Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra

Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra 

The Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra ranks among those orchestras in Germany richest in tradition, being able to look back on a history of more than 125 years. After its foundation in 1877 it soon developed into a nationally respected orchestra, attracting renowned conductors. Max Reger and Hans Pfitzner were the first prominent guests on the rostrum of the young orchestra, which was later also moulded by artistic personalities such as Paul Hindemith, Carl Schuricht and Bruno Walter.

The German premiere of Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony numbers among early highlights in the history of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, as does the performance of Richard Strauss' "Tod und Verklärung" under the baton of the composer himself. In Eugen Jochum the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra had, in the 1930's, a musical director of fine international repuatation. After the war the difficult reconstruction work was managed by his brother Georg Ludwig Jochum who was the director of the orchestra until 1970. A long phase of artistic continuity is connected with the names Miltiades Caridis, Lawrence Foster, Alexander Lazarev and Bruno Weil.

Since the Jubilee season in 2002/2003 the Briton Jonathan Darlington has guided the fortunes of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra as musical director. Since that time he has substantially moulded the character of the orchestra.

The list of guest conductors is also long and impressive. Alberto Erede, Carlos Kleiber and Horst Stein, but also Christian Thielemann, Ton Koopman and Fabio Luisi. Again and again the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra has been able to engage major soloists, such as the pianists Ferruccio Busoni, Vladimir Horowitz, Claudio Arrau and Wilhelm Kempff, or the violinists Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng and Arthur Grumiaux. Today sought after artists such as Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Anna Gourari, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Antoine Tamestit and Claudio Bohorquez are very welcome guests.

Contemporary music traditionally enjoys a high ranking in the programmes of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Major composers of today such as Wolfgang Rihm, Mauricio Kagel, Krzysztof Meyer, Jörg Baur and Manfred Trojahn have written works for the orchestra.

Jonathan Darlington is continuing this tradition with important premieres. He initiated Mauricio Kagel's orchestral work "Broken Chords" and conducted the German Premiere of Tan Dun's symphony "Heaven-Earth-Mankind" on the occasion of the opening of the 'Neue Mercatorhalle' in April 2007. Concert tours took the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra to the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, to Spain, Finland, Great Britain, Greece and China, among other countries.

Jonathan Darlington - conductor

Attractive programmes, musicianly passion and the highest precision towards details stamp the work of the British conductor, who has significantly moulded the profile of the orchestra in the past years. Whatever Darlington does, his high demand for quality always mixes with fiery enthusiasm. Thus he has gained audience popularity far beyond Duisburg's borders.

Jonathan Darlington comes from the Birmingham area. He was educated at Oxford University and at the Royal College of Music in London. His conducting career began with Radio France, where already in early years he worked together with some of the most significant musical personalities of our time - for example with Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti and Olivier Messiaen. In 1984 he made his debut at the Parisian Théâtre des Champs Elysées with Francesco Cavallis baroque opera "Ormindo". Guest appearances took him to the Glyndebourne Festival, to the Opera in Lyon, and to the Royal Scottish Opera. 1990 Myung-Whun Chung engaged the conductor as Deputy Music Director at the Bastille Opera in Paris. Jonathan Darlington is an internationally popular concert conductor. He has a regular working relationship with the Orchestre National de France and with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. He also makes regular guest appearances with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, with the Orchestra Sinfonica del San Carlo in Naples, and with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. His first encounters with the asiatic continent were concerts in China and Taiwan. Since 2002, parallel to his Duisburg activities, Jonathan Darlington is also chief conductor of the Opera in Vancouver (Canada).

Further engagements have taken Jonathan Darlington to the opera houses in Hamburg, Bordeaux, Lausanne, Strasbourg, Naples and also to the English National Opera in London and to the opera in Sydney. In May 2008 he conducted the World Premiere of Manfred Trojahns "La Grande Magia" ("The Grand Magic") with the Staatskapelle Dresden at the Semperoper in Dresden.

In 2007, in honour of his services to music, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.

Jonathan Darlington - conductor at www.imgartists.com

Pascal Gallet - piano

Pascal Gallet was born in Chambéry, France in 1968. He received his first piano lessons from Eliane Richepin and Paul Crapie. Later he continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in the classes of Pierre Sancan, Yvonne Loriod and Pierre Reach. To this day he remains connected to Teresa Llacuna as a pupil.

He emerged as a prize-winner from different international competitions, among them "Viotti-Valsesia", Ministére de la Culture, Porto, Trapani, Vierzon and the competition of the Menuhin Foundation. His international career began with piano recitals as well as concertos in England, Mexico, Germany, Canada and Switzerland, working with for example the conductors Claude Schnitzler and Marc Foster. Recently he toured Taiwan, China and Japan. At the festivals in Villevielle, Naples, Geneva, Kiev, Detmold and Kitzingen he appeared either as a soloist or as a chamber musician. Eckard Fischer, Roco Filippini, Jörg Widmann and Joseph Silverstein were among his partners.

Furthermore he could be experienced in numerous live radio concerts. The complete recording of André Jolivet's piano music has been released under the label "Maguelone label". Olivier Messiaen dedicated two of his bird pieces to him ("La Rousserolle Effarvatte" and " Le Merle bleu ").

Since June 2001 the pianist has been artistic director of the festival "Pentecôtes Musicales" at the Abbey of Fontmorigny. Since November 2004 Pascal Gallet has been "Artiste in Residence" at the conservatory of the city of Pecq (Yveliness, France).

Pascal Gallet - piano at www.pascalgallet.com