Gürzenich-Orchester
The Gürzenich Orchestra's roots reach back as far as the 15th century to the founding of a Cathedral Instrumental Ensemble (Domkapelle) which served the city of Cologne with its concerts, as well as church and theatre music. In 1827, under the patronage of wealthy citizens dedicated to the arts, the orchestra was brought under the auspices of the Cologne Concert Society. The Society organised concerts performed in the Gürzenich Hall from 1857 onwards, as well as the Lower Rhine Music Festivals (Niederrheinische Musikfeste) which took place in Cologne under the direction of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. It also engaged Municipal Music Directors (Kapellmeister) such as Conradin Kreutzer, Heinrich Dorn, Ferdinand Hiller, Franz Wüllner and Fritz Steinbach.
Leading conductors and composers of the time, including Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Brahms and Stravinsky, appeared regularly with the orchestra. The Double Concerto op. 102 by Brahms, Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel and Don Quixote and Mahler's Symphony no. 5 as well as Max Reger's Hiller Variations and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Concerto for Orchestra number among the major works the Gürzenich Orchestra has had the honour of premiering.
Between 1945 and 1974, the orchestra was conducted by the legendary Günter Wand who succeeded Hermann Abendroth and Eugen Papst as the orchestra's music director. In spite of his strong focus on the classical-romantic repertoire, Wand did not neglect the works of his contemporaries Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek, Werner Egk, Olivier Messiaen, Wolfgang Fortner, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Hans Werner Henze. Several composers including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Witold Lutoslawski and Krzysztof Penderecki were regularly invited to conduct their own pieces with the Gürzenich Orchestra.
In 1975, Yuri Ahronovitch took over as the orchestra's music director, succeeded in 1986 by Marek Janowski. In the same year, the newly inaugurated Cologne Philharmonic Hall became the Gürzenich Orchestra's regular home. After James Conlon was appointed Cologne's General Music Director in 1991, the orchestra began to tour internationally, establishing its world-wide reputation.
Much of the Gürzenich Orchestra's work with James Conlon has been devoted to recording. Numerous international recording awards went to the Zemlinsky Cycle (EMI), as well as to the series entitled Violin Concertos of the 20th Century with Vladimir Spivakov as soloist, and to the CD featuring works by Viktor Ullmann (Capriccio). The recording of the complete Shostakovich symphonies (Capriccio) conducted by Dmitrij Kitajenko won the MIDEM Classical Award in 2006.
Over the years, a distinguished group of soloists have performed with the orchestra, including pianists Eugen d'Albert, Ferruccio Busoni, Vladimir Horowitz, Edwin Fischer, Claudio Arrau, Clara Haskil, Wilhelm Backhaus, Walter Gieseking, Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini and Radu Lupu and violinists Joszef Szigeti, Adolf Busch, Carl Flesch, Bronislaw Hubermann, Jascha Heifetz, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Henryk Szeryng, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Markus Stenz has been the Music Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra since 2003 and Cologne's General Music Director since 2004. Under his direction, the Gürzenich Orchestra received the German Music Publishers Association's award for "the best concert program of the 2003/04 season". In October 2005, Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich Orchestra launched GO live!. This venture allows the audience to extend the experience of a live concert by purchasing a CD of the concert immediately after its performance. Following a number of successful recordings, the orchestra has now embarked on a complete cycle of Gustav Mahler's symphonies plus the song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn on the label Oehmsclassics. Beginning with Mahler's Symphony no.5, the CDs of the cycle is being released between 2009 and 2012.
Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich Orchestra perform at festivals and concert halls throughout the world and have most recently appeared in Vienna, Athens, Thessaloniki, Amsterdam, at the Edinburgh International Festival and at the BBC Proms. Over the turn of the year 2007/2008, the orchestra toured China with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Guangzhou receiving great acclaim. As cultural ambassadors for Germany, the Cologne Opera and the Gürzenich Orchestra made an exclusive contribution to the EXPO-program 2010: their Ring of the Nibelung, stage-directed by Robert Carsen, was shown at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and they also performed Mozart's Don Giovanni at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
Marcus Stenz studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with Volker Wangenheim, later receiving a scholarship to study with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa in Tanglewood. Between 1994 and 1998, Markus Stenz held the position of Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta, the most renowned British ensemble for contemporary music. From 1998 to 2004 he was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and since the 2009/10 season he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester.
Markus Stenz has conducted such noteworthy orchestras as the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Munich Philharmonic, the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Moreover, he regularly appears with leading orchestras of the USA, Scandinavia, France, Italy and the UK. In August 2009 he participated in the Mendelssohn celebrations in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and made his debut at the Bregenz Festival.
Markus Stenz made his debut as an opera conductor at La Fenice in Venice in a production of Hans Werner Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers. He has since conducted many premieres of Henze's works including Das Verratene Meer in Berlin, Venus und Adonis at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and L'Upupa at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. Markus Stenz has appeared at many of the world's major opera houses and international festivals such as La Scala in Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Edinburgh International Festival and Salzburg Festival. Among his performances in Cologne, Wagner's Ring, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser as well as Janacek's Jenufa bear particular mention. New productions include Mozart's Magic Flute, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Strauss' Capriccio, Peter Eötvös' Love and Other Demons and Mozart's Don Giovanni. In the 2009/10 season Markus Stenz made his debut at the Chicago Lyric Opera in a production of Katya Kabanova featuring Karita Mattila.
In August 2008, Markus Stenz recorded new works by Moritz Eggert, Colin Matthews, Theo Verbej and Detlev Glanert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Further recordings planned to date are Helmut Lachenmann's Ausklang and Strauss' An Alpine Symphony with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra.
www.guerzenich-orchester.de
Leading conductors and composers of the time, including Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Brahms and Stravinsky, appeared regularly with the orchestra. The Double Concerto op. 102 by Brahms, Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel and Don Quixote and Mahler's Symphony no. 5 as well as Max Reger's Hiller Variations and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Concerto for Orchestra number among the major works the Gürzenich Orchestra has had the honour of premiering.
Between 1945 and 1974, the orchestra was conducted by the legendary Günter Wand who succeeded Hermann Abendroth and Eugen Papst as the orchestra's music director. In spite of his strong focus on the classical-romantic repertoire, Wand did not neglect the works of his contemporaries Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek, Werner Egk, Olivier Messiaen, Wolfgang Fortner, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Hans Werner Henze. Several composers including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Witold Lutoslawski and Krzysztof Penderecki were regularly invited to conduct their own pieces with the Gürzenich Orchestra.
In 1975, Yuri Ahronovitch took over as the orchestra's music director, succeeded in 1986 by Marek Janowski. In the same year, the newly inaugurated Cologne Philharmonic Hall became the Gürzenich Orchestra's regular home. After James Conlon was appointed Cologne's General Music Director in 1991, the orchestra began to tour internationally, establishing its world-wide reputation.
Much of the Gürzenich Orchestra's work with James Conlon has been devoted to recording. Numerous international recording awards went to the Zemlinsky Cycle (EMI), as well as to the series entitled Violin Concertos of the 20th Century with Vladimir Spivakov as soloist, and to the CD featuring works by Viktor Ullmann (Capriccio). The recording of the complete Shostakovich symphonies (Capriccio) conducted by Dmitrij Kitajenko won the MIDEM Classical Award in 2006.
Over the years, a distinguished group of soloists have performed with the orchestra, including pianists Eugen d'Albert, Ferruccio Busoni, Vladimir Horowitz, Edwin Fischer, Claudio Arrau, Clara Haskil, Wilhelm Backhaus, Walter Gieseking, Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini and Radu Lupu and violinists Joszef Szigeti, Adolf Busch, Carl Flesch, Bronislaw Hubermann, Jascha Heifetz, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Henryk Szeryng, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Markus Stenz has been the Music Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra since 2003 and Cologne's General Music Director since 2004. Under his direction, the Gürzenich Orchestra received the German Music Publishers Association's award for "the best concert program of the 2003/04 season". In October 2005, Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich Orchestra launched GO live!. This venture allows the audience to extend the experience of a live concert by purchasing a CD of the concert immediately after its performance. Following a number of successful recordings, the orchestra has now embarked on a complete cycle of Gustav Mahler's symphonies plus the song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn on the label Oehmsclassics. Beginning with Mahler's Symphony no.5, the CDs of the cycle is being released between 2009 and 2012.
Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich Orchestra perform at festivals and concert halls throughout the world and have most recently appeared in Vienna, Athens, Thessaloniki, Amsterdam, at the Edinburgh International Festival and at the BBC Proms. Over the turn of the year 2007/2008, the orchestra toured China with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Guangzhou receiving great acclaim. As cultural ambassadors for Germany, the Cologne Opera and the Gürzenich Orchestra made an exclusive contribution to the EXPO-program 2010: their Ring of the Nibelung, stage-directed by Robert Carsen, was shown at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and they also performed Mozart's Don Giovanni at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
Marcus Stenz studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with Volker Wangenheim, later receiving a scholarship to study with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa in Tanglewood. Between 1994 and 1998, Markus Stenz held the position of Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta, the most renowned British ensemble for contemporary music. From 1998 to 2004 he was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and since the 2009/10 season he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester.
Markus Stenz has conducted such noteworthy orchestras as the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Munich Philharmonic, the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Moreover, he regularly appears with leading orchestras of the USA, Scandinavia, France, Italy and the UK. In August 2009 he participated in the Mendelssohn celebrations in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and made his debut at the Bregenz Festival.
Markus Stenz made his debut as an opera conductor at La Fenice in Venice in a production of Hans Werner Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers. He has since conducted many premieres of Henze's works including Das Verratene Meer in Berlin, Venus und Adonis at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and L'Upupa at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. Markus Stenz has appeared at many of the world's major opera houses and international festivals such as La Scala in Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Edinburgh International Festival and Salzburg Festival. Among his performances in Cologne, Wagner's Ring, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser as well as Janacek's Jenufa bear particular mention. New productions include Mozart's Magic Flute, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Strauss' Capriccio, Peter Eötvös' Love and Other Demons and Mozart's Don Giovanni. In the 2009/10 season Markus Stenz made his debut at the Chicago Lyric Opera in a production of Katya Kabanova featuring Karita Mattila.
In August 2008, Markus Stenz recorded new works by Moritz Eggert, Colin Matthews, Theo Verbej and Detlev Glanert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Further recordings planned to date are Helmut Lachenmann's Ausklang and Strauss' An Alpine Symphony with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra.
www.guerzenich-orchester.de
Markus Stenz
Photo: Catrin Moritz
Photo: Catrin Moritz