The Meiningen Court Orchestra (german: Meininger Hofkapelle) is one of the oldest and most traditional orchestras in Europe. Since 1952 the now 68-member orchestra has been affiliated to the

Meiningen Court Theatre The Staatstheater Meiningen (State Theatre Meiningen), also called the Meiningen Theatre, is a four-division theater in the Thuringian town of Meiningen, Germany. The theater was founded in 1831 and was called ″Meininger Hoftheater″ (Meiningen ...

and in addition to their opera performances regularly give symphony concerts and youth concerts. The incumbent music director (GMD) is

Philippe Bach Philippe Bach (born 1974) is a Swiss conductor and current music director of Meiningen's Hofkapelle and Theatre. Biography Bach was born in Saanen, Switzerland, and studied Horn in Bern and Genève and conducting in Zürich. Philippe Bach was a ...

History

The

Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Meiningen (; german: Sachsen-Meiningen ) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin dynasty, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia. Established in 1681, by partition of the Ernestin ...

ducal court orchestra was founded in 1690 by Duke Bernhard I. The rise of the initially small ensemble began under the direction of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

composer

Georg Caspar Schürmann Georg Caspar Schürmann (1672 (or early 1673), in Idensen bei Neustadt am Rübenberge – 25 February 1751, in Wolfenbüttel) was a German Baroque composer. His name also appears as Schurmann and in Hochdeutsch as Scheuermann. Life Schürmann st ...

from 1702 to 1707. From 1711 until 1731

Johann Ludwig Bach Johann Ludwig Bach ( – 1 May 1731) was a German composer and violinist. He was born in Thal near Eisenach. At the age of 22 he moved to Meiningen eventually being appointed cantor there, and later Kapellmeister. He wrote a large amount of musi ...

, a second cousin of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

, served as conductor, succeeded by his relatives Gottlieb Friedrich and Johann Philipp Bach. Theater01a

In 1867 the Court Orchestra under principal conductor Emil Blücher together with

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

held a festival of the ''

Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein The Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein (ADMV, "General German Music Association") was a German musical association founded in 1861 by Franz Liszt and Franz Brendel, to embody the musical ideals of the New German School of music. Background At ...

'' (General German Music Association) promoting contemporary composers like

Leopold Damrosch Leopold Damrosch (October 22, 1832 – February 15, 1885) was a German American orchestral conductor and composer. Biography Damrosch was born in Posen (Poznań), Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Heinrich Damrosch. His father was Jewish and his m ...

Eduard Lassen Eduard Lassen (13 April 183015 January 1904) was a Belgium, Belgian-Denmark, Danish composer and conducting, conductor. Although of Denmark, Danish birth, he spent most of his career working as the music director at the court in Weimar. A moderat ...

Felix Draeseke Felix August Bernhard Draeseke (7 October 1835 – 26 February 1913) was a composer of the "New German School" admiring Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. He wrote compositions in most forms including eight operas and stage works, four symphonies, ...

, and

Robert Volkmann Friedrich Robert Volkmann (6 April 1815 – 30 October 1883) was a German composer. Life Robert Volkmann was born in Lommatzsch near Meißen, Germany. His father, a music director for a church, trained him in music to prepare him as a successor ...

. At

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 ...

's request, the orchestra performed at the first

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...

in 1876. With the succession of

Hans von Bülow Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for es ...

as court music director in October 1880, the most successful period of the chapel began, when it developed into an elite European orchestra. Bülow brought

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

to Meiningen to cooperate with the Court Orchestra and to occasionally conduct. In a letter to the "theatre duke" George II of Saxe-Meiningen, Brahms wrote "Bülow must know that the smallest rehearsal in the smallest Meiningen hall is more important to me than any Paris or London concert, and ...how good and comfortable I feel amidst the orchestra, I could sing aloud a long song of praise about it..." His Symphony No. 4 premiered in Meiningen on 25 October 1885 with the composer himself conducting. While Bülow was offered the conducting of the

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. History The Berlin Philharmonic was f ...

, young

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

from 1885 temporarily worked as music director in Meiningen, succeeded by

Fritz Steinbach Fritz Steinbach (17 June 1855 – 13 August 1916) was a German conductor and composer who was particularly associated with the works of Johannes Brahms. Born in Grünsfeld, he was the brother of conductor Emil Steinbach. He studied at the Le ...

and

Wilhelm Berger Wilhelm Reinhard Berger (9 August 1861 – 16 January 1911) was a German composer, pianist and conductor. Life Berger's father, originally a merchant from Bremen, worked in Boston (where Berger was born) as a music shopkeeper and made a name for ...

Timeline of musical directors

*(1690–1702) Bernhard I of Saxe-Meiningen *(1702–1707)

*(1711–1731)

*(1865–1880) Emil Büchner *(1880–1885)

*(1885–1886)

*(1886–1903)

*(1903–1911)

*(1911–1914)

Max Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University ...

*(1915–1920) Karl Piening *(1926–1930)

Heinz Bongartz Heinz Bongartz (31 July 1894, Krefeld – 5 May 1978, Dresden) was a German conductor and composer. He was the first artistic manager of the Dresdner Philharmonie (Dresden Philharmonic Concert Halls) under the East German East Germany ...

*(1945–?) Peter Schmitz *(1956–1961)

Rolf Reuter Rolf Reuter (7 October 1926 – 10 September 2007) was a German conductor. Life Reuter was born as son of the composer Fritz Reuter in Leipzig. After studying music at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden he began his care ...

*(1961–1967) Olaf Koch *(1967–1995) Wolfgang Hocke *(1995–1999) Marie-Jeanne Dufour *(1999–2004)

Kirill Petrenko Kirill Garrievich Petrenko (russian: Кирилл Гарриевич Петренко, Latin script: ; born 11 February 1972) is a Russian-Austrian conductor. He is chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Early life Petrenko was born in Omsk ...

*(2004-2007) Alan Buribayev *(2007–2010) Hans Urbanek *(2010–Present)

World premiere of works

*Brahms – Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 (October 25, 1885) *Strauss – Suite in Bb major (suite for wind) Op. 4 (November 18, 1884)

Notable instrumentalists

* Richard Mühlfeld – Violinist (1873–1876), Principal clarinettist (1876–?) * Gustave Knoop – Cellist * Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer – Cellist (1801–1805) *

Richard Bruno Heydrich Richard Bruno Heydrich (23 February 1865 – 24 August 1938) was a German opera singer (tenor), composer, and founder of the Halle Conservatory. A talented musician since childhood, Heydrich would find great success as a musical teacher, through ...

– Contrabassist {{Authority control Culture in Meiningen German symphony orchestras 1690 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Musical groups established in the 17th century