The Dortmunder Philharmoniker (Dortmund Philharmonic) are a German

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, cel ...

based in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the l ...

. The orchestra of the

Theater Dortmund Theater Dortmund is a theatrical organization that produces operas, musicals, ballets, plays, and concerts in Dortmund, Germany. It was founded as the Stadttheater Dortmund in 1904. Supported by the German Government, the organization owns and ope ...

performs opera in the

Opernhaus Dortmund Opernhaus Dortmund is the opera house of Dortmund, Germany, operated by the Theater Dortmund organisation. A new opera house opened in 1966, replacing an earlier facility which opened in 1904 and was destroyed during World War I. It was built on ...

and concert in the Konzerthaus Dortmund. The orchestra was founded in 1887 and has been shaped by conductors such as

Wilhelm Schüchter Wilhelm Schüchter (15 December 1911 – 27 May 1974) was a German conductor. He was Generalmusikdirektor in Dortmund and left a legacy of opera recordings. Career Born in Bonn, Schüchter studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, com ...

Marek Janowski Marek Janowski (born 18 February 1939 in Warsaw) is a Polish-born German conductor. He is currently chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic. Childhood Janowski grew up in Wuppertal, near Cologne, after his mother traveled there at the s ...

Moshe Atzmon Moshe Atzmon ( he, משה עצמון, born 30 July 1931) is an Israeli conductor. He was born Móse Grószberger in Budapest, and at the age of thirteen he emigrated with his family to Tel Aviv, Israel. He started his musical career on the hor ...

and Jac van Steen.

History

The ''Dortmunder Philharmoniker'' were founded as ''Orchesterverein'' in 1887. They played at different locations until the Stadttheater was opened in 1904. Since then they played also opera. The names of orchestra changed with organisational and functional changes, ''Hüttner Kapelle'', ''Städtisches Orchester'' (Orchestra of the City), ''Philharmonisches Orchester der Stadt Dortmund'', ''Philharmonisches Orchester Dortmund'', now ''Dortmunder Philharmoniker''. The concert venue after World War II was the Kleine Westfalenhalle. In 1966 they opened the new opera house

with a performance of ''

Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...

'', conducted by

. Its hall was also used for symphony concerts until 2002, when the Konzerthaus Dortmund opened as the orchestra's home. As of 2010, the orchestra had grown to 102 musicians. The principal conductor has the title

Generalmusikdirektor A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the ...

: * 1887–1919 Georg Hüttner * 1920–1951 * 1952–1962 Rolf Agop * 1963–1974

* 1975–1979

* 1980–1985 Hans Wallat * 1985–1990 * 1991–1994

* 1996–2000 Anton Marik * 2002–2007 * 2008–2013 Jac van Steen * since 2013

Music

The Dortmunder Philharmiker perform regular concerts and also concerts for young listeners, (family concerts) for people from five years up, and (concerts for young people). In October 2006 they toured in China, in Shanghai and Beijing among others, conducted by Arthur Fagen. In 2010 they participated in the Festival Klangvocal with music of

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as tra ...

and

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

. Henze's Symphony No. 5, Wagner's ''

Wesendonck Lieder , WWV 91, is the common name of a set of five songs for female voice and piano by Richard Wagner, (''Five Poems for a Female Voice''). He set five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck while he was working on his opera ''Tristan und Isolde''. The songs, ...

'' in Henze's version, and the first act of ''

Die Walküre (; ''The Valkyrie''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the Nat ...

'' were performed with soloists

Angela Denoke Angela Denoke (born 27 November 1961) is a German opera singer (soprano). Born in Stade, she studied at the University of Music and Drama of Hamburg. Her first contract was at the Theater Ulm (1992–1996), where she sang Fiordiligi (''Così ...

and

Stig Andersen Stig Andersen (1914 - 28 August 1991) was a Danish philatelist who signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (RDP) is a Philately, philatelic award of international scale, created by the Philatelic Con ...

, conducted by Jac van Steen. It is part of a project begun in 2009 to perform all symphonies of Henze, whose mother was born in nearby

Witten Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area. Bordering municipalities * Bochum * Dortmu ...

. The Dortmunder Philharmoniker recorded a CD in 2010, works of

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example ...

, including his Symphony No. 6 and concert overtures.

References

External links

* {{Authority control, state=collapsed German symphony orchestras Musical groups established in 1887 1887 establishments in Germany Musical groups from North Rhine-Westphalia Culture in Dortmund

History

Music

References

Further reading

External links