Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, often styled in Germany as the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Hessischer Rundfunk [i.e., Hessian Radio] Symphony Orchestra), has a long history on radio in southwestern Germany and has, since the 1960s, ascended to international prominence. The group has attracted an impressive lineup of chief conductors from exclusively from foreign countries. In 2024, under conductor Paavo Järvi, the group issued a recording on the Alpha label of the Pelléas et Mélisande treatments by Schoenberg and Fauré. Orchestral music on Frankfurt Radio dates back to the 1920s, and a Frankfurter Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester was founded in 1929 by conductor Hans Rosbaud. The group's association with the regional Hessian Radio network began in 1950. Conductors after World War II shaped the orchestra into an ensemble that covered mainstream Classical-Romantic repertory and also performed contemporary music on occasion. All the orchestra's conductors since 1961 have been non-German. Key figures in the group's ascent to international prominence were African-American conductor Dean Dixon, principal conductor from 1961 to 1974, and the Israeli Eliahu Inbal, who held the baton from 1974 to 1990. During that period, the orchestra was the first to record the original versions of several of Anton Bruckner's symphonies; an early digital recording for the group was that of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in E flat major. Dmitri Kitayenko (1990 to 1996) steered the orchestra toward German and Russian mainstream repertory, while Hugh Wolff (1997 to 2006) introduced influences from the historical performance movement. Paavo Järvi was chief conductor from 2006 to 2013, and from 2014 to 2020, the post was held by Andrés Orozco-Estrada. The orchestra's current conductor is Alain Altinoglu. The hr-Sinfonieorchester performs concerts at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. Many of the orchestra's recordings have been made for the audiophile labels Teldec, Denon, ECM, and Wergo. In the mid-2010s, the group recorded for RCA, and Järvi rejoined the orchestra in 2018 for recordings on Naïve of music by Brahms and Bach arranged by Schoenberg and Webern and by Hindemith. In 2020, the group issued a complete cycle of the symphonies of Franz Schmidt on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The hr-Sinfonieorchester barely slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing five albums in the year 2022 alone; those included Eclipse, on which the group backed violinist Hilary Hahn. The orchestra issued several albums in 2024, including one featuring the drastically contrasting Pelléas et Mélisande treatments of Schoenberg and Fauré. By that time, its recording catalog comprised some 80 items. ~ James Manheim, Rovi