The Meiningen Court Orchestra (German: Meininger Hofkapelle) is one of the oldest and most traditional orchestras in Europe. Since 1952 the now 68-member orchestra has been affiliated to the Meiningen Court Theatre and in addition to their opera performances regularly give symphony concerts and youth concerts. The incumbent music director (GMD) is Philippe Bach.
The Saxe-Meiningen ducal court orchestra was founded in 1690 by Duke Bernhard I. The rise of the initially small ensemble began under the direction of the Baroque composer Georg Caspar Schürmann from 1702 to 1707. From 1711 until 1731 Johann Ludwig Bach, a second cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach, served as conductor, succeeded by his relatives Gottlieb Friedrich and Johann Philipp Bach.
With the succession of Hans von Bülow as court music director in October 1880, the most successful period of the chapel began, when it developed into an elite European orchestra. Bülow brought Johannes Brahms to Meiningen to cooperate with the Court Orchestra and to occasionally conduct. In a letter to the "theatre duke" George II of Saxe-Meiningen, Brahms wrote "Bülow must know that the smallest rehearsal in the smallest Meiningen hall is more important to me than any Paris or London concert, and ...how good and comfortable I feel amidst the orchestra, I could sing aloud a long song of praise about it..." His Symphony No. 4 premiered in Meiningen on 25 October 1885 with the composer himself conducting. While Bülow was offered the conducting of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, young Richard Strauss from 1885 temporarily worked as music director in Meiningen, succeeded by Fritz Steinbach and Wilhelm Berger.
Timeline of musical directors
Meiningen Court Orchestra with Hans von Bülow conducting, 1882
Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Along with Gustav Mahler, he represents the late flowering of German Romanticism, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.
Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Alongside Carl Tausig, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and conductor Franz Liszt; he gave the first public performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States.
Meiningen is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 25,000 (2020). Meiningen is the capital and the largest town of the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district. From 1680 to 1920, Meiningen was the capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen.
Johann Baptist Isidor Richter, or János Richter was an Austrian–Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor.
Anthony Ulrich, a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1685 until 1702 jointly with his elder brother Rudolph Augustus, and solely from 1704 until his death. He was one of the main proponents of enlightened absolutism among the Brunswick dukes.
Aus Italien, Op. 16, is a tone poem or program symphony for orchestra by Richard Strauss, described by the composer as a "symphonic fantasy". It was completed in 1886 when he was 22 years old. It was inspired by the composer's visit to Italy in the summer of the same year, where he travelled to Rome, Bologna, Naples, Sorrento, Salerno, and Capri. He began to sketch the work while still on the journey.
Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, was the penultimate Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, reigning from 1866 to 1914. For his support for his successful court theatre he was also known as the Theaterherzog.
"The Three Bs" is a term derived from an expression coined by Peter Cornelius in 1854, which added Hector Berlioz as the third B to occupy the heights already occupied by Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven. Later in the century, conductor Hans von Bülow substituted Johannes Brahms for Berlioz. The phrase is generally used in discussions of classical music to refer to the supposed primacy of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms in the field.
Georg Caspar Schürmann was a German Baroque composer. His name also appears as Schurmann and in Hochdeutsch as Scheuermann.
The Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein was a German musical association founded in 1861 by Franz Liszt and Franz Brendel, to embody the musical ideals of the New German School of music.
The tone poems of Richard Strauss are noted as the high point of program music in the latter part of the 19th century, extending its boundaries and taking the concept of realism in music to an unprecedented level. In these works, he widened the expressive range of music while depicting subjects many times thought unsuitable for musical depiction. As Hugh MacDonald points out in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "In the years prior to World War I these works were held to be in the vanguard of modernism."
The Burleske in D minor is a composition for piano and orchestra written by Richard Strauss in 1885-86, when he was 21.
Elisabethenburg Palace is a Baroque palace located on the northwestern edge of Meiningen in Germany. Until 1918 it was the residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen. The castle now houses the Meininger Museum as well as the Max Reger archives, the Thuringian State Archives, the Max Reger music school, the Johannes Brahms concert hall, a restaurant, the tower Cafe, and the ceremonial rooms of the Meinigen City Council and Registry Office.
The following is a chronological list of classical music composers who lived in, worked in, were German citizens, or who grew up and made their careers in Germany.
Fritz Steinbach was a German conductor and composer who was particularly associated with the works of Johannes Brahms.
Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen was the only daughter of Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, by his first wife, Princess Charlotte of Prussia. She was notable as a musician and composer. One of her most famous works is Romanze in F major for clarinet and piano.
In 1882–3 Richard Strauss wrote his Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 11, in two versions, one for piano accompaniment and one with an orchestra. The horn concerto has become the most frequently performed horn concerto written in the 19th century.The premiere with piano accompaniment was given in 1883 at Munich. The premiere with orchestral accompaniment in 1885 at Meiningen. Strauss later wrote a second horn concerto in 1942, towards the end of his life.
Johann Balthasar Christian Freislich was a German composer and organist.
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