Frankfurter Museumsorchester
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The Frankfurter Museumsorchester is the resident orchestra of the Frankfurt am Main City Opera House, Germany. Its somewhat peculiar name is derived from the series of "Museum Concerts", organized by the Frankfurter Museumsgeselslchaft since 1808. The orchestra is ranked as an "A-list" ensemble under the German TVK regulations. Since 1999, its music director and principal conductor has been the Italian Paolo Carignani, due to be succeeded in September 2008 by Sebastian Weigle
With a history spanning more than 200 years, the Frankfurter Museumsorchester is one of Germany's oldest symphonic ensembles. It was founded in the late 18th century as the orchestra of the Frankfurt Municipal Opera. In addition to playing in the opera house, the orchestra maintains a series of 10 subscription programs per season (each played twice, on Sundays 11 a.m. and Mondays 8 p.m. CET, respectively), performed at the Alte Oper Frankfurt - the former opera house that is now run as a concert hall.
From the very beginning, the orchestra attracted top-of-the-line conductors and musicians. Noted German composer-violinist Louis Spohr was the second principal conductor (1817-1819) of the Museumsorchester; his successors included such luminaries as Clemens Krauss, William Steinberg, Franz Konwitschny, Georg Solti, Christoph von Dohnányi and Michael Gielen.
Other conductors/composers of note under whose baton the orchestra have been playing since the late 19th century are Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arthur Nikisch, Hans Pfitzner, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Hermann Abendroth, Bruno Walter and George Szell.
Richard Strauss' large-scale tone-poems Ein Heldenleben and Also sprach Zarathustra were both premiered by the Frankfurter Museumsorchester.
Many leading soloists have appeared with the orchestra, beginning with Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann in the 19th century. From 1915 to 1923, distinguished composer-violist Paul Hindemith served as concertmaster of the Museumsorchester. Its repertoire includes all major operatic and symphonic works from Baroque to contemporary music.
In the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 seasons, the Museumsorchester was voted one of the three top German opera orchestras in the country, selected by the leading operatic magazines in Germany.
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[edit] Music Directors and Principal Conductors
- 1817 - 1819: Louis Spohr
- 1821 - 1848: Carl Guhr
- 1848 - 1860: Franz Messer
- 1860 - 1891: Carl Müller
- 1880 - 1892: Felix Otto Dessoff
- 1893 - 1924: Ludwig Rottenberg
- 1924 - 1929: Clemens Krauss
- 1929 - 1933: Hans Wilhelm Steinberg (aka: William Steinberg)
- 1933 - 1934: Bertil Wetzelsberger
- 1935 - 1936: Karl Maria Zißler
- 1937 - 1938: Georg Ludwig Jochum
- 1938 - 1944: Franz Konwitschny
- 1945 - 1951: Bruno Vondenhoff
- 1952 - 1961: Georg Solti
- 1961 - 1966: Lovro von Matačić
- 1966 - 1968: Theodore Bloomfield
- 1968 - 1977: Christoph von Dohnányi
- 1977 - 1987: Michael Gielen
- 1987 - 1991: Gary Bertini
- 1991 - 1992: Hans Drewanz
- 1992 - 1997: Sylvain Cambreling
- 1997 - 1999: Klauspeter Seibel
- 1999 - 2008: Paolo Carignani
- from 2008: Sebastian Weigle
[edit] Orchestra Members (2007-2008 season)
Violins I Ingo de Haas | Karin Boerries | Gesine Kalbhenn-Rzepka | Andreas Martin | Vladislav Brunner | Susanne Callenberg-Bissinger | Arvi Rebassoo | Sergio Katz | Hartmut Krause | Basma Abdel-Rahim | Kristin Reisbach | Karen von Trotha | Dorothee Plum | Christine Schwarzmayr | Freya Ritts-Kirby | Juliane Strienz | Almut Frenzel | Jefimija Brajovic | Gisela Müller | Beatrice Kohllöffel
Violins II Guntrun Hausmann | Sebastian Deutscher | Sabine Scheffel | Walter Heyland | Olga Yukhananova | Enite Trappe | Theo Herrmann | Antonin Svoboda | Kyong Sil Kim | Wolfgang Schmidt | Doris Drehwald | Lin Ye | Susanna Laubstein | Donata Wilken | Frank Plieninger | Nobuko Yamaguchi
Violas Thomas Rössel | Philipp Nickel | Wiebke Heidemeier | Ludwig Hampe | Martin Lauer | Dieter Mock | Philipp Hufnagel | Robert Majoros | Miyuki Saito | Jean-Marc Vogt | Mathias Bild | Fred Günther | Ulla Hirsch | Friederike Ragg
Violoncellos Daniel-Robert Graf | Rüdiger Clauß | Sabine Krams | Kaamel Salah-Eldin | Johannes Oesterlee | Eric Plumettaz | Philipp Bosbach | Horst Schönwälder | Louise Giedraitis | Corinna Schmitz
Doubles Basses Ichiro Noda | Bruno Suys | Hedwig Matros-Büsing | Akihiro Adachi | Choul-Won Pyun | Ulrich Goltz | Matthias Kuckuk | Pedro Gadelha
Flutes Paul Dahme | Sarah Louvion | Anne-Cathérine Heinzmann | Rolf Bissinger |Almuth Turré | Rüdiger Jacobsen
Oboes Nick Deutsch | Giorgi Gvantseladze | Márta Malomvölgyi | Oliver Gutsch
Clarinets Johannes Gmeinder | Jens Bischof | Diemut Schneider-Tetzlaff | Martina Beck | Matthias Höfer
Bassoons Karl Ventulett | Heiko Dechert | Richard Morschel | Eberhard Beer | Stephan Köhr
French Horns Sibylle Mahni-Haas | Mahir Kalmik | Stefan Böhning | Thomas Bernstein | Silke Schurack | Dirk Delorette | Detlef Holzhauser | Peter Schmidt
Trumpets Wolfgang Basch | David Tasa | Markus Bebek | Wolfgang Guggenberger | Dominik Ring
Trombones Reinhard Nietert | Hartmut Friedrich | Manfred Keller | Rainer Hoffmann
Tuba/Cimbasso József Juhász-Aba
Timpani Tobias Kästle | Ulrich Weber
Percussion Jürgen Friedel | Nicole Hartig | Michael Dietz
Harps Françoise Friedrich | Barbara Mayr
[edit] Books
- Paul Bartholomäi: Das Frankfurter Museums-Orchester – zwei Jahrhunderte Musik für Frankfurt, Edition Peters, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3876262240 (in German)
