Just as it was with our choice of great British orchestras, the list that follows here is by no means exhaustive. It will undoubtedly be open to debate about which orchestras should or should not be included in a book like this. Space does not permit us to include every major orchestra from right around the globe. However, here are ten of Classic FM’s favourite orchestras from outside the UK – and if you listen to their music or attend one of their concerts, we don’t think that you will go far wrong.
Founded in 1882, the same year as Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, the Berliner Philharmoniker (to give it its correct German name) is one of the world’s greatest orchestras. Its list of principal conductors includes many of the greatest baton-wielders of all time, including Hans von Bülow, Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan. The last is credited with improving the orchestra’s already formidable reputation by transforming its sound and raising playing standards. Claudio Abbado succeeded von Karajan in 1989 and, 13 years later, the Liverpudlian conductor Sir Simon Rattle was appointed to the top job, having previously made his name at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Critics and audiences the world over still to regard both orchestra and conductor as being at the top of their game. Today, the orchestra is continuing to build its international reputation with regular online concert broadcasts via its own interactive digital concert hall.
Established in 1891, the US’s third-oldest symphony orchestra is now widely regarded as being America’s greatest ensemble. Founded by Theodore Thomas, the orchestra even took his name for an eight-year period after his death. The orchestra’s international reputation grew to new heights between 1969 and 1991 under Music Director Sir Georg Solti. On one occasion in the 1970s, the players received so much acclaim on a triumphant tour of Europe that they were given a tickertape welcome through their home city on their return. Solti handed the baton on to Daniel Barenboim in 1991, with the mighty Riccardo Muti becoming only the tenth music director in 2006. It remains an orchestra of enviable standing on the worldwide classical music stage.
The German city of Leipzig is one of the most influential places in classical music history. The Gewandhaus was originally a drapers’ hall, which became a concert hall way back in 1781. A new hall was built in 1884, but it was damaged by Allied bombing in 1944 and was knocked down in 1968, finally being replaced in 1981. The orchestra’s conductors over the years included Felix Mendelssohn from 1835 to 1847, while other greats have included: Wilhelm Furtwängler from 1922 to 1929, Kurt Masur from 1970 to 1996, and Riccardo Chailly since 2005 – he took over the music directorship of the Leipzig Opera at the same time.
One of the greatest American orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is based at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in the winter and at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer. It was unsurprising when the Los Angeles Philharmonic came calling for Gustavo Dudamel, known to many as ‘The Dude’, and appointed him its Music Director. There can be few individuals who are a credible classical music performer and have a big enough personality to stand out in Tinseltown. It’s testament to Dudamel’s magnetic charm that he has appeared in a television advertisement for California alongside former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Aside from its work in the concert hall, the LA Phil is also making a name for itself in the area of music education, with a community music programme for young people in neighbourhoods right across the city built around the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) project. The LA Phil records on the Deutsche Grammophon label, as well as making its concerts available across the world online, including the first full-length classical music video to be released on iTunes.
The US’s oldest symphony orchestra was founded in 1842 – almost forty years before the next-oldest American ensemble. For a period from 1928, it was known as the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York, following a merger with the New York Symphony Orchestra. The role of the New York Philharmonic’s music director is among the most coveted in classical music, with previous holders of the post including Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, Sir John Barbirolli, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta. The current Music Director is Alan Gilbert.
Concertgebouw is Dutch for ‘concert building’ and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as its home. The orchestra came to international prominence under its second conductor, Willem Mengelberg, who was in charge for an impressive fifty years from 1895 to 1945. He was forbidden to conduct after the Second World War because of his collaboration with the Nazi occupiers of his country. More recent conductors have included Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Chailly. Mariss Jansons, regarded by some as the greatest living conductor, took over the baton in 2004. In 1988, the orchestra was granted ‘Royal’ status by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and, in 2008, Gramophone magazine named the Royal Concertgebouw as the top orchestra in the world.
The Saint Louis Symphony is the second-oldest American symphony orchestra, behind the New York Philharmonic. It was founded in 1880 by Dutch-born choir conductor Joseph Otten with just 31 musicians. Based in the (allegedly haunted) Powell Symphony Hall, today it is led by American-born Music Director David Robertson, who has taken the orchestra to critical heights. Other noted conductors to have stood on the podium include Itzhak Perlman and Leonard Slatkin. It was Slatkin’s long musical directorship, from 1979 to 1996, that saw a real growth in the Saint Louis Symphony’s musical prestige. There were problems, though. In 2001, the orchestra nearly went bankrupt, and in 2005, the musicians staged a two-month strike.
Russia’s oldest symphony orchestra was founded in 1882, originally as the private court orchestra of Tsar Alexander III. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, it became the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Petrograd before being named the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra three years later. It reverted to its original name in 1991.
The St Petersburg Philharmonic is generally regarded as one of the world’s greatest orchestras, thanks in the main to conductor Evgeny Mravinsky, who was its Music Director for an amazing fifty years from 1938 to 1988. Illustrious guest conductors included Felix Weingartner, Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer. Prokofiev premiered his piano concertos with the orchestra; it also gave the first performances of eight of Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies. The current Chief Conductor is Yuri Temirkanov.
The genesis for this orchestra came back in 1975, when a Venezuelan economist called José Antonio Abreu founded a music education programme in his native land, with the aim of creating a national network of orchestras for young people across the country. It became known as ‘El Sistema’ and four decades later it has grown to a web of 125 separate, but affiliated, orchestras. More than 300,000 children take part in the programme with the vast majority coming from economically deprived backgrounds. The Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra is the most famous of these Venezuelan orchestras. It first came to prominence in the UK and the USA in 2007, with its engaging young conductor Gustavo Dudamel playing a significant part in the orchestra’s success. Originally made up solely of young players, these musicians are in some cases now well into their thirties, so the orchestra no longer presents itself with the word ‘Youth’ in its title. Despite the advancing of the years, their sound remains big and bold and their performances crackle with vibrant energy – unsurprising really, when you consider that the orchestra is twice the size of a standard symphony outfit.
Formed in 1842 by the composer Otto Nicolai, the Vienna Philharmonic is one of Europe’s supreme orchestras. Its founding principles of autonomy and democracy still hold true today. It selects its own conductors and its players are all chosen from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. The Vienna Philharmonic is resident at Vienna’s amazing, gilded Musikverein concert hall and its seasons are often oversubscribed. Bookings for the famous New Year’s Day concert have to be made sometimes a couple of years in advance. The orchestra has been directed by an illustrious line of great conductors, including Gustav Mahler, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan.