Tonhalle Orchester Zurich
Encyclopedia
Tonhalle Orchester Zürich is a symphony orchestra founded in 1868 in Zürich
Switzerland, where it established its residence in the neue Tonhalle (new concert hall) in 1895.
The Tonhalle Orchestra is conducted by David Zinman
, in whose period as music director since 1995, it has come to international attention with a large and growing repertoire of recordings. Zinman's contract was recently extended to 2010. The orchestra of just over 100 musicians now plays all over the world; it has twice performed widely-broadcast BBC Promenade Concerts
at Royal Albert Hall
. With Zinman, the orchestra has made many recordings, including a cycle of Beethoven
and Schumann
symphonies and works by Richard Strauss
.
Under Friedrich Hegar
, its first conductor, it began to have a great influence on music in and around Zürich. His successor, Volkmar Andreae
, noted for promoting works of Bruckner
, directed the orchestra for forty three years and gave 1,300 concerts. Rudolf Kempe
focused especially on German romantic music. Gerd Albrecht
thought of new ways to introduce music to wider audiences, including concerts for children and families and had a considerable role in enhancing the orchestra's role in the musical life of Zürich. The pianist Christoph Eschenbach
held his first post as conductor there and, under Zinman, the orchestra is again experimenting with new ways, including a Friday disco night, known as "Tonhalle Late", after concerts designed to attract younger people.
From its very beginning, the orchestra has been conducted by noted composers of the day, including Johannes Brahms
, Richard Wagner
, Richard Strauss
and Paul Hindemith
. Under David Zinman, the orchestra is now playing and recording works of Beethoven, Mozart
, Schubert
, Mahler
, Wagner and Schoenberg
while also pursuing the "Swiss Connection", featuring works by composers who were connected with Switzerland in one way or another. As well as some of those listed, these include Stravinsky
, Rachmaninoff
, Frank Martin
and less internationally-known composers such as Klaus Huber
, Rolf Urs Ringger, Lehmann, Zinsstag and Kelterborn. Regular guest conductors have included Ernest Ansermet
, Wilhelm Furtwängler
, Otto Klemperer
, Georg Solti
and, more recently, Bernard Haitink
, Mariss Jansons
, Frans Brüggen
, Mstislav Rostropovich
and Herbert Blomstedt
.
In 1947, Franz Lehár
recorded a number of high fidelity 78-rpm discs of his music with the orchestra for Decca Records
. The discs were issued in the U.S. by London Records
, initially in the 78-rpm format and then on LPs. Some of the recordings are now available through Naxos Records
on CD.
Recently soloists in Zürich under David Zinman's baton have included Yo-Yo Ma
, Lynn Harrell
, Gustav Rivinius, Heinrich Schiff
, Truls Mørk
, Alfred Brendel
, Krystian Zimerman
, Yefim Bronfman
, Emanuel Ax
, Leif Ove Andsnes
, Pinchas Zukerman
, Gil Shaham
and Christian Tetzlaff
as well as some of the orchestra's own principals, several of whom are internationally recognized players in their own right, such as Simon Fuchs (oboe
), Florenz Jenny (bassoon
), Sabine Morel (flute
), Gilad Karni
(viola
), Michel Rouilly (viola), and Thomas Grossenbacher (cello
). The orchestra is international in composition, though it includes many talented Swiss musicians. It is led by Klaidi Sahatçi from Albania
and Julia Becker and Andreas Janke from Germany.
In autumn 2009 David Zinman and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich recorded an elaborate soundtrack together with composer Diego Baldenweg and music producer Lionel Vincent Baldenweg for a feature film called 180° - AMOK (Source: Werbewoche).
This project was honoured with the SUISA prize for "best film music 2010" at the Locarno International Film Festival
.
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
Switzerland, where it established its residence in the neue Tonhalle (new concert hall) in 1895.
The Tonhalle Orchestra is conducted by David Zinman
David Zinman
David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...
, in whose period as music director since 1995, it has come to international attention with a large and growing repertoire of recordings. Zinman's contract was recently extended to 2010. The orchestra of just over 100 musicians now plays all over the world; it has twice performed widely-broadcast BBC Promenade Concerts
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
at Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
. With Zinman, the orchestra has made many recordings, including a cycle of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
and Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
symphonies and works by Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
.
Under Friedrich Hegar
Friedrich Hegar
Friedrich Hegar was a Swiss composer, conductor, violinist, and founding conductor of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich from 1868 to 1906.Hegar was born in Basel and died in Zürich at age 85.-External links:...
, its first conductor, it began to have a great influence on music in and around Zürich. His successor, Volkmar Andreae
Volkmar Andreae
Volkmar Andreae was a Swiss conductor and composer.Andreae was born in Bern. He received piano instruction as a child and his first lessons in composition with Karl Munzinger. From 1897 to 1900, he studied at the Cologne Conservatory and was a student of Fritz Brun, Franz Wüllner, and Friedrich...
, noted for promoting works of Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
, directed the orchestra for forty three years and gave 1,300 concerts. Rudolf Kempe
Rudolf Kempe
Rudolf Kempe was a German conductor.- Biography :Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of fourteen he studied at the Dresden State Opera School. He played oboe in the opera orchestra of Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929...
focused especially on German romantic music. Gerd Albrecht
Gerd Albrecht
Gerd Albrecht is a German conductor. He was a first-prize winner at the International Conductors Competition in Besançon at age 22. His first post was as a repetiteur at the Stuttgart State Opera. Later, he became Senior Kapellmeister at the Mainz Municipal Theatre, and Generalmusikdirektor in...
thought of new ways to introduce music to wider audiences, including concerts for children and families and had a considerable role in enhancing the orchestra's role in the musical life of Zürich. The pianist Christoph Eschenbach
Christoph Eschenbach
Christoph Eschenbach , born February 20, 1940, Breslau, Germany is a German-born pianist and conductor. He currently holds positions in Washington, D.C. as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and music director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.-Early...
held his first post as conductor there and, under Zinman, the orchestra is again experimenting with new ways, including a Friday disco night, known as "Tonhalle Late", after concerts designed to attract younger people.
From its very beginning, the orchestra has been conducted by noted composers of the day, including Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
and Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
. Under David Zinman, the orchestra is now playing and recording works of Beethoven, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, Wagner and Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
while also pursuing the "Swiss Connection", featuring works by composers who were connected with Switzerland in one way or another. As well as some of those listed, these include Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, Frank Martin
Frank Martin (composer)
Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...
and less internationally-known composers such as Klaus Huber
Klaus Huber
Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer.Huber was born in Bern, Switzerland. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater...
, Rolf Urs Ringger, Lehmann, Zinsstag and Kelterborn. Regular guest conductors have included Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Alexandre Ansermet was a Swiss conductor.- Biography :Ansermet was born in Vevey, Switzerland. Although he was a contemporary of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Otto Klemperer, Ansermet represents in most ways a very different tradition and approach from those two musicians. Originally he was a...
, Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
, Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...
, Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
and, more recently, Bernard Haitink
Bernard Haitink
Bernard Johan Herman Haitink, CH, KBE is a Dutch conductor and violinist.- Early life :Haitink was born in Amsterdam, the son of Willem Haitink and Anna Haitink. He studied music at the conservatoire in Amsterdam...
, Mariss Jansons
Mariss Jansons
Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons is a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, who was Jewish, gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga Ghetto...
, Frans Brüggen
Frans Brüggen
Frans Brüggen is a well-known Dutch conductor, recorder player and baroque flautist.-Biography:Brüggen studied recorder and flute at the Amsterdam Muzieklyceum. He also studied musicology at the University of Amsterdam. In 1955, at the age of 21, he was appointed professor at the Royal...
, Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
and Herbert Blomstedt
Herbert Blomstedt
Herbert Blomstedt is a Swedish conductor.Herbert Blomstedt was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin...
.
In 1947, Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
recorded a number of high fidelity 78-rpm discs of his music with the orchestra for Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. The discs were issued in the U.S. by London Records
London Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....
, initially in the 78-rpm format and then on LPs. Some of the recordings are now available through Naxos Records
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
on CD.
Recently soloists in Zürich under David Zinman's baton have included Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
, Lynn Harrell
Lynn Harrell
Lynn Harrell is an American classical cellist.-Biography:Harrell was born in New York City of musician parents; his father was the baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie Fulton, was a violinist. At the age of eight he decided to learn to play the cello. When Lynn was 12, his family moved...
, Gustav Rivinius, Heinrich Schiff
Heinrich Schiff
Heinrich Schiff is an Austrian cellist and conductor. He studied cello with Tobias Kühne and André Navarra and made his solo debut in Vienna and London in 1971...
, Truls Mørk
Truls Mørk
Truls Olaf Otterbech Mørk is a Norwegian cellist.Mørk was born in Bergen, Norway, the son of two professional musicians, his father a cellist and his mother a pianist. His mother began teaching him the piano when he was seven...
, Alfred Brendel
Alfred Brendel
Alfred Brendel KBE is an Austrian pianist, born in Czechoslovakia and a resident of the United Kingdom. He is also a poet and author.-Biography:...
, Krystian Zimerman
Krystian Zimerman
Krystian Zimerman is a Polish classical pianist who is widely regarded as one of the finest living pianists.-Biography:...
, Yefim Bronfman
Yefim Bronfman
Yefim "Fima" Naumovich Bronfman is a Soviet-born Israeli-American pianist.-Biography:He was born in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, and emigrated to Israel at the age of 15...
, Emanuel Ax
Emanuel Ax
Emanuel Ax is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is currently a teacher on the faculty of the Juilliard School. He is considered one of the best known concert pianists of the 21st century.-Early life:...
, Leif Ove Andsnes
Leif Ove Andsnes
Leif Ove Andsnes is a Norwegian pianist and an ardent champion of the works of Edvard Grieg.-Biography:He studied with Jiří Hlinka at the Bergen Music Conservatory and made his debut in Oslo in 1987, in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival with the Oslo Philharmonic in 1989, and in the United States...
, Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman is a world-renowned violinist, violist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his ongoing 45-year career has seen him perform with the world's best-known orchestras and record over 100 works...
, Gil Shaham
Gil Shaham
-Biography:Gil Shaham was born in Urbana, Illinois, while his parents, Israeli scientists, were on an academic fellowship at the University of Illinois. His father Jacob was an astrophysicist, and his mother, Meira Diskin, was a cytogeneticist. His sister is the pianist Orli Shaham. He is a...
and Christian Tetzlaff
Christian Tetzlaff
-Biography:Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg. He began playing the violin and piano at the age of 6, and made his concert debut at 14 years old. He studied with Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and with Walter Levine at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.He is...
as well as some of the orchestra's own principals, several of whom are internationally recognized players in their own right, such as Simon Fuchs (oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
), Florenz Jenny (bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
), Sabine Morel (flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
), Gilad Karni
Gilad Karni
Gilad Karni is an Israeli violist who has played in the New York Philharmonic and is currently principal viola in the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich as well as a soloist and player in chamber ensembles...
(viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
), Michel Rouilly (viola), and Thomas Grossenbacher (cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
). The orchestra is international in composition, though it includes many talented Swiss musicians. It is led by Klaidi Sahatçi from Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
and Julia Becker and Andreas Janke from Germany.
In autumn 2009 David Zinman and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich recorded an elaborate soundtrack together with composer Diego Baldenweg and music producer Lionel Vincent Baldenweg for a feature film called 180° - AMOK (Source: Werbewoche).
This project was honoured with the SUISA prize for "best film music 2010" at the Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
.
Principal conductors
- Friedrich HegarFriedrich HegarFriedrich Hegar was a Swiss composer, conductor, violinist, and founding conductor of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich from 1868 to 1906.Hegar was born in Basel and died in Zürich at age 85.-External links:...
(1868–1906) - Volkmar AndreaeVolkmar AndreaeVolkmar Andreae was a Swiss conductor and composer.Andreae was born in Bern. He received piano instruction as a child and his first lessons in composition with Karl Munzinger. From 1897 to 1900, he studied at the Cologne Conservatory and was a student of Fritz Brun, Franz Wüllner, and Friedrich...
(1906–1949) - Erich SchmidErich SchmidErich Schmid was a Swiss composer and conductor. He was born on January 1, 1907 in Balsthal, Switzerland and died December 17, 2000 in Zürich. He studied composition with Bernhard Sekles at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt und später mit Arnold Schönberg...
(1949–1957) - Hans RosbaudHans RosbaudHans Rosbaud , was an Austrian conductor, particularly associated with the music of the twentieth century....
(1957–1962) - Rudolf KempeRudolf KempeRudolf Kempe was a German conductor.- Biography :Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of fourteen he studied at the Dresden State Opera School. He played oboe in the opera orchestra of Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929...
(1965–1972) - Charles DutoitCharles DutoitCharles Édouard Dutoit, is a Swiss conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of French and Russian 20th century music...
(1967–1971) - Gerd AlbrechtGerd AlbrechtGerd Albrecht is a German conductor. He was a first-prize winner at the International Conductors Competition in Besançon at age 22. His first post was as a repetiteur at the Stuttgart State Opera. Later, he became Senior Kapellmeister at the Mainz Municipal Theatre, and Generalmusikdirektor in...
(1975–1980) - Christoph EschenbachChristoph EschenbachChristoph Eschenbach , born February 20, 1940, Breslau, Germany is a German-born pianist and conductor. He currently holds positions in Washington, D.C. as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and music director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.-Early...
(1982–1986) - Hiroshi WakasugiHiroshi Wakasugiwas a Japanese orchestra conductor. He premiered many of the major Western operas in Japan, and was honoured with many awards for cultural achievement....
(1987–1991) - Claus Peter FlorClaus Peter FlorClaus Peter Flor is a German conductor. He played the violin as a youth, and later was a conducting student with Rolf Reuter....
(1991–1995) permanent guest conductor - David ZinmanDavid ZinmanDavid Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...
(1995–present)