The Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Gewandhaus Orchestra can look back with pride on its more than 250-year history. Sixteen Leipzig merchants founded and financed a concert society which has since made musical history and become one of the world's most renowned orchestras. Felix Mendelssohn, Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Franz Konwitschny and Kurt Masur number among the most distinguished Gewandhaus Music Directors. They have left their imprint on this unique musical tradition, which Herbert Blomstedt carried forward into the new millennium. His successor, the 19th Gewandhaus Kapellmeister Riccardo Chailly, embodies tradition and change simultaneously.
The Gewandhaus Orchestra's schedule includes 70 Grand Concerts in Leipzig during each season. For over 200 years, it has also served as the house orchestra of the Leipzig Opera, in addition to its weekly performances of cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach at St. Thomas's Church and 35 guest appearances each season throughout the world as well as numerous recordings. Leipzig's reputation as the city of music can be largely attributed to the varied activities of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and its standing as the world's oldest civic concert orchestra.
No one could have predicted the success story of the Gewandhaus when, in March of 1743, sixteen Leipzig merchants gathered to found a concert society of sixteen musicians with the name "Grand Concert."
After three decades in the Three Swans Inn in Leipzig's Brühl neighbourhood, increasing audience interest made it necessary to find a new home. In 1781 the orchestra moved into a 500-seat hall with superb acoustics in the assembly hall of the cloth traders, the Gewandhaus (Garment House), to which the orchestra and its Leipzig performance venue owe their name.
When this concert hall was no longer able to accommodate the large numbers of people eager to attend performances, a second Gewandhaus in classical style was dedicated in December of 1884. A large hall for 1,500 listeners and a chamber music hall reminiscent of the old Gewandhaus hall with 500 seats offered the musicians a home in keeping with their quality and international standing.
During a bombing raid in February of 1944, the concert hall was badly damaged, and, despite arduous efforts to preserve it, the ruins were finally demolished in March of 1968. For nearly forty years, concerts were given in temporary quarters in the Congress Hall near the Leipzig Zoo. Thanks to the untiring efforts of the then Gewandhaus Music Director, Kurt Masur, the orchestra was finally able to move into a modern performance venue ideally suited to its musical, acoustical and technical requirements - the third Gewandhaus on Augustusplatz.
To this day, the majestic Schuke organ in the Great Hall bears an inscription with a quote from Seneca the Younger which has been the motto of the Gewandhaus since 1781: "Res severa verum gaudium" ("True pleasure is a serious business").
The 1,900-seat, semicircular Great hall, Mendelssohn Hall, with 500 seats, and the light-flooded Gewandhaus foyer form a unique architectural ensemble, aesthetically enhanced by statues and busts of musicians, regularly changing painting exhibitions and, above all, the monumental, four-story-high ceiling painting "Song of Life" by the Leipzig artist Sighard Gille.
Over 600 events take place every year at the Gewandhaus. Of these, the Grand Concerts by the Gewandhaus Orchestra form the focal point, along with concerts by the Gewandhaus Chorus and Children's Choir, numerous chamber music ensembles, the Gewandhaus Quartet, Gewandhaus Wind Quintet, the organ concerts and popular Saturday afternoon organ recitals.
The Gewandhaus's "Grand Concert" series has been named "Best Concert Programme of the 2008/2009 Season." In the opinion of the Deutscher Musikverleger-Verband (Association of German Music Publishers) the Gewandhaus Orchestra presented the best programming during the 2008/2009 season.
