Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Chamber Music and Orchestras

Biography

Swedish Chamber Orchestra

The Swedish Chamber Orchestra was Founded in 1995 as the resident chamber orchestra for the Örebro municipality in Sweden and was joined by ITS current Music Director, Thomas Dausgaard just two years later. For the past fourteen years Dausgaard And The ensemble Have Worked Closely Together to Create Their own unique and dynamic sound and the orchestra’s quick rise to success hock put it firmly on the international scene.
A tightly knit ensemble of 38 regular members, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra drew ITS United Kingdom and United States debuts with Thomas Dausgaard in 2004 performing at the London Proms and Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart Festival. The New York Times wrote of Their Performance: “IT HAS been a longstanding Complaint In The Classical Music Worlds That as recordings and jet travel Have shrunk the globe, an international sound speed Been fostered That speed filtered out regional differences in timbre and interpretation .. . And every now and hadeeth an orchestra Comes alongwith a sound That is surprising and fresh. The Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Led by ITS music director, Thomas Dausgaard, produced a distinctive and consistently vibrant sound … Mr. Dausgaard drew the Beethoven Into a high-energy Dazzler, driven by sizzlingly Brisk string playing, with Biting Brass Figures Giving the music a stormy edge and making the Neglected Fourth Symphony SEEM Nearly as titanic as the Third and the Fifth.”

Since 2004 the Swedish Chamber Orchestra hock toured regularly throughout Europe, drew ITS debut in Japan and Returned to the States in 2008 for performances in New York, Washington, Cleveland and across the West Coast America. Tour highlights in the lastyear Have included performances at bothering the London Proms and the Salzburg International Festival with Nina Stemme in 2010 and a tour of Germany in Spring 2011 Which included the orchestra’s debut at the Berlin Philharmonie.
In Spring 2012 the orchestra returns to Germany for a tour with Andrew Manze and Soloist Sabine Meyer and the December 2012 Thomas Dausgaard and Nina Stemme Will reunite with the Orchestra for a special program entitled “Love, Hope and Destiny” which They goodwill tour throughout Europe and hadeeth Take To The States and New York’s Lincoln Center in Spring 2013th

The Swedish Chamber Orchestra Continues to expand ITS repertoire and Open Doors to New Challenges, together with the ensemble Dausgaard speed recorded the complete Beethoven Orchestral works for Simax and embarked on a new project with BIS Which includes all the Symphonies of Schumann as well Dvorak Symphonies nos 6 & 9. Spring 2010 saw Their fourth release in the “Opening Doors” series with a recording of Schubert’s Symphonies nos 8 & 9 and Their most recent release of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2. Speed limits the ensemble Into the realm of “high romanticism” with no less success or controversiality. Reviewing the CD the United Kingdom’s Observer commented “Bruckner underplayed by a chamber orchestra? For a composer Associated With The Colossal, Especially When it Comes To orchestral forces, it Seems an Impossible Contradiction. Yet When Played with the transparency, flexibility and individual character of These Admired Swedish musicians, the results are exhilarating. “

Alongside Their work with Thomas Dausgaard, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra regularly perform with conductor / composer HK Gruber and early music specialist, Andrew Manze, both of Whom spent several weeks a year in Orebro working on new Programmes with the ensemble. Through ITS high level of engagement the orchestra hock Additionally built up a FirstClass list of visiting artists Which this season includes Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, Michael Collins, Brett Dean and James Ehnes
With its range of repertoire and style the ensemble hock Established ITS own unique voice as the Münchner Abendendzeitung testifies: “Their acclaimed recordings of Schumann and Beethoven Have Made These three dozen musicians from Sweden Into a top tip … In Concert SUCH Miracles are Sometimes a disappointment. Not so with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival. “

Thomas Dausgaard

Described by The Daily Telegraph as “a conductor of rare conviction and insight”, Thomas Dausgaard is renowned for the rich intensity of his performances, his prolific discography and the remarkable results he has achieved as Chief Conductor of both the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

The Swedish Chamber Orchestra has flourished under Dausgaard’s direction; since taking up his position in 1997 he has brought the ensemble to international attention. Together they record extensively, including all of Beethoven’s orchestral music for Simax, a project which received outstanding critical acclaim. Breaking with tradition as a chamber orchestra, they have also recorded all of Schumann’s symphonies, and in November 2010 released Bruckner Symphony No.2 as the latest in a series entitled ‘Opening Doors’ on the BIS label. The current season brings new recording projects to the orchestra, including a disc of works by Brahms. With Dausgaard’s drive to bring the orchestra to new audiences, they have toured throughout Japan, the USA and Europe – most recently at the Salzburg Festival and the BBC Proms, where the orchestra is a regular guest.

The 11/12 season marks the beginning of Dausgaard’s tenure as Conductor Laureate of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, which has developed impressively under his leadership. Amongst their achievements are a disc of Nielsen works which was nominated for a 2007 Gramophone award, and a DVD of Danish composer Langgaard’s opera ‘Antikrist’ on the Dacapo label, which won ‘DVD of the Year’ at the 2005 International Internet Awards. The latest release of Dausgaard’s authoritative recording cycle of works by Langgaard includes ‘Music of the Spheres’. In August 2010, he and the orchestra gave the UK première of this work at the BBC Proms; the performance caused a sensation amongst audiences and critics, and Dausgaard was praised for his “total command” of the players (BBC Music Magazine).

The 10/11 season saw Dausgaard continuing his regular collaboration with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, as well as appearing with SWR Stuttgart and MDR Leipzig. He closed the season by appearing at Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Dausgaard continues to maintain strong links with many of the major UK orchestras, working recently with the City of Birmingham Symphony and returning this season to the Royal Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In June 2011 Dausgaard conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and appeared with the orchestra again at the BBC Proms in August 2011, followed by another concert at London’s Barbican Centre in the current season. Elsewhere this season, Dausgaard visits Asia for engagements with the New Japan, Hong Kong and China Philharmonic orchestras.

Thomas Dausgaard conducts regularly in America and Canada, appearing with such ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. Last season, he made his debuts with the Washington National, Dallas and Cincinnati Symphony orchestras and returned to the Houston Symphony and NAC Ottawa; all of these orchestras re-invited him. He returns this season to both the Toronto Symphony and the Seattle Symphony, where he has been praised by the Seattle Times for his “distinguished interpretations”.

The role music can play in the lives of children and young people is important to Dausgaard, who collaborates with several youth orchestras; most recently at the Baccarelli Institue in Brazil, the Toronto Youth Symphony and the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Thomas Dausgaard has been awarded the Cross of Chivalry in Denmark, and elected to the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden.

Reviews

“…the orchestra brings to this music a tectural clarity and steely edge unattainable by most period-instrument groups. And in Mr. Dausgaard it has a conductor who molds its performances for maximum impact.”

The New York Times

“Under Dausgaard, this modern-instrument ensemble has incorporated 18th-century practice to build a gorgeous, highly disciplined Beethoven sound “

The Washington Post