| On Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen_Philharmonic_Orchestra |
| Creation | 1765 |
| Participants |
Edvard Grieg
- Conductor
from 1880
to 1882
Edward Gardner - Conductor from 2015 Samuel Lind - Conductor from 1765 to 1769 Benjamin Ohle - Conductor from 1769 to 1770 Niels Haslund - Conductor from 1770 to 1785 Ole Rødder - Conductor from 1785 to 1805 J. Hindrich Paulsen - Conductor from 1805 to 1806 J. Hindrich Paulsen - Conductor from 1809 to 1820 Mathias Lundholm - Conductor from 1820 to 1827 Ferdinand Giovanni Schediwy - Conductor from 1827 to 1844 Ferdinand August Rojahn - Conductor from 1856 to 1859 Otto Lübert - Conductor from 1855 to 1856 August Fries - Conductor from 1859 to 1862 August Fries - Conductor from 1864 to 1873 Amadeus Wolfgang Maczewsky - Conductor from 1862 to 1864 Richard Henneberg - Conductor from 1873 to 1875 Adolf Blomberg - Conductor from 1875 to 1878 Hermann Levi - Conductor from 1879 to 1880 Iver Holter - Conductor from 1882 to 1886 Per Winge - Conductor from 1886 to 1888 Georg Washington Magnus - Conductor from 1892 to 1893 Johan Halvorsen - Conductor from 1893 to 1898 Christian Danning - Conductor from 1899 to 1901 Christian Danning - Conductor from 1902 to 1905 Harald Heide - Conductor from 1907 to 1948 Olav Kielland - Conductor from 1948 to 1952 Carl von Garaguly - Conductor from 1952 to 1958 Arvid Fladmoe - Conductor from 1958 to 1961 Karsten Andersen - Conductor from 1964 to 1985 Aldo Ceccato - Conductor from 1985 to 1990 Dmitri Kitayenko - Conductor from 1990 to 1998 Simone Young - Conductor from 1998 to 2002 Andrew Litton - Conductor from 2003 to 2015 |
| City | Bergen, Norway |
| Country | Norway |
Established in 1765 under the name Det Musicalske Selskab (The Musical Society), it later changed its name to Musikselskabet Harmonien. Bergen citizens often refer to the ensemble as "Harmonien" (the Harmony).
After World War I, there was strong interest in the major Norwegian cities of Bergen and Kristiania (later Oslo) in having larger orchestras. In 1919, the orchestra in Bergen was reorganized to employed 40 professional full-time musicians. As of 2015, the orchestra has 101 musicians.
The orchestra has had a long tradition of playing contemporary music. Ludwig van Beethoven's second symphony was performed in Bergen in the year it was published, 1804, even before it was performed in Berlin. Bergen-born composer Edvard Grieg had close ties with the orchestra, and was artistic director from 1880 to 1882. He also bequeathed a portion of his estate to a fund which continues to provide financial support for the orchestra. Other composers have served as principal conductor of the orchestra, including Arvid Fladmoe, Johan Halvorsen, Iver Holter, Richard Henneberg, Olav Kielland and Per Winge. Composer Harald Sæverud was frequently invited to conduct his own works, and the orchestra continues to commission and perform new compositions on a regular basis. Other composers who have conducted their own works with the orchestra include Aaron Copland, Karl Nielsen, Jean Sibelius, Witold Lutosławski, Lukas Foss, and Krzysztof Penderecki. In 1953, the Festspillene i Bergen was started and Leopold Stokowski was contracted to conduct the orchestra. Other conductors at the Bergen Festival have included Eugene Ormandy and Sir Thomas Beecham.
American conductor Andrew Litton became principal conductor in 2003 and artistic director in 2005. In 2002 the orchestra began to record the complete orchestral works of Edvard Grieg, the first Norwegian orchestra to do so. Norwegian conductor Ole Kristian Ruud and the orchestra recorded the final of the 7 CDs for BIS., in 2005. Litton now has the title of conductor laureate with the orchestra. The orchestra's current chief conductor is Edward Gardner, since October 2015, with an initial contract of 3 seasons. In January 2017. the orchestra announced the extension of Gardner's contract in Bergen through 2021.
Many members of the orchestra teach at the Grieg Academy of Music, which is a music conservatory within the University of Bergen.
Wikipedia