After Moshe Atzmon and Klaus Tennstedt, the principal conductors in the 1970s, twenty years of intensive co-operation between the orchestra and Günter Wand gave it a significance such as it had not known since the Schmidt-Isserstedt era. He was appointed its principal conductor in 1982 and soon afterwards, in 1987, its Honorary Director for life. He dominated the artistic work of the NDR Symphony Orchestra until his death in 2002, bringing it to its apogee with worldwide acclaim for its Bruckner interpretations. Numerous recordings and television productions provide impressive testimony to the extraordinary artistic standing of this collaboration.
The series of principal conductors continued in the 1990s, initially with John Eliot Gardiner and Herbert Blomstedt. In 1998 Christoph Eschenbach was appointed to this position, and during his five years with the orchestra recorded major cycles of works such as Mahler’s and Shostakovich’s symphonies. He also devoted himself intensively to contemporary music, which he presented to his audience in concert programmes of innovative design.
From 2004 Christoph von Dohnányi has continued the tradition of major conductors leading the NDR Symphony Orchestra, supported by Alan Gilbert as first guest conductor. The NDR Symphony Orchestra holds its own series of subscription concerts in Hamburg, Lübeck, Kiel, and Bremen, and regularly makes guest concert tours to the most important European festivals, appearing on all the major concert stages. It has also earned itself great respect from its tours to Japan, China, South America, and the United States.
Editor: Yan Yanru
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