The Dresdner Philharmonie (Dresden Philharmonic) is 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, ce ...

based in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. Its principal concert venue is the ''

Kulturpalast The Kulturpalast Dresden () is a modernist building built by Wolfgang Hänsch during the era of the German Democratic Republic. It was the largest multi-purpose hall in Dresden when it opened in 1969, and was used for concerts, dances, conferences ...

''. The orchestra also performs at the

Kreuzkirche The Dresden Kreuzkirche (Church of the Holy Cross) is a Lutheran church in Dresden, Germany. It is the main church and seat of the ''Landesbischof'' of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony, and the largest church building in the Free State o ...

, the Hochschule für Musik Dresden, and the Schloss Albrechtsberg. It receives financial support from the city of Dresden. The choral ensembles affiliated with the orchestra are the Dresden Philharmonic Choir and Dresden Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

History

The orchestra was founded in 1870 and gave its first concert in the ''Gewerbehaussaal'' on 29 November 1870, under the name ''Gewerbehausorchester''. The orchestra acquired its current name in 1915. During the existence of the

DDR DDR or ddr may refer to: *ddr, ISO 639-3 code for the Dhudhuroa language *DDr., title for a double doctorate in Germany *DDR, station code for Dadar railway station, Mumbai, India *' (German Democratic Republic), official name of the former East ...

, the orchestra took up its primary residence in the ''Kulturpalast''. After

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, plans had been proposed for a new concert hall. These had not come to fruition by the time of the principal conductorship of

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 st ...

, who cited this lack of development of a new hall for the orchestra as the reason for his resignation from the post in 2003. The orchestra's current principal conductor is

Michael Sanderling Michael Sanderling (born 21 February 1967) is a German conductor and violoncellist. Biography Born in East Berlin, Michael Sanderling is the son of the contrabassist Barbara Wagner and the conductor Kurt Sanderling. He received his first c ...

, since 2011. His initial contract was for three years. In October 2013, the orchestra announced the extension of Sanderling's contract as principal conductor through the 2018–2019 season. In November 2016, Sanderling announced, via a letter to the mayor of Dresden, his intention to stand down as chief conductor of the orchestra after the end of his current contract in 2019, in protest at learning of proposed culture budget reductions via media reports instead of being informed directly from the civic authorities. In September 2018, the orchestra announced the re-appointment of Janowski as its chief conductor, effective with the 2019–2020 season, with an initial contract of three seasons. In November 2020, the orchestra announced the extension of Janowski's contract as chief conductor by one season, through the summer of 2023. The current ''Intendantin'' of the orchestra is Frauke Roth, in the post since 2015, and currently under contract to the orchestra through 2026.

Principal conductors

* Hermann Mannsfeldt (1870–1885) * Michael Zimmermann (1885–1886) * Ernst Stahl (1886–1890) * August Trenkler (1890–1903) * Willy Olsen (1903–1915) * Edwin Lindner (1915–1923) * Joseph Gustav Mraczek (1923–1924) * Eduard Mörike (1924–1929) * Paul Scheinpflug (1929–1932) *

Werner Ladwig Werner Ladwig (18 August 1899 – 23 March 1934) was a German conductor. Life Born in Halle, Ladwig visited the Francke Foundations in Halle and studied philosophy, art history and musicology at the universities of Halle and Leipzig. Paul Gra ...

(1932–1934) *

Paul van Kempen Paul van Kempen (16 May 1893 – 8 December 1955) was a Dutch conductor. Personal life Van Kempen was born in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands. He studied at the Amsterdam conservatory from 1910 to 1913, including composition and conducting with Ju ...

(1934–1942) *

Carl Schuricht Carl Adolph Schuricht (; 3 July 18807 January 1967) was a German conductor. Life and career Schuricht was born in Danzig (Gdańsk), German Empire; his father's family had been respected organ-builders. His mother, Amanda Wusinowska, a widow soo ...

(1942–1944) * Gerhart Wiesenhütter (1945–1946) *

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 ...

(1947–1964) * Horst Förster (1964–1967) *

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus O ...

(1967–1972) *

Günther Herbig Günther Herbig (born 30 November 1931) is a German conductor. Born in Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, Herbig studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar in 1951 (then in East Germany) with Hermann Abendroth. He later was a student ...

(1972–1976) *

Herbert Kegel Herbert Kegel (29 July 1920 – 20 November 1990) was a German conductor. Kegel was born in Dresden. He studied conducting with Karl Böhm and composition with Boris Blacher at the Dresden Conservatory from 1935 to 1940. In 1946 he began c ...

(1977–1985) *

Jörg-Peter Weigle Jörg-Peter Weigle (born 1953, in Greifswald), is a German conductor and music professor. He is the uncle of the conductor Sebastian Weigle and the violist Friedemann Weigle. Weigle received his first musical training from 1963 to 1971 as a memb ...

(1986–1994) *

Michel Plasson Michel Plasson (born 2 October 1933, Paris, France) is a French conductor. Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. ...

(1994–2001) *

(2001–2003) *

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (born Rafael Frühbeck; 15 September 1933 – 11 June 2014) was a Spanish conductor and composer. Frühbeck was born in Burgos, Spain to a family of German ancestry. He first took up conducting while on military serv ...

(2004–2011) *

(2011–2019) * Marek Janowski (2019–present)

References

External links

Dresdner Philharmonie and Philharmoniker official website

CDs of Dresdner Philharmonie released by label GENUIN

{{Authority control German symphony orchestras Music in Dresden Musical groups established in 1870 1870 establishments in Saxony