Symphony Orchestra of the Munich Philharmonic (Orchestra)
The Munich Philharmonic was founded in 1893 through the private initiative of
Franz Kaim, the son of a piano manufacturer. Since then, the orchestra has left
an indelible imprint on Munich’s cultural life under the leadership of renowned
conductors.
In the orchestra’s earliest years – initially under the name
“Kaim Orchestra” – conductors like Hans Winderstein, Hermann Zumpe and the
Bruckner pupil Ferdinand Lцwe guaranteed both a high technical standard of
performance and enthusiastic support of contemporary artistry. Right from the
outset, their artistic concept included the effort to structure programs and
prices to allow access to the concerts by all levels of society. Felix
Weingartner, who directed the orchestra from 1898 to 1905, enhanced its
international reputation with several tours to other countries.
Gustav
Mahler directed the orchestra in 1901 and 1910 at the respective world premiиres
of his Fourth and Eighth Symphonies. In November of 1911, the orchestra, then
called the “Konzertverein Orchestra” performed the world premiиre of Mahler’s
“Das Lied von der Erde” (The Song of the Earth) under Bruno Walter’s direction –
only six months after the composer’s death in Vienna.
From 1908 to 1914,
Ferdinand Lцwe again took over the orchestra. In the wake of a triumphant guest
appearance in Vienna on March 1, 1898 featuring Anton Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony,
he conducted the first large-scale Bruckner concerts and thereby founded the
orchestra’s Bruckner tradition, which has continued unbroken to the present day.
During the administration of Siegmund von Hausegger, who guided the orchestra as
its General Music Director from 1920 to 1938, the world premiиres of two
Bruckner symphonies in their original versions took place as well as the final,
definitive change of the orchestra’s name to “Munich Philharmonic”.
From
1938 to the summer of 1944, Austrian conductor Oswald Kabasta led the orchestra,
advancing the Munich Philharmonic’s Bruckner tradition and also demonstrating
the already established high standards of the orchestra on a number of tours at
home and abroad.
The first concert after the Second World War was opened
by Eugen Jochum with the overture to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, whose music had been ostracized during the Nazi
era. With Hans Rosbaud, the Philharmonic gained an outstanding leader in the
autumn of 1945, a man who passionately advocated modern music. Rosbaud’s
successor - from 1949 to 1966 - was Fritz Rieger. During the era of Rudolf
Kempe, who headed the orchestra from 1967 until his untimely death in 1976, the
Philharmonic undertook its first tours to Japan and the former Soviet
Union.
In February of 1979, Sergiu Celibidache conducted his first
concert series with the Munich Philharmonic and in June of the same year he was
appointed General Music Director. Concert tours took him and the orchestra
through many European countries as well as to South America and Asia. The
legendary Bruckner concerts made a major contribution to the orchestra’s
international standing, and during the Celibidache era the orchestra was
repeatedly invited to accompany the Federal Government or the Federal President
as musical ambassadors.
Following the wartime destruction of its old
home, the so-called “Tonhalle“ on the Tьrkenstrasse, the orchestras spent over
forty years in Munich’s Herkulessaal. In 1985, the Philharmonic once again
acquired its own concert hall with the Philharmonie in the Gasteig, Munich’s
municipal cultural center.
From September 1999 until July 2004, James
Levine was Chief Conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. With him, the Munich
Philharmonic undertook extended concert tours: after a grand European tour in
the winter of 2000, it made a guest appearance with James Levine in February
2002 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. In the summer of 2002, they made their joint
dйbut at the BBC Proms in London. In the spring of 2003, the Munich Philharmonic
was awarded the prize for the “Best Concert Programming of the 2003/2004 Season”
by the So-ciety of German Music Publishers.
Since the 2001/2002 season,
under the title “Jugend horcht!” (“Youth Listens!”) the Munich Philharmonic has
developed an extensive program for children and adolescents. With chamber music
concerts especially for them, school and youth concerts, workshops, attendance
at rehearsals, school visits by Philharmonic musicians, instrument
demonstrations as well as subscriptions for school and college students to
choose from, the young have a number of options for getting involved with the
world of classical music and the work of a great symphony orchestra. During the
2004/2005 season, over 25,000 children and adolescents took part in
approximately 160 events.
In January of 2004, the Munich Philharmonic
named Zubin Mehta the first “Honorary Conductor” in the history of the
orchestra.
In May of 2003, Christian Thielemann signed a contract as the
next General Music Director. His administration began in September of 2004. On
October 29, 2004, he conducted his inaugural concert featuring the Fifth
Symphony by Anton Bruckner. In conjunction with the awards ceremony for the
“Euro-Klassik” prize for the year 2004, the Munich Philharmonic performed in the
Philharmonie in the Gasteig on October 24, 2004. On this occasion, Christian
Thielemann was the only prize winner to receive an award in the special category
“Artist of the Year”. On the 20th of October 2005, the Munich Philharmonic gave
a concert in honor of Pope Benedict XVI., conducted by Christian Thielemann. In
the Aula Paolo VI. they played works by Palestrina, Verdi and Wagner for an
audience of 8,000. Guest concerts in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris,
Rome, Turin, Barcelona, Madrid and many other places have been received with
equal enthusiasm by press and public. The first Asian tour will take place in
November of 2007 with concerts in Japan, South Korea and China. Beyond this,
18,000 subscribers in the Philharmonie on the Gasteig impressively document the
ranking of the orchestra under the direction of its General Music Director in
Munich’s cultural life.
Munich Philharmonic orchestra official website
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