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Radio Filharmonisch Orkest

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Radio Filharmonisch Orkest (Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra), RFO for short, is a Dutch symphony orchestra based in Hilversum. The combined broadcasting organisations founded it in 1945, and Albert van Raalte became its first chief conductor. The first concert took place on 7 October 1945. In the early years the orchestra played mainly in the studio for radio, but gradually more and more concerts for audiences were added. Today it regularly plays in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and in TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, and it can be heard on NPO Radio 4.

Music and breakthrough

The orchestra has had big names as chief conductor, including Bernard Haitink, Jean Fournet, Edo de Waart, Jaap van Zweden and Markus Stenz. Since 2019 Karina Canellakis has stood in front of the orchestra, the first woman to become chief conductor of a Dutch symphony orchestra. The programme is determined by the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep (the broadcasters' music centre) and not by the orchestra alone.

Influence

The RFO plays the standard classical repertoire and also often orchestral works that are rarely performed, from Romanticism to the present. Among other things it released albums with Wagner's orchestral arrangements of Parsifal, Tristan And Isolde and Der Ring, with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and with Voices of Light from 1995. It also played in productions of De Nederlandse Opera. When the government wanted to cut broadcast music in 2010, protests followed and the orchestra survived. That shows how strong its position is in Dutch musical life.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a recording by the orchestra, for example the Parsifal arrangement for orchestra alone, and notice how the instruments take over the role of the singers. Which section takes over the melody most?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists