2010年8月2日星期一

A Brief History of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The symphonic pride of The Netherlands is expressed in the form of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a professional group of musicians based in Amsterdam and named expressly for the venue in which most of nfl throwback jerseys their performances take place, the city's main "concert hall" (Dutch: concertgebouw). In 1988, the ensemble earned the right to affix the appellation "Royal" to its official name from the country's reigning monarch, Queen Beatrix.
The orchestra was created in November 1888. Five years later Willem Mengelberg was named its music director, remaining in this post for an unprecedented 50 years. In addition to his role as the ensemble's general manager, he was also its chief conductor. Naturally no one person could bear the pressure of leading every event in which the Concertgebouw Orchestra performed, so there were a number of "first conductors" who assisted in booking soloists and designing the various programs. Two of the most notable were Pierre Monteux [1924–1934] and Bruno Walter [1934–1939]. At the conclusion of WWII, charges of collaboration during the Nazi occupation caused Mengelberg to be banned from the organization. He died in 1951.
No matter Mengelberg's amazing longevity, the man most responsible for raising the orchestra's profile on an international level was Bernard Haitink. He became the Concertgebouw Orchestra's music director in 1956 and remained there for 32 years. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was the enormous number of recordings he made on Philips cheap nfl jerseys , itself a Dutch company that came into existence in 1950 as a division of the massive electronics firm. In 1983, Philips was the first recording label to put music on compact disc for commercial purposes. This effort greatly increased the worldwide exposure of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, since a large share of the classical library on Philips was the result of its contract with Haitink and his group of musicians.
Following Haitink's retirement in 1988, Riccardo Chailly replaced him and became the first non-Dutch music director in the orchestra's history. He was credited with expanding its range beyond the basic works of Western European Romantic composers, mixing in more modern pieces by Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Messiaen, and Hindemith, and also broadening the repertoire to include a number of Italian operas in performance. Chailly departed in 2004 but remained on excellent terms with the orchestra, retaining the title of Conductor Emeritus. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's current music director and chief conductor is Mariss Jansons from Latvia. His efforts to further modernize the ensemble's programming have resulted in several world premieres, including the co-commissioning of nfl jerseys Sebastian im Traum by German composer Hans Werner Henze.
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has more than 1000 recordings to its credit; most exist on the Philips label, of course, but in the past the orchestra also recorded for Columbia Records and EMI. Today it runs its own label, RCO Live, and continues to add to its vast collection of material on disc as well as music available via download.
The building itself—The Concertgebouw—entertained its very first concert in April 1888, approximately five months before its resident orchestra was formed. The program included music by Wagner, Beethoven, Bach, and Handel. The primary concert venue is called the Great Hall, and it seats slightly more than 2000 patrons. A cozier venue, the Small Hall, has around 475 seats and is used primarily for recitals and chamber football jersey . More than 900 concerts are conducted annually at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, resulting in ticket sales that top 800,000. This makes the edifice the second-most visited concert hall in the world, trailing only the Parco della Musica in Rome.

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