Dresdner PHILHARMONIE The founding of the Dresden Philharmonie in 1870 coincided with the official opening of the city’s first civic concert hall, the Gewerbehaus-Saal. This marked a new stage, a change away from the aristocracy to the performing of concerts for general public. From 1885, the then “Gewerbehausorchester” gave Philharmonie concerts in Dresden, which earned them the title “Dresden Philharmonie Orchestra” in 1915. With its approximately 80 concerts in Dresden, the Dresden Philharmonie essentially characterizes the cultural life of the city. The orchestra plays in the large festival hall of the Dresden Kulturpalast am Altmarkt. The concerts of the orchestra, which emerged the central attraction for thousands of Dresdners and for the guests of the metropolis on the Elbe, were so called Florence on the Elbe. In the past, Brahms, Tschaikowski, Dvorak and Strauss, amongst others, have conducted their works with the orchestra. Paul van Kempen and Carl Schuricht have conducted the Dresden Philharmonie as Music Directors after 1934, as well as - since 1945 - Heinz Bongartz, Kurt Masur, Günther Herbig and Herbert Kegel, Jörg-Peter Weigle and Michel Plasson, with whom numerous records and CD's have been made. Kurt Masur is today the Dresden Philharmonic's Laureate Conductor. Frühbeck de Burgos was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonie in 2003, one year later assuming the post of Principal Conductor and Artistic Director.
