Location Austria, Wien, Vienna
Bio
Wiener Symphoniker – Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Biography as of Sept. 22th, 2007
Principal Conductor: Fabio Luisi
Principal Guest Conductor: Yakov Kreizberg
Honorary Conductors: George Prêtre, Wolfgang Sawallisch
“The Vienna Symphony Orchestra is like the Viennese Alpine water” –
they provide a large city with the most important staple food in high-
est quality, at an affordable price and to an extent that reaches all the
population. This quality has been consequently cultivated around the
world since 1900 – supporting Vienna’s distinctive role as a city of mu-
sic. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra is the concert orchestra of the
City of Vienna, being responsible for the greater part of the musical
life of the capital city. Its activities are diverse, whereby the traditional
cultivation of the Viennese sound quality combined with new forms
of music and their presentation occupy a central position.
Consequently, the season is opened with a spectacular ball – the or-
chestra’s “Night of the VSO” into the new season. A further innova-
tion is the Discussion Concert Series – “The Different Concert” in
which the music is introduced in a witty, intelligent way while the
Chamber Music Series displays the broad range of the musicians’
personalities, from baroque style, Schrammel music to modern jazz.
Within in the project “Touch the Orchestra”, musicians go to elemen-
tary schools, holding workshops in small groups for kids.
The Vienna Symphony makes approximately 160 appearances each
year with concerts and opera performances as well as 50 chamber
concerts and workshops. These are arranged by the Musikverein, the
Konzerthaus and, since 1980, by the orchestra itself with four different
concert series. In addition, numerous tours are undertaken through-
out Europe and overseas countries. Furthermore, the orchestra has
been “Orchestra in Residence” at the Bregenz Festival since 1946,
where it performs in a majority of opera and concert productions. With
the beginning of 2006, a new challenge has arisen as the orchestra
performs in many productions at the Theater an der Wien which has
resumed its former function as an opera house.
Eventful history
At the close of the nineteenth century the time seemed right for the
founding of a new Viennese orchestra. Its function was to be two-fold;
to present orchestral concerts of a popular kind and, in addition, to
provide a platform for the world premieres of the contemporary music
of the time. In October 1900, the newly formed orchestra, with the
name Vienna Concert Society, gave its first public performance at
the Musikverein under the direction of Ferdinand Löwe.
Today the orchestra can look back on an eventful history, an outward
sign being the several alterations that its name has undergone. Many
compositions that are part of today’s repertoire – among them
Bruckner’s 9th Symphony, Arnold Schönberg’s Gurrelieder,
Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Franz Schmidt’s
The Book with the Seven Seals – received their world premiere by
the VSO. During the First World War, the orchestra was saved from
being disbanded only by a fusion with the Vienna Tonkünstler Orches-
tra, founded in 1913. In 1944 however, the orchestra’s activities came
to a halt for eight months.
In the years following 1945, thanks to the efforts of the Principal Con-
ductor Hans Swarowsky and Josef Krips, the orchestra was rebuilt.
In the past, renowned personalities such as Bruno Walter, Richard
Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Oswald Kabasta, George Szell
and Hans Knappertsbusch left decisive imprints on the orchestra. In
later years it was mainly the Principal Conductors Herbert von Kara-
jan (1950-1960) and Wolfgang Sawallisch (1960-1970) who formed
the tone quality of the orchestra. Following them, the position was
filled – after the brief return of Josef Krips – by Carlo Maria Giulini
and Gennadij Roshdestvenskij. George Prêtre followed until 1991,
preferring to describe his post as “Principal Guest Conductor”. His suc-
cessor was Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. During these years, guest
stars such as Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta,
Claudio Abbado and Sergiu Celibidache celebrated their many no-
table successes. From 1997 until the end of 2004, the Principal Con-
ductor was Vladimir Fedosejev, and commencing with the
2005/2006 season, the post has been filled by Fabio Luisi. Addition-
ally, Yakov Kreizberg has been Principal Guest Conductor since Oc-
tober 2003.
The artistic standard of the VSO is documented by a large number of
high-grade CDs. The archives in the Vienna Konzerthaus are a
goldmine of original and digitalized historical documents – from tape
recordings and photos to newspaper critiques. They can be visited, by
appointment, for research purposes or simply to browse amongst the
exhibits.
Superfund as new partner of the VSO
With the beginning of the 2006/2007 season, the internationally active
investment group Superfund has been new partner of the VSO.
Main goal of the long term agreement is the permanent support of
all artistic activities of the orchestra. Consequently, Superfund pro-
vides for a tangible and intangible value to the sustainable partici-
pation of a renowned orchestra with a long tradition on its way into the
future. The Superfund group (www.supferfund.com) with its 15
subsidiaries and over 50.000 customers ranks among the largest
and most successful investment companies specialized on futures
funds. The funds managed by Superfund have been highly awarded
and can be found at top positions of rankings published by interna-
tional investment services.
Instrument of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank
The first concert master Anton Sorokow plays a violin by Guiseppe
Guarneri des Gesù (1731, “ex Sorkin”), the assistant viola player
Vera Reigersberg a viola by Giovanni Paolo Maggini (Brescia,
early 17th century), both provided by the Oesterreichische Nation-
albank (OeNB, Austrian National Bank).
Further information / photographs:
Christoph Kufner
tel (++43) (0)1/58979-15, mail c.kufner@wiener-symphoniker.at
Wiener Symphoniker
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Lehárgasse 11, A-1060 Wien / Vienna, Österreich / Austria
tel (++43) (0)1/58979 fax (++43) (0)1/58979-54
mail office@wiener-symphoniker.at url www.wiener-symphoniker.at
