The history of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (1945-2012)

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1945 by Albert van Raalte. After that the orchestra was conducted by Paul van Kempen, Bernard Haitink, Jean Fournet, Willem van Otterloo, Hans Vonk, Sergiu Comissiona and Edo de Waart. Jaap van Zweden was named its principal conductor in September 2005. In the 2012-2013 season he will be succeeded by Markus Stenz. The American conductor James Gaffigan has been the orchestra’s permanent guest conductor since the 2011-2012 season.

The Radio Philharmonic has worked with famed guest conductors including Leopold Stokowski, Kirill Kondrashin, Antal Doráti, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Mariss Jansons, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Valery Gergiev. The orchestra played the Dutch premieres of works by composers such as Messiaen, Berio, Boulez, Henze, Carter, Adams, Birtwistle, Adès, Janácek, De Raaff, Usvolskaya, Verbey, De Raaff, Vriend and Rijnvos.

On these pages we will soon be chronicling the rich history of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in reverse chronological order, starting with:

Under Jaap van Zweden (2005-2012)

> coming soon…