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The Münchner Philharmoniker (The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra) was founded in 1893 as a private initiative of the philologist Franz Kaim, son of a piano manufacturer near Stuttgart. During the first years as the "Kaim-Orchestra", renowned conductors guaranteed a high standard and gave their enthusiastic support to contemporary composers, a tradition that is continued even today. Gustav Mahler conducted the Orchestra for the première performances of his Fourth and Eighth Symphonies. In November 1911, six months after G. Mahler’s death, the ensemble, which had changed its name to "Konzertvereinsorchester" (Concert Society Orchestra), performed The Song of the Earth for the first time under the direction of Bruno Walter. Following the Orchestra’s triumphant guest appearance in Vienna on March 1, 1898, with Anton Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony, the then conductor and Bruckner’s pupil Ferdinand Löwe organised the first large-scale Bruckner Festival and thus founded the Bruckner tradition, which the Orchestra has maintained till this day. The steady ascent to world fame continued gradually under the direction of some of the most celebrated conductors of the twentieth century, most recently Sergiu Celibidache. The Orchestra does not only enjoy great acclaim in its home city Munich and Germany itself, but has toured Europe, North and South America, Canada, Russia and the Far East with performances of the highest excellence. |
