A radio orchestra (or broadcast orchestra ) is an orchestra employed by a radio network (and sometimes television networks ) in order to provide programming as well as sometimes perform incidental or theme music for various shows on the network. In the heyday of radio such orchestras were numerous, performing classical, popular, light music and jazz. However, in recent decades, broadcast orchestras have become increasingly rare. Those that still exist perform mainly classical and contemporary orchestral music, though broadcast light music orchestras, jazz orchestras and big bands are still employed by some radio stations in Europe.
26-705: The Frankfurt Radio Symphony (German: hr-Sinfonieorchester ) is the radio orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk , the public broadcasting network of the German state of Hesse . Venues are Alte Oper and hr-Sendesaal . Music director is the French conductor Alain Altinoglu . Chief conductors have brought in Russian, Nordic and French influences. The orchestra has been one of the leading Mahler and Bruckner orchestras internationally. The hr-Sinfonieorchester with 108 musicians
52-527: A Grammy Award for their recording of Peter and the Wolf , narrated by Sophia Loren , Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev , where the story is told from the perspective of the wolf and has the theme of letting animals live in peace. Other award-winning issues have included John Corigliano 's The Ghosts of Versailles , part of the American Opera Series, which won multiple awards, including
78-845: A Big Band in Frankfurt and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin. The British Broadcasting Corporation operates five full-time permanent orchestras, as well as a full-time chamber choir, the BBC Singers and the BBC Big Band . Denmark also maintains orchestra in the form of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra , the Danish Radio Big Band , Chamber Orchestra and Radio Choir. In Norway NRK runs
104-1000: A year. In the Netherlands, the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep ( Broadcasting Music Centre ), an umbrella organization of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting associations, supports the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest , the Radio Kamer Filharmonie , the Groot Omroepkoor ( Netherlands Radio Choir ), and the Metropole Orkest , the world's largest professional pop and jazz orchestra. The last surviving broadcast orchestra in North America
130-456: Is an international classical music label located in Baarn , Netherlands. Three former executives of Philips Classics, Giel Bessels, Dirk van Dijk and Job Maarse, established the label in 2001. The name comes from the words penta (five) and tone (sound), meaning five channels of sound. The label is renowned for its high-resolution multichannel surround sound recordings which are released in
156-521: Is the third oldest in the ARD . From 1929 to 1950 the orchestra was named Frankfurter Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester . From 1950 to 1971 the orchestra was named Sinfonie-Orchester des Hessischen Rundfunks , from then to 2005 Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt . Frankfurt Radio Symphony is used for international tours (First tour: United States 1980, Japan 1987, China 2003). The orchestra was founded in 1929. Hans Rosbaud , its first conductor, put his stamp on
182-707: The Late Show with David Letterman whimsically called itself the CBS Orchestra though it was not a classical musical orchestra and did not perform on CBS outside of the Late Show . The last permanent studio orchestra in America was The Tonight Show Band , also known as the NBC Orchestra, a big band led by trumpeter Doc Severinsen . Pentatone (record label) Pentatone (stylized as PENTATONE )
208-666: The Danish National Symphony Orchestra founded in 1925, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra founded in 1969 and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio (formerly the USSR State Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra among other names) founded in 1930. Germany has an especially large number of radio orchestras. Eleven radio orchestras perform and produce classical as well as contemporary music and jazz for
234-495: The Hessischer Rundfunk announced an extension of Altinoglu's contract as the orchestra's chief conductor through the 2027–2028 season. Altinoglu's first years were accentuated by his commitment for French repertoire. Program focus of the 2023–2024 season was Nature & Earth . As of 2024, a Shostakovich cycle is ongoing. Since November 2024, the orchestras YouTube channel has over 500,000 subscribers. In August,
260-498: The Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Norwegian, Kringkastingsorkestret, abbreviated as KORK). The orchestra specializes in classical music as well as popular music. This makes it quite unique in that the musicians are trained both classically and rhythmically to a high degree. The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra also have agreements with NRK too make a number of broadcast recordings
286-657: The Super Audio CD format. In January 2002, PENTATONE recorded the official music which was performed during the wedding ceremony of the Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander and Máxima Zorreguieta . The album, “The Music from the Royal Wedding”, sold more than 75,000 copies, thereby attaining the unique “triple platinum” status. The label has also licensed recordings made by other labels such as Philips Classics and Deutsche Grammophon . Among these are some from
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#1732782694047312-495: The 1970s which were originally recorded for 4-channel quadraphonic sound . PENTATONE has remastered them for re-release and presented them in surround sound for the first time. All PENTATONE's hybrid Super Audio CD discs can also be heard in 2-channel stereo on conventional compact disc players. In 2013, a new management team joined PENTATONE and the label expanded to multiple formats releases, including regular cd, vinyl, and all formats for streaming and downloads. The first vinyl
338-688: The 59th Grammy Award as Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Album . In 2019 PENTATONE's premiere recording of the Mason Bates opera “ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs ” won the Best Opera Recording at the 61st Grammy Awards . Among the winners were composer Mason Bates, librettist Mark Campbell, the Santa Fe Opera , conductor Michael Christie, and the cast, which included Sasha Cooke, Jessica E. Jones, Edward Parks, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, and Elizabeth Ostrow. The opera
364-1146: The North German Broadcasting ( NDR ) with two orchestras in Hamburg and Hanover as well as the NDR Big Band. West German Broadcasting ( WDR ) has two orchestras in Cologne and a Big Band, Southwest German Broadcasting ( SWR ) with one orchestra (2016 merged) and the SWR Big Band in Stuttgart and Baden-Baden/Freiburg, Bavarian Broadcasting ( BR ) with two orchestras in Munich, Central German Broadcasting ( MDR ) with one orchestra in Leipzig, Saarland Broadcasting ( SR ) with one orchestra (2006 merged) in Saarbrücken/Kaiserslautern, Hessian Broadcasting ( HR ) with one orchestra and
390-479: The classical-romantic repertoire and premieres of contemporary classical music ("Große Reihe", formerly hr-Sinfoniekonzerte), Baroque ("Barock+") and contemporary, experimental music ("Forum N"). Source: Source: In 1928, before the official foundation of the orchestra, Hindemith's Kammermusik Nr. 7 Op. 46, No. 2 was premiered. Followed by the premiere of Schönberg's Four Orchestral Songs , Op. 22 in 1932. In 1933, Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2 premiered, with
416-860: The composer as soloist. Radio orchestra Famous broadcast orchestras include the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–1954) conducted by Arturo Toscanini , the five orchestras maintained by the BBC , particularly the BBC Symphony Orchestra founded in 1930, the MDR Symphony Orchestra founded in 1923, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra founded in 1949, the Tokyo-based NHK Symphony Orchestra ,
442-450: The orchestra and a broad musical repertoire. The venue hr-Sendesaal was ready for use in 1954. In the opening ceremony, Karl Böhm conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 . Dean Dixon and Eliahu Inbal turned the ensemble into an internationally acclaimed orchestra in the three decades from 1961 to 1990. Dixon's repertoire included Hans Werner Henze , Karl Amadeus Hartmann , Carl Nielsen , Franz Berwald and Charles Ives . The status of
468-496: The orchestra has been repeatedly confirmed, especially during the "Inbal Era", with guest appearances around the world and major editions of recorded music, such as the very first recordings of the original versions of Anton Bruckner symphonies and the first digital recording of all of Gustav Mahler 's symphonies ( Deutscher Schallplattenpreis , Grand Prix du Disque). Inbal, who was chief conductor from 1974 to 1990, has been elected its conductor laureate since 1996. The venue Alte Oper
494-628: The orchestra's orientation up to the year 1937 by focusing not only on traditional music but also contemporary compositions. Alban Berg , Arnold Schönberg , Bela Bartok , Igor Stravinsky , Anton Webern and Paul Hindemith participated in the Radio Frankfurt concerts. Schönberg wrote radio lectures for Radio Frankfurt. In 1937, Otto Frickhoeffer was sent by the NSDAP . He performed only German music. After World War II , Kurt Schröder and Winfried Zillig committed themselves to rebuilding
520-539: The position of music director for the Frankfurt Radio Symphony from 2006 to 2013 and assumed the position of conductor laureate at the beginning of the 2013–2014 season. Järvi enriched the orchestra with new musical aspects through his commitment to Nordic repertoire. For example the music of Jean Sibelius , Eduard Tubin , Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür . He made complete recordings of Bruckner's and Nielsen's symphonies. In 2012, an own YouTube channel
546-715: The traditional season opening of the hr-Sinfonieorchester together with the European Central Bank is the Europa Open Air concert at the riverbank of the Main . The 2023 concert with 16,500 visitors was the fifth Europa Open Air. ARD was the broadcaster of the concert. The Rheingau Musik Festival is traditionally opened in Eberbach Abbey by a concert of the hr-Sinfonieorchester, radio broadcast live. The orchestra's range of musical styles includes
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#1732782694047572-519: Was established. Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada became the orchestra's music director in 2014. Orozco-Estrada made a number of recordings for the Pentatone label. A key focus of Orozco-Estrada's tenure was on Viennese Classicism and Romanticism. In December 2019, the orchestra announced the appointment of Alain Altinoglu as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2021–2022 season, with an initial contract of three years. In May 2023,
598-700: Was nominated for Best Contemporary Composition but lost to the Kernis Violin Concerto. In 2019, the label was awarded Label of the Year by the Gramophone Magazine. In 2020, PENTATONE won the title of Label of the Year in the International Classical Music Awards . In 2024, four albums received GRAMMY nominations in four different categories. In April 2024, PENTATONE exclusive artist Sean Shibe won
624-595: Was opened in 1981. From 1990 to 1996, Dmitri Kitajenko was chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. His work focused on the German and Russian traditions, as well as modern styles. His recordings include orchestral works by Scriabin and the piano concertos by Prokofiev . The American conductor Hugh Wolff was chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2006. He experimented with historical performance practice. The Estonian Paavo Järvi held
650-489: Was released in 2017 as a luxury 3LP edition. The label decided to honour Julia Fischer 's Bach violin solo recordings (originally released by the label in 2005). In April 2022, PENTATONE appointed Sean Hickey as managing director, succeeding Simon M Eder. The following month it was announced that PENTATONE had been acquired by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music . In 2004, the label received
676-828: Was the CBC Radio Orchestra founded in 1938. On March 28, 2008 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced that the orchestra would be dissolved at the end of November. The ensemble has continued independent of network affiliation as the National Broadcast Orchestra based in Vancouver. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Australia operates six state radio symphony orchestras through its subdivision Symphony Australia . The house band for
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