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About
The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is a Dutch symphony orchestra. Together with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the NedPhO is part of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation. Until the beginning of 2012, the orchestra and the foundation were located in the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam. From 2012, the home base is the Gerardus Majella Church in Amsterdam, where the NedPhO and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra also rehearse. With 130 permanent musicians, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation is the largest orchestra organization in the Netherlands.
History
The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra originated in 1985 from a merger of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra in the form at that time. A small core remained as a "new style" Dutch chamber orchestra, alongside which the NedPho was founded as a large symphony orchestra.
Activities
The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (NedPhO) is one of the regular players of the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw. In addition, it accompanies most productions of De Nationale Opera in the Muziektheater in Amsterdam. Since 2005-2006, the NedPhO has had its own series of concerts at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg (now TivoliVredenburg) in Utrecht, with which the orchestra, which also originated from the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra, is back in the Domstad. Until 2002 the NedPhO also had its own series in the Beurs van Berlage, but due to the cutbacks the orchestra had to stop. Moreover, it has been found that the Yakult Hall (one of the two halls converted into a concert hall) is sensitive to noise from the Grote Zaal of the Beurs van Berlage. Since 2012, the orchestra has its home base in the Gerardus Majella Church in Amsterdam.
The orchestra has made tours to countries including Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Hong Kong.
The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra played with many well-known soloists such as Frank Peter Zimmerman, Leonidas Kavakos, Stephen Hough, Stephen Kovacevich, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Radu Lupu, Heinrich Schiff, Natalia Gutman, French Helmersson, Mischa Maisky, Emanuel Ax, Truls Mørk and Collin Currie .
Conductors
From the founding of the NedPhO in 1985 up to and including 2002, Hartmut Haenchen was chief conductor. Under his leadership, the orchestra developed into one of the leading Dutch orchestras. Haenchen led the orchestra in the performance of Gustav Mahler's complete symphonic oeuvre. As a guest conductor, he remained involved in the opera productions for a long time, including several performances of Richard Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen. Haenchen was succeeded in 2003 by Yakov Kreizberg. After his death in March 2011, the chief conductor was taken over by the German Marc Albrecht from the 2011-2012 season. Starting in the 2015-2016 season, the Portuguese Nuno Coelho is assistant conductor.
In April 2019, it was announced that Marc Albrecht, who is leaving in 2020, will be succeeded by the Swiss-French conductor Lorenzo Viotti with effect from the 2021-2022 season.
Guest conductors who have led the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra include Rudolf Barshai, Andrew Litton, Markus Stenz, Claus Peter Flor, Emmanuel Krivine, Yehudi Menuhin, Hans Vonk and Gerd Albrecht.
Recordings
CD recordings from the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra regularly appear. Both Hartmut Haenchen and Marc Albrecht recorded music from Mahler with the NedPhO. When the orchestra came under the direction of Kreizberg, works by Franz Schmidt, Antonín Dvořák and Richard Wagner were released. The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra can also be heard on many opera DVDs from De Nederlandse / Nationale Opera.
In the 1950s numerous recordings of a Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra appeared on the record label Musical Masterpiece Society / MMS. However, this orchestra had nothing to do with the current NedPho, but was an occasional ensemble composed of members of (mainly) the Dutch broadcasting orchestras.