SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg

SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, chief conductor François-Xavier Roth

The SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg was one of two symphony orchestras of the Südwestrundfunk (SWR). Since it was founded in 1946, it has been known for numerous world premieres of new music . Since 1996 the orchestra has been based in the Freiburg Concert Hall .

For the 2016/17 season the orchestra was merged with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra to form the SWR Symphony Orchestra . The seat of the merged orchestra is Stuttgart.

history

Logo of the SWR Symphony Orchestra

Founded on February 1, 1946 in Baden-Baden under the name of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the South West Radio , it was renamed the Great Orchestra of the South West Radio that same year . Under the chief conductor Hans Rosbaud , the foundation stone for the current direction of the orchestra was laid in 1950 with the first appearance at the Donaueschinger Musiktage for contemporary music . Since then the orchestra has premiered around 500 works. In 1966 the orchestra was renamed the South West Radio Symphony Orchestra . In 1996, the move from the Hans-Rosbaud-Studio, located on the Baden-Baden SWF site, to the larger, newly built Freiburg Concert Hall . With the merger of SDR and SWF to form SWR , the orchestra was given its current name in 1998.

Since 1949 the orchestra has been touring the world on a regular basis, so it organized the gala concert in the Wiener Konzerthaus on January 27, 2006 on the occasion of Mozart's 250th birthday . On February 1, 2006, the symphony orchestra celebrated its 60th birthday with a gala concert in the Freiburg Concert Hall. From May 8 to 11, 2016, the symphony orchestra celebrated its 70th birthday with a festival in the Freiburg Concert Hall.

On September 28, 2012, the SWR Broadcasting Council decided to plan concrete steps for the merger of the orchestra with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2016. As a result, the symphony orchestra was included in the Red List of Culture of the German Cultural Council in October 2012 and classified in Category 1 as threatened with closure . In the last few years leading up to the merger, there have been many protests against the merger of the orchestras, for example 148 composers and 160 conductors wrote an open letter to the SWR director to oppose »the end of the independence of a globally unique orchestra with an unmistakable profile " to raise. Rescuing the orchestra by transferring it to a foundation failed due to insufficient commitments for the foundation capital. The merger is expected to proceed without layoffs. The job cuts will only take place "through age-related departures". The German Orchestra Association demanded that a collective agreement be concluded.

The orchestra said goodbye to its audience on July 16, 2016 with a concert on Freiburg's Münsterplatz and on July 17, 2016 with a final concert in the Freiburg Concert Hall.

Chief conductor

TV recording with the South West Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1964. Conductor Ernest Bour, on piano Rudolf Firkušný

• 1946–1948: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
• 1948–1962: Under Hans Rosbaud , the orchestra premieres works by Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky , both of whom also appear as guest conductors. In 1958 Pierre Boulez started his career as a conductor as an artist-in-residence in Baden-Baden.
• 1964–1979: In addition to György Ligeti's Lontano, Ernest Bour conducts over 100 world premieres, but also keeps the classical program.
• 1980–1986: The Eastern European program with Tchaikovsky , Shostakovich and Lutosławski enjoys support under Kazimierz Kord .
• 1986–1999 Under the motto “Music is indivisible”, Michael Gielen took up the concept of equality between classical and modern music and presented, in addition to other world premieres from Spahlinger to Kagel , complete recordings of symphonies by Beethoven and Mahler . Michael Gielen was the orchestra's “honorary conductor” from 2002.
• 1999–2011: In addition to his preference for Mozart and Haydn , Sylvain Cambreling recorded cycles by Messiaen and Berlioz with the orchestra and expanded the French repertoire with lesser-known composers from Rameau to Gérard Grisey .
• 2011–2016: François-Xavier Roth consistently continues the profile of the orchestra: with the motto "We play new music from all times" he juxtaposes works by Beethoven and Boulez, Strauss and Rihm, Debussy and Ligeti in the concert programs. In addition to the premieres, there will be numerous re-performances of works premiered by the SWR Symphony Orchestra over the past decades.

Awards (excerpt)

• 2009: Annual German Record Critics' Award for the recording of works for orchestra by Olivier Messiaen . Sylvain Cambreling received the ECHO Klassik as conductor of the year for these recordings .
• 2010: Midem Classical Award in the category of contemporary music for the recording of works for orchestra by Olivier Messiaen.
• 2013: Honorary Award of the German Record Critics for his contribution to a vibrant contemporary music culture.
• 2014 ECHO Klassik in the category Orchestra of the Year for Hans Zender : Logos Fragments (Canto IX)
• 2014: Nomination for the Grammy 2015 in the category Best Opera Recording for Arnold Schönberg's Moses und Aron with Andreas Conrad , Franz Grundheber , the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg and the EuropaChorAkademie under the direction of Sylvain Cambreling (producer: Reinhard Oechsler)

literature

• 40 years of the Baden-Baden Symphony Orchestra . Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra, Baden-Baden 1986.
• Jürg Stenzl (Ed.): Orchestra culture. Variations over half a century. On the occasion of the 50th birthday of the SWF symphony orchestra . Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 1996, ISBN 3-476-01500-9 .
• 70 years of classic avant-garde 1946–2016 . SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, Freiburg 2016 ( digital version )

Web links

Commons : SWR Sinfonieorchester  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Homepage of the orchestra )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Merger of the SWR orchestras decided. Broadcasting Council voted with a large majority in favor of the SWR's proposal . SWR press release. September 28, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
2. ↑ Stuttgart will be the seat of the SWR Symphony Orchestra in 2016. DPA notification of December 7, 2012 in badische-zeitung.de
3. ↑ Michael Stallknecht: In Wind und Regen. The SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg is dissolved . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 29, 2016, p. 11.
4. ↑ SWR orchestra fusion: "No commerce!" In: The time . November 14, 2013, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed on September 16, 2016]).
5. ^ Against the merger of the SWR orchestras: An open letter from one hundred and sixty conductors . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 12, 2013, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed September 16, 2016]).
6. ↑ SWR orchestra fusion: "No commerce!" In: The time . November 14, 2013, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed on September 16, 2016]).
7. ^ Rescue of the Baden SWR Orchestra failed | nmz - new music newspaper. In: www.nmz.de. Retrieved September 16, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Götz Thieme: Fall of Man in the Model Country. In: Stuttgarter-zeitung.de of September 28, 2012. Retrieved on September 29, 2012.
9. ↑ SWR does not want to give notice when the orchestra is merged ( memento of the original from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Deutschlandradio Kultur. Cultural news. October 29, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
10. ^ François-Xavier Roth . In: SWR.de. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
11. ↑ Honorary Awards 2013 , In: schallplattenkritik.de. Retrieved February 11, 2015
12. ↑ Echoklassik.de Klassik Prize Winner 2014 ( Memento from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 26, 2014
13. ↑ 57th Annual Grammy Awards Nominees , accessed January 9, 2015