Residentie Orchestra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Residentie Orchestra of the Hague is a renowned Dutch orchestra founded in 1904 by Henri Viotta. It received its first acclaim during the 1911 Richard Strauss Festival, in which the composer himself conducted some of his works. The orchestra soon attracted other composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Max Reger, Maurice Ravel, and Paul Hindemith.

In 1915, the Residentie Orchestra took over the summertime performances of the Kurzaal Concerts in Scheveningen from the Lamoureux Orchestra. After the Second World War, Willem van Otterloo led the orchestra as chief conductor from 1949 to 1973. Succeeding Van Otterloo as chief conductors were Jean Martinon, Ferdinand Leitner, Hans Vonk, Evgeny Svetlanov, Jaap van Zweden, and most recently Neeme Järvi.

The orchestra has undertaken several major tours which included cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Vienna, Munich and Berlin. It has performed under guest conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Hans Knappertsbusch, Arturo Toscanini, and Bruno Walter. On recent recordings the Swiss conductor Mathias Bamert presented works by Dutch composers from the 19th century, among them Johannes Verhulst. A selection of recordings made during the fifties at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw under the baton of Willem van Otterloo has been issued on CD in 2005.

After the Arts and Sciences Building in The Hague burned down in 1967, the orchestra settled in a new residence in September 1987 after a fundraising campaign. The Dr. Anton Philipszaal was formally opened in the presence of Queen Beatrix.