Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra

Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra – A Portrait

"Orchestra for Düsseldorf" – a task and aspiration that the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra sets itself 250 times a year.
The orchestra is an ensemble that possesses two facets … because the work in the Tonhalle and in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein with two opera houses mean that it operates with an unusual profile. The orchestra carries the reputation of Düsseldorf as a city of culture into the wide world with concert trips to Amsterdam, Salzburg, Vienna, China and Japan.

From Händel to Schumann

The symphony orchestra goes back a long way in history: such internationally celebrated artists as Georg Friedrich Händel and Arcangelo Corelli already commenced work with the "Düsseldorfer Hofkapelle" at the electoral court. Many musicians at the Hofkapelle later left for Mannheim where the "Mannheimer-Schule" laid the foundations for today's orchestral culture.

The rise of middle-class music culture in the 19th century resulted in the birth of the Städtische Musikverein in Düsseldorf. And it was cleverly able to once again attract important artists to this city on the banks of the Rhine. The first musical directors in Düsseldorf included such famous celebrities as Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (from 1833-1835) and Ferdinand Hiller (from 1847-1850) who were already highly acclaimed during their own life times.

Ferdinand Hiller recommended Robert Schumann (in Düsseldorf 1850-1854) – as his predecessor and friend – to accept the position he'd been offered as Düsseldorf's musical director. The city of Düsseldorf was more than happy that it was able to persuade the musical couple of Robert and Clara Schumann, who were already regarded as world famous at the time, to remain in the city. In spite of his incurable disease, Schumann composed many of his best works here. It was the first and last time that Schumann held public office which meant that Düsseldorf – alongside Leipzig and Berlin – was regarded as one the most important cities of music in Germany at the time.

Over the following decades, the orchestra developed into one of the largest and leading ensembles in the country. The Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra is Germany's second oldest municipal orchestra.

The Symphony Orchestra Today

Heinrich Hollreiser was responsible for reconstruction after 1945. He was followed in his position of general musical director (GMD) by such famed conductors as Eugen Szenkar, Jean Martinon, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Henryk Czyz, Willem van Otterloo, Bernhard Klee, David Shallon and Salvador Mas Conde. The American, John Fiore, worked as GMD in the state capital from 2000 to 2008.

The most recent recording with Strauss' tone poem, "Also sprach Zarathustra", was released to great acclaim in the press. The discography also includes the orchestra's own CD productions of concert and opera recordings and recordings by the Städtischer Musikverein in Düsseldorf. A CD box with Bruckner's 9th and Schönberg's Gurre-Lieder has also recently been issued.

Besides concerts, educational work also remains a priority for the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. In ongoing cooperation with schools, subject-wide topics relating to music and composers are taught and workshops organized for young musicians. School tours by the orchestra and visits by individual musicians are just as much part of the orchestra's everyday work as class groups attending rehearsals. For many seasons now, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra has staged morning youth concerts hosted by the respective conductors. The new "3-2-1 IGNITION" series of concerts has also been highly successful in its attempts to attract the attention of young people outside school.
In order to particularly enable this group of people to attend concerts, all admission tickets to events staged by the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra only cost five euros for school and university students.