Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande) |

Orchester de la Suisse Romande

The Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland, with 112 musicians, is one of the oldest and most important musical groups in the Swiss Confederation. His activities are varied: from a long-standing subscription system, to a series of symphony concerts organized by the Geneva City Hall, and an annual charity concert for the UN, whose European office is located in Geneva, and participation in opera productions of the Geneva Opera (Geneva Grand Théâtre).

Now an internationally recognized orchestra, the Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland was created in 1918 by conductor Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969), who remained its artistic director until 1967. In subsequent years, the team was led by Paul Kletski (1967-1970), Wolfgang Sawallisch (1970-1980), Horst Stein (1980-1985), Armin Jordan (1985-1997), Fabio Luisi (1997-2002), Pinchas Steinberg (2002- 2005). Since September 1, 2005 Marek Janowski has been the artistic director. From the beginning of the 2012/2013 season, the post of Artistic Director of the Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland will be taken over by Neema Järvi, and the young Japanese musician Kazuki Yamada will become guest conductor.

The orchestra makes a significant contribution to the development of musical art, regularly performing works by composers whose work is in one way or another connected with Geneva, including contemporary ones. Suffice it to mention the names of Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Benjamin Britten, Peter Etvosch, Heinz Holliger, Michael Jarell, Frank Marten. Since 2000 alone, the orchestra has more than 20 world premieres, carried out in cooperation with Radio Romanesque Switzerland. The orchestra also supports composers in Switzerland by regularly commissioning new works from William Blank and Michael Jarell.

Thanks to close cooperation with the Radio and Television of Romanesque Switzerland, the orchestra’s concerts are broadcast around the world. This means that millions of music lovers get acquainted with the work of the famous band. Through partnership with Decca, which marked the beginning of a series of legendary recordings (more than 100 discs), audio recording activities were also developed. The Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland recorded at the firms AEON, Cascavelle, Denon, EMI, Erato, Harmony of the World и Philips. Many discs have been awarded professional awards. The orchestra is currently recording at the firm PentaTone all Bruckner’s symphonies: this grandiose project will end in 2012.

The Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland tours in the most prestigious halls in Europe (Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, London, Vienna, Salzburg, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Paris, Budapest, Milan, Rome, Amsterdam, Istanbul) and Asia (Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing), as well as in the largest cities of both American continents (Boston, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Montevideo). In the 2011/2012 season, the orchestra is scheduled to perform in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna and Cologne. The orchestra is a regular participant in prestigious international festivals. In the last ten years alone, he has performed at festivals in Budapest, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Orange, the Canary Islands, the Easter Festival in Lucerne, the Radio France and Montpellier festivals, as well as in Switzerland at the Yehudi Menuhin Festival in Gstaad and the “ Musical September” in Montreux.

Concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow in early February 2012 were the first meetings of the Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland with the Russian public, although it has long and strong ties with Russia. Even before the creation of the collective, Igor Stravinsky and his family stayed in the house of its future founder Ernest Ansermet at the beginning of 1915. The program of the very first concert of the orchestra, which took place on November 30, 1918 in the main concert hall of Geneva “Victoria Hall”, included “Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Leading Russian musicians Alexander Lazarev, Dmitry Kitaenko, Vladimir Fedoseev, Andrey Boreyko stood behind the podium of the Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland. And among the invited soloists were Sergei Prokofiev (a historic concert on December 8, 1923), Mstislav Rostropovich, Mikhail Pletnev, Vadim Repin, Boris Berezovsky, Boris Brovtsyn, Maxim Vengerov, Misha Maisky, Dmitry Alekseev, Alexei Volodin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky. With Nikolai Lugansky, who took part in the first tour of the orchestra in Russia, an important event in the history of the orchestra is connected: it was with him that the first performance of the Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland took place in the famous Pleyel Hall in Paris in March 2010. This season, conductor Vasily Petrenko, violinist Alexandra Summ and pianist Anna Vinnitskaya will perform with the orchestra for the first time. The orchestra also includes immigrants from Russia – concertmaster Sergei Ostrovsky, violinist Eleonora Ryndina and clarinetist Dmitry Rasul-Kareev.

According to the materials of the Moscow Philharmonic