Musorgsky. Stravinsky

The Rotterdam Philharmonic
Music Director: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Honorary Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Principal Guest Conductor: Jiří Bělohlávek

The Rotterdam Philharmonic ranks among Europe’s foremost orchestras, being internationally acclaimed for the intense energy of its performances, its acclaimed recordings and its innovative audience approach. With concerts, educational programmes and community projects at local venues as well as at the most prestigious concert halls worldwide the orchestra reaches an annual audience of between one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand people. The 2012-2013 touring schedule comprised two tours of Eastern Asia, in addition to concerts at such prestigious concert halls as Vienna’s Musikverein and Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

The Rotterdam Philharmonic was founded in 1918. From 1930, under Principal Conductor Eduard Flipse, it developed into one of the foremost orchestras of the Netherlands. In the 1970s, with Jean Fournet and Edo de Waart, the orchestra gained international recognition. In 1995, Valery Gergiev’s appointment as Music Director heralded a new period of bloom. He was succeeded by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with whom the orchestra has undertaken numerous successful tours and recordings. In the 2012-2013 season, Jiří Bělohlávek joined the Rotterdam Philharmonic as its Principal Guest Conductor.

The home of the Rotterdam Philharmonic is De Doelen Concert Hall, but the orchestra can frequently be heard at other venues; in 2010 the orchestra assumed a residency at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where it remains a regular guest orchestra.

Since the groundbreaking Mahler recordings with Eduard Flipse in the 1950s, the Rotterdam Philharmonic has made a large number of critically praised recordings, including an internationally acclaimed Ravel CD under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. CDs with the orchestra appear on such labels as EMI/Virgin Classics and BIS Records; early 2012 saw the signing of a contract with Deutsche Grammophon for a minimum of three CD releases with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. For the re-releasing of historical recordings, the orchestra formed its own label – Rotterdam Philharmonic Vintage Recordings.