WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
The WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, or West German Radio Symphony Orchestra of Cologne, is one of Germany's leading symphony orchestras. The group plays the music of various periods but has specialized in contemporary music, a specialty made possible by the fact that the WDR network also maintains another orchestra, the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln, that performs lighter music and pops material.
The broadcast of orchestral music on the radio in Cologne dates back almost to the foundation of the Richessender Köln radio station in 1927. After World War II, Allied administrators announced the breakup of the central broadcasting of the Nazi era in favor of a system of regional broadcasters that persists today. The Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester was established to serve the new Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (Northwest German Radio), in 1947; the name was changed to WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln in the 1990s. In the beginning, the group hosted only guest conductors, but since 1964, when Christoph von Dohnányi was named principal conductor, the orchestra has reliably spawned international conducting careers. Recent principal conductors have included Hans Vonk (1991-1997), Semyon Bychkov (1997-2010), Jukka-Pekka Saraste (2010-2019), and, since 2019, Cristian Macelaru. Guest conductors have included international greats: Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, and Zubin Mehta, among others. The orchestra's contemporary music specialty dates back many years and has included premieres of works by Luciano Berio, Hans Werner Henze, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. This tendency, along with the WDR's maintenance of its own electronic music studio directed for many years by Stockhausen, helped to establish Cologne as a center for contemporary music. The orchestra performs at the WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz and the Kölner Philharmonie.
The WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln has recorded for both German and international labels. In 1989, under frequent guest conductor Günter Wand, the orchestra released recordings of Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944 ("The Great"), and Bruckner's Symphony No. 5 on RCA Red Seal. The orchestra has also recorded for Wergo, Audite, CPO, and many others. Although quite prolific, with more than 80 recordings to its credit as of the early 2020s, the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln has not been strongly associated with any single imprint. In 2020, the group released its first two albums on Sony Classical, Beethoven's World, and a release devoted to the violin concertos of Franz Joseph Clement, with violinist Mirijam Contzen and conductor Reinhard Goebel.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Reznicek: Der Sieger
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Beate Koepp, Michail Jurowski, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by CPO on 21 Sep 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolfgang Rihm : Verwandlungen (Rihm Edition 5)
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Christian Arming, Matthias Pintscher
Classical - Released by SWR Classic on 26 Oct 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ziehrer: Die Landstreicher
Opera - Released by CapriccioNR on 1 Jan 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich, D.: Suite From Katerina Izmailova / 2 Fables of Krilov / The Execution of Stepan Razin
Stanislaw Sulejmanow, Tamara Sinjawskaja, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Michail Jurowski
Classical - Released by CapriccioNR on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 7 & 8
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Otto Klemperer
Classical - Released by Andromeda on 14 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hosokawa: Tabi-bito, Sen VI & Die Lotosblume
Isao Nakamura, Rupert Huber, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, Ken Takaseki
Classical - Released by Stradivarius on 10 Jun 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Holler: Topic - Horizont - Mythos - Schwarze Halbinseln
Classical - Released by NEOS Music on 25 May 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Vanda, Op. 25, B. 55
Opera - Released by Orfeo on 1 Jan 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (original 1894 version, ed. L. Nowak)
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Roger Norrington
Classical - Released by SWR Classic on 7 Feb 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten Conducts Britten (Historical Perfomances, 1956)
Peter Pears, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Benjamin Britten
Classical - Released by SWR Classic on 28 Sep 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRUCKNER, A.: Symphony No. 7 (South West German Radio Symphony, Norrington)
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Roger Norrington
Classical - Released by SWR Classic on 1 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lohengrin, WWV 75
Opera - Released by Myto Historical on 14 Aug 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cage Edition, Vol. 26: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3
Mayumi Miyata, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Classical - Released by Mode Records on 22 Oct 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45
WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, Hans Hotter, Agnes Giebel, Hans Bachem, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Sergiù Celibidache
Symphonic Music - Released by Myto Historical on 1 Feb 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Castiglioni : Altisonanza, Le favole di Esopo
WDR Sinfonieorchester Koln, WDR Rundfunkchor Koln, Emilio Pomarico
Classical - Released by Neos on 26 Apr 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Klemperer Live in Cologne, Vol. 4 (Historical Recordings) [Live]
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Claudio Arrau, Otto Klemperer
Classical - Released by Archiphon on 1 Sep 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Siegfried Wagner: Scenes & Arias
Iris Vermillion, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, Werner Andreas Albert
Opera - Released by CPO on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Höller: Sphären - Der ewige Tag
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, Semyon Bychkov
Classical - Released by NEOS Music on 25 May 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reger, Schubert & Schumann: Works for Piano
Eduard Erdmann, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Hans Rosbaud
Classical - Released by Orfeo on 21 May 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ida Haendel plays Tchaikovsky & Dvorak
Ida Haendel, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Hans Müller-Kray
Classical - Released by SWR Classic on 27 Apr 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Storie di altre storie
Teodoro Anzellotti, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Kazushi Ono, Lucas Vis
Classical - Released by Winter & Winter on 18 Jul 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo