebird, released on the Orchestra’s in-house label SFS Media, has been nominated in the category of Best Orchestral Performance. The Deutsche Grammophon-released live-concert recording of Adriana Mater, conducted by Salonen, directed by Peter Sellars, and featuring the SF Symphony, SF Symphony Chorus, and a cast of vocal soloists, was nominated for Best Opera Recording and Best Contemporary Classical Composition.   

These are the 29th, 30th, and 31st Grammy nominations for the San Francisco Symphony; the Orchestra has won 16 Grammy awards, nine since launching the in-house SFS Media label in 2001. The 67th annual Grammy Awards show takes place at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 2, 2025. The show will air live on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30pm ET/5-8:30pm PT and will stream on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs). 

Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird was recorded live in concert with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony, October 7–9, 2022. The digital-only recording was released exclusively via Apple Music Classical on June 21, 2024. A groundbreaking ballet based on Russian folk tales of the mystical Firebird, The Firebird tells the story of a young prince who defeats an evil king with a golden egg. The Firebird was Stravinsky’s first major piece to garner wide acclaim, setting him on course to write The Rite of Spring and other innovative works over the next five decades. He revisited The Firebird three times (in 1911, 1919, and 1945) to create suites for concert performances. Of these, the 1919 suite is the most frequently performed; in this particular recording, Salonen and the Symphony perform the complete ballet music as Stravinsky originally conceived it.    

Kaija Saariaho: Adriana Mater was recorded live in concert in June 2023. This world premiere recording of the work was released digitally by Deutsche Grammophon in August 2024; a physical edition will follow in 2025. The recording captures a performance of a staged production of Adriana Mater conducted by Saariaho’s lifelong friend Esa-Pekka Salonen and directed by Peter Sellars, delivered mere days after the composer’s passing; mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron sings the title role, in a cast that also includes Axelle Fanyo (Refka), Nicholas Phan (Yonas), and Christopher Purves (Tsargo) alongside the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, directed by Jenny Wong. The composer’s second opera—and second collaboration with Lebanese-born French writer Amin Maalouf—Adriana Mater is an intensely moving work exploring the relationship between a mother and her son in a war-torn country as they navigate the violence that defines their past and present, and threatens to claim their future. Read more about Adriana Mater.   

Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird was produced and edited by Jason O'Connell. Jon Johannsen was the recording engineer, and Mark Willsher was the mastering and mixing engineer. 

Kaija Saariaho: Adriana Mater was produced, edited, and mixed by Jason O’Connell. Jon Johannsen and Jason O’Connell were recording engineers; Thomas Adams, Dunning Butler, Ryan Napoli, and Denise Woodward were assistant engineers; and Timo Kurkikangas was additional engineer and mixer. Mark Willsher was the mastering and mixing engineer. 

About SFS Media
SFS Media is the San Francisco Symphony’s award-winning in-house media production company and label, launched in 2001. SFS Media captures, records, and releases audio and audio/visual material reflecting the Orchestra’s restless creativity and commitment to leading-edge production standards and showcasing the vibrant and inclusive musical communities it serves. From audio recordings released in Dolby ATMOS, Spatial audio 5.1 surround capable SACD, and DSD Studio Master digital formats to unique concert capture video programs, SFS Media has been at the forefront of production and distribution among the world’s leading orchestras for more than 20 years. SFS Media productions and recordings have garnered multiple Grammy, Emmy, and Peabody awards.   

In 2023, the San Francisco Symphony began a partnership with Apple Music Classical—an app built for classical music, available in the App store—with the release of new spatial audio recordings from SFS Media of works by György Ligeti, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Igor Stravinsky. Recent releases include Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5, Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird, music from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.  

Global distribution of all SFS Media products is managed by Warner Classics Label Services. SFS Media recordings and videos are available online at warnerclassics.com/san-francisco-symphony, and at major e-retailers and various outlets. Recordings released exclusively via Apple Music Classical are added to Warner Classics three months after their release. Many San Francisco Symphony audio recordings can also be streamed and purchased as downloads from digital outlets including iTunes, Amazon, Apple Music Classical, Spotify, IDAGIO, Qobuz, and HDTracks.  

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