Established in 1523 by Ludwig Senfl, it is one of the oldest German orchestras, its first conductor being Orlando di Lasso. Throughout its first century of existence, the repertoire included mainly religious works. In 1653 the orchestra presented the very first opera in Munich - L'Arpa festante by Maccionis. At the end of the 17 th century, the composer Agostino Steffani included new Italian operas. During the 18 th Century a new orchestra was created, including 33 instrumentalists from the famous School of Mannheim. Its history is strongly connected with Richard Wagner, during the time of King Leopold II, when Hans von Büllow conducted the premiere of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde , followed by Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre . At the beginning of the 20 - th century, the orchestra had as conductors famous personalities such as Richard Strauss, Felix Mottl, Bruno Walter, Hans Knappertsbusch, Clemens Krauss, followed by Georg Solti, Rudolf Kempe, Ferenc Fricsay, Joseph Keilberth, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Peter Schneider (who were also Artistic Directors). From 1998, this position is taken over by Zubin Mehta, and starting with the season 2006 - 2007 he will be followed by Kent Nagano. The orchestra, which also performs for the Munich Opera, has a large number of concerts, with an extremely wide repertoire, from preclassics to contemporary composers. It also makes many tours as well as recordings.

Back