SWF Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden

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

The SWF Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden was a German radio orchestra, attached to the broadcaster Südwestfunk in Baden-Baden. It came into being in 1946, with members of the town's spa orchestra as its core. Two years later that spa orchestra was restarted, which gave the radio orchestra a new set-up. Hans Rosbaud, who was known as a champion of modern music, became the first chief conductor. Together with the music director Heinrich Strobel he opted for a programme with a great deal of contemporary music.

Music and breakthrough

Later, Ernest Bour, Michael Gielen and Sylvain Cambreling, among others, followed as chief conductor. After the merger of the broadcasters in 1998 the orchestra came under Südwestrundfunk. The orchestra recorded for Hänssler, with works by Messiaen, Bartók, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Wolfgang Rihm. In 2016 it ceased to exist, after being merged with the radio orchestra of Stuttgart into the SWR Symphonieorchester. The last concert, in Freiburg, was conducted by François-Xavier Roth.

Influence

The orchestra became widely known through the recording of Atmospheres by Ligeti under Ernest Bour, which is used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this way millions of cinemagoers heard a piece of avant-garde music, performed by an orchestra that devoted itself for years to new music.

Listening