Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
From its beginnings as an amateur group, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra evolved into an orchestra of international stature in the 1970s and '80s under conductors Edo de Waart and David Zinman. The orchestra has a large recording catalog, with albums made for various labels including, most recently, Warner Classics.
The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (in Dutch: Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest) was founded in 1918 by a group of musicians aiming at personal enjoyment of musical performance rather than renown or financial gain. Originally, musicians had to pay to become members. The first two music directors were Willem Felzer and Alexander Schmuller, but the one who built the orchestra into a modern ensemble was Edward Flipse, who held the position from 1930 to 1962; he also emphasized new music in the orchestra's repertory. Despite German bombing of its new concert hall, De Doelen, in 1940, and increasingly severe cultural restrictions, the orchestra survived World War II and continued to perform. A new 2,300-seat De Doelen Hall was built in 1966, and it remains the orchestra's home.
Franz Paul Decker and then Jean Fournet succeeded Flipse, but another milestone in the orchestra's development was the hiring of the young Edo de Waart as music director in 1973. De Waart and his successor, David Zinman, initiated a recording program and took the orchestra on international tours. James Conlon held the baton from 1983 to 1991, and he was succeeded by Jeffrey Tate. New renown came to the orchestra after the hiring of Valery Gergiev in 1995; he had already led the orchestra in a 1990 recording of Borodin's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 for the Philips label. The orchestra under Gergiev continued to record for Philips. Gergiev stepped down in 2008 in favor of the dynamic young conductor Yannick Nézet-Seguin but continued as honorary conductor, as did Nézet-Seguin after his replacement in 2018 by Lahav Shani. In the 2010s and 2020s, the orchestra recorded for various labels, most often Warner Classics. In 2022, under Shani, the orchestra released an album featuring Kurt Weill's Symphony No. 2 and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, Op. 47, on that label.
© James Manheim /TiVo
-
Fantasy - A Night at the Opera
Emmanuel Pahud, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 8 Mar 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fauré: Requiem; Pavane
Elly Ameling, Bernard Kruysen, Daniel Chorzempa, Netherlands Radio Chorus, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean Fournet
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1975
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No.10 In F Sharp (Unfinished) - Ed. Deryck Cooke
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 8 Jun 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Borodin: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dmitri Hvorostovsky: Tchaikovsky & Verdi Arias
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 16 May 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky and Verdi Arias (Dmitri Hvorostovsky – The Philips Recitals, Vol. 1)
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 16 May 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Ivan the Terrible
Kirov Chorus, St Petersburg, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg: Piano Concerto / Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol; Sadko; The Snow Maiden
David Zinman, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Pathétique
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Lisa Batiashvili
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 20 Sep 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No.7 "Leningrad"
Mariinsky Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: The Symphonies; The Rock
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weill Symphony No. 2 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
Lahav Shani, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 15 Apr 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Piano & Orchestral)
Misha Dichter, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 24 Jun 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hand in hand, kameraden
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Classical - Released by RPHO on 29 Mar 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: Nocturne. Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Jeffrey Tate
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No.8 - "Symphony of A Thousand"
Rotterdam Toonkunstkoor, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Eduard Flipse
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1955
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Ivan the Terrible
Ljubov Sokolova, Nikolai Putilin, Chorus of the Kirov Opera, St. Petersburg, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haven of Life
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Andre Heuvelman, Joos van Leeuwen
Classical - Released by Port of Rotterdam on 1 Jul 2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Symphony In D Minor
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Olympic Records on 10 Aug 1974
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Concerto For Orchestra, BB 123, Sz.116 / Dvorák: Symphony No.8 in G Major, Op.88, B.163 / Debussy: Nocturnes, L. 91 / Haydn: Symphony No.44 in E Minor, Hob.I:44 -"Mourning"
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 8 Jun 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo