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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Strauss, R.: Horn Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Schoeck, O.: Horn Concerto, Op. 65 / Pfluger, H.-G.: Horn Concerto
Andrew Joy, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Werner Andreas Albert, Wolf-Dieter Hauschild
Classical - Released by CapriccioNR on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn - Bartók - Reger: Piano Concertos, Vol. 1
Wolfram Lorenzen, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, Ernest Bour, Jiri Starek, Reinhard Petersen
Classical - Released by Troubadisc on 4 Sep 2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Feldman: Beckett Material
Classical - Released by wergo on 8 Apr 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Orchestral Works (Live)
Clifford Curzon, Sir Georg Solti, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Orchestre National de France
Classical - Released by Archipel on 2 Oct 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Aber der Richtige…
Arabella Steinbacher, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Lawrence Foster
Concertos - Released by PENTATONE on 30 Oct 2018
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Henze: Ein Landarzt / Das Ende einer Welt
Opera - Released by wergo on 11 Oct 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Manuel Hidalgo: Beethoven
Juditha Haeberlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Ensemble Resonanz, Lothar Zagrosek
Classical - Released by KAIROS on 1 Jun 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14, H. 48
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, André Cluytens, Léopold Stokowski
Classical - Released by Archipel on 25 Jul 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nuut - Introduktion und Fuge - Gran Nada
Teodoro Anzellotti, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Peter Rundel
Classical - Released by Winter & Winter on 28 Jul 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Symphonie No. 9 "Du Nouveau Monde" (Mono Version)
Dean Dixon, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Joseph Keilberth: Rare Recordings (1943-1957)
Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberger Symphoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Joseph Keilberth
Classical - Released by Andromeda on 11 Feb 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Riehm: Shifting / Archipel Remix
Classical - Released by Wergo on 11 Nov 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kessler: , Said the Shotgun to the Head. & Utopia II
Classical - Released by NEOS Music on 24 Oct 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Arrau plays Chopin
Claudio Arrau, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, Fritz Busch
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 31 May 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandi maestri dell'interpretazione: Clara Haskil, Vol. 1
Clara Haskil, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Orchestre Philarmonique de L'ORTF, Otto Ackermann, Paul Hindemith
Classical - Released by Stradivarius on 1 Jan 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cologne, Vol. 1 (Live)
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Anonyme, Otto Klemperer
Classical - Released by Archiphon on 7 Jul 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
More Piano Giants: Annie Fischer, Vol. 8 (1958)
Annie Fischer, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Joseph Keilberth, Hans Müller-Kray
Concertos - Released by Intense Media GmbH on 15 Mar 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales in Opera: Königskinder, EHWV 160.2
Opera - Released by Intense Media GmbH on 6 May 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of a Legend: Hans Rosbaud, Vol. 7
Eduard Erdmann, Pierre Fournier, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Hans Rosbaud
Classical - Released by Intense Media GmbH on 4 Jan 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of a Piano Legend - Leon Fleisher, Vol. 10
Leon Fleisher, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Hans Rosbaud, Otto Klemperer
Concertos - Released by Intense Media GmbH on 18 Mar 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of a Legend: Hans Rosbaud, Vol. 8
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Hans Rosbaud
Classical - Released by Intense Media GmbH on 4 Jan 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo