Stuttgart RSO
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) is one of the state's most important musical ambassadors. Apart from giving about 90 concerts a year in Stuttgart and in the area covered by SWR broadcasts, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is a regular guest on the world's great concert stages. Its visits have included performances in Japan and China, concert tours through Europe (Paris, Zürich, Brussels, Munich, Amsterdam, Riga, Spain, Poland) and guest appearances at festivals such as the BBC Proms, Salzburger Festspiele and the Rheingau Musik Festival. One exceptional event was the concert given on the occasion of the Pope Benedict XVI's 80th birthday under Gustavo Dudamel. A special tour to mark Sir Roger Norrington's 75th birthday included concerts in Luxemburg, London, Thessaloniki, Athens, Vienna and Berlin. In May 2010 the orchestra completed its ninth tour to Asia which featured a concert in Shanghai for the Expo 2010. In 2011 the Stuttgart RSO has been invited to the Festival de Música de Canarias (Teneriffa and Gran Canaria) and the Lucerne Festival amongst others.
Since its formation the Stuttgart RSO has concentrated on two thematic focal points. It fosters the symphonic tradition with its exemplary interpretations of the great classic and romantic repertoire, while being equally engaged as a leading promoter of contemporary music and of the more neglected works.
The year 1971 marked an important caesura in the history of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra with the appointment of Sergiu Celibidache as Principal Conductor. With his intensive and inspiring rehearsal work he developed a new, pioneering sound ideal which shaped performance style for many years. Sir Neville Marriner, who took over as Principal Conductor in 1983, broadened the orchestra's horizons with international tours to the Far East and the USA. He was succeeded in 1989 by Gianluigi Gelmetti, who concentrated more on the Italian and French repertoire. Another charismatic personality presided over the orchestra with Georges Prêtre, who became the Artistic Director in 1996 and continues to serve as Laureate Conductor of the RSO.
Today the RSO's Permanent Guest Conductors are Andrey Boreyko and Peter Eötvös. Each of them has continued to shape the image of the orchestra in their search for a distinct orchestral sound and in their own particular emphases in repertoire. Eötvös' recording of Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle with the Stuttgart RSO was nominated for the GRAMMY 2004.
Sir Roger Norrington was the Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2011. Norrington has managed to bestow upon the orchestra an unmistakable profile by combining historically authentic performance practice with the means available to a modern symphony orchestra. The result of this synthesis was hailed by critics as the "Stuttgart Sound". This distinctive sound of the Stuttgart RSO adjusted to the composer's own concept of sound through the configuration of the orchestra, the instrumentation, articulation, phrasing and style.
In September 2011 Stéphane Denève succeeded Sir Roger Norrington as Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR). Denève, whose large repertoire spans from classical to contemporary, operatic to symphonic music, puts a special emphasis on the music of his home country, France.
Stéphane Denève
Since the beginning of the season 2011/2012 Stéphane Denève is Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR). He is also Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, a post he has held since 2005.
Recognised internationally as a conductor of the highest calibre, Stéphane Denève has won praise from audiences and critics alike for his performances and programming. With the Royal Scottish National Orchestra he has performed at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and the Festival Présences, and at celebrated venues throughout Europe including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Théatre des Champs-Elysées. He and the orchestra have made a number of acclaimed recordings together, including an ongoing survey of the works of Albert Roussel for Naxos. In 2007 they won a Diapason d'Or de l'année award for the first disc in the series.
A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire where he was awarded a unanimous First Prize in 1995, Stéphane Denève began his career as Sir Georg Solti's assistant for Bluebeard's Castle with the Orchestre de Paris (1995) and Don Giovanni at the Paris National Opera (1996). He also assisted Georges Prêtre for Turandot at the Paris National Opera (1997) and Seiji Ozawa for Les dialogues des Carmélites at the Saito Kinen Festival (1998).
At home in a broad range of repertoire and a champion of new music, Denève has a particular affinity with the music of his native France, and has conducted works by Grétry, Debussy, Ravel, Berlioz, Roussel, Fauré, and Poulenc. In recent years he has also premiered a number of works by the contemporary French composer Guillaume Connesson.
Recent engagements have included a major European tour with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Hilary Hahn; debuts with the NDR Symphony Hamburg, Maggio Musicale Florence, London Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, BBC Symphony and Danish National Symphony; returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic; and his debut at La Scala, Milan, conducting Gounod's Faust.
Highlights in the 2010/11 season include a BBC Prom with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Paul Lewis; his debut with the Bavarian Radio Symphony; returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, New World Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic; and his debut at the Gran Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona, conducting Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-bleue in a production by Claus Guth.
Denève enjoys close relationships with many of the world's leading solo artists, and has performed, among others, with Natalie Dessay, Nina Stemme, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Piotr Anderszewski, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars Vogt, Nikolai Lugansky, Emanuel Ax, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolaj Znaider, Pinchas Zukerman, Leonidas Kavakos, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin and Gil Shaham.
In the field of opera, Stéphane Denève has conducted productions at the Royal Opera House (Così fan tutte), Glyndebourne Festival (Carmen), La Scala (Faust), Netherlands Opera (L' amour des trois oranges), La Monnaie (La traviata; La voix humaine), Opéra National de Paris (Don Quichotte; La bohème; Le nozze di Figaro), the Teatro Comunale Bologna (Béatrice et Bénédict), and Cincinnati Opera (Erwartung; Carmen; Bluebeard's Castle).
The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) is one of the state's most important musical ambassadors. Apart from giving about 90 concerts a year in Stuttgart and in the area covered by SWR broadcasts, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is a regular guest on the world's great concert stages. Its visits have included performances in Japan and China, concert tours through Europe (Paris, Zürich, Brussels, Munich, Amsterdam, Riga, Spain, Poland) and guest appearances at festivals such as the BBC Proms, Salzburger Festspiele and the Rheingau Musik Festival. One exceptional event was the concert given on the occasion of the Pope Benedict XVI's 80th birthday under Gustavo Dudamel. A special tour to mark Sir Roger Norrington's 75th birthday included concerts in Luxemburg, London, Thessaloniki, Athens, Vienna and Berlin. In May 2010 the orchestra completed its ninth tour to Asia which featured a concert in Shanghai for the Expo 2010. In 2011 the Stuttgart RSO has been invited to the Festival de Música de Canarias (Teneriffa and Gran Canaria) and the Lucerne Festival amongst others.
Since its formation the Stuttgart RSO has concentrated on two thematic focal points. It fosters the symphonic tradition with its exemplary interpretations of the great classic and romantic repertoire, while being equally engaged as a leading promoter of contemporary music and of the more neglected works.
The year 1971 marked an important caesura in the history of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra with the appointment of Sergiu Celibidache as Principal Conductor. With his intensive and inspiring rehearsal work he developed a new, pioneering sound ideal which shaped performance style for many years. Sir Neville Marriner, who took over as Principal Conductor in 1983, broadened the orchestra's horizons with international tours to the Far East and the USA. He was succeeded in 1989 by Gianluigi Gelmetti, who concentrated more on the Italian and French repertoire. Another charismatic personality presided over the orchestra with Georges Prêtre, who became the Artistic Director in 1996 and continues to serve as Laureate Conductor of the RSO.
Today the RSO's Permanent Guest Conductors are Andrey Boreyko and Peter Eötvös. Each of them has continued to shape the image of the orchestra in their search for a distinct orchestral sound and in their own particular emphases in repertoire. Eötvös' recording of Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle with the Stuttgart RSO was nominated for the GRAMMY 2004.
Sir Roger Norrington was the Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2011. Norrington has managed to bestow upon the orchestra an unmistakable profile by combining historically authentic performance practice with the means available to a modern symphony orchestra. The result of this synthesis was hailed by critics as the "Stuttgart Sound". This distinctive sound of the Stuttgart RSO adjusted to the composer's own concept of sound through the configuration of the orchestra, the instrumentation, articulation, phrasing and style.
In September 2011 Stéphane Denève succeeded Sir Roger Norrington as Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR). Denève, whose large repertoire spans from classical to contemporary, operatic to symphonic music, puts a special emphasis on the music of his home country, France.
Stéphane Denève
Since the beginning of the season 2011/2012 Stéphane Denève is Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR). He is also Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, a post he has held since 2005.
Recognised internationally as a conductor of the highest calibre, Stéphane Denève has won praise from audiences and critics alike for his performances and programming. With the Royal Scottish National Orchestra he has performed at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and the Festival Présences, and at celebrated venues throughout Europe including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Théatre des Champs-Elysées. He and the orchestra have made a number of acclaimed recordings together, including an ongoing survey of the works of Albert Roussel for Naxos. In 2007 they won a Diapason d'Or de l'année award for the first disc in the series.
A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire where he was awarded a unanimous First Prize in 1995, Stéphane Denève began his career as Sir Georg Solti's assistant for Bluebeard's Castle with the Orchestre de Paris (1995) and Don Giovanni at the Paris National Opera (1996). He also assisted Georges Prêtre for Turandot at the Paris National Opera (1997) and Seiji Ozawa for Les dialogues des Carmélites at the Saito Kinen Festival (1998).
At home in a broad range of repertoire and a champion of new music, Denève has a particular affinity with the music of his native France, and has conducted works by Grétry, Debussy, Ravel, Berlioz, Roussel, Fauré, and Poulenc. In recent years he has also premiered a number of works by the contemporary French composer Guillaume Connesson.
Recent engagements have included a major European tour with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Hilary Hahn; debuts with the NDR Symphony Hamburg, Maggio Musicale Florence, London Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, BBC Symphony and Danish National Symphony; returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic; and his debut at La Scala, Milan, conducting Gounod's Faust.
Highlights in the 2010/11 season include a BBC Prom with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Paul Lewis; his debut with the Bavarian Radio Symphony; returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, New World Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic; and his debut at the Gran Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona, conducting Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-bleue in a production by Claus Guth.
Denève enjoys close relationships with many of the world's leading solo artists, and has performed, among others, with Natalie Dessay, Nina Stemme, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Piotr Anderszewski, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars Vogt, Nikolai Lugansky, Emanuel Ax, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolaj Znaider, Pinchas Zukerman, Leonidas Kavakos, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin and Gil Shaham.
In the field of opera, Stéphane Denève has conducted productions at the Royal Opera House (Così fan tutte), Glyndebourne Festival (Carmen), La Scala (Faust), Netherlands Opera (L' amour des trois oranges), La Monnaie (La traviata; La voix humaine), Opéra National de Paris (Don Quichotte; La bohème; Le nozze di Figaro), the Teatro Comunale Bologna (Béatrice et Bénédict), and Cincinnati Opera (Erwartung; Carmen; Bluebeard's Castle).
Photo: J. Henry Fair
Photo: Henrik Hoffmann / SWR