The Vienna Symphony Orchestra has just marked the launch of its own recording label, Wiener Symphoniker, with two new releases.
Fabio Luisi conducts Mahler’s First Symphony on one disc – recorded in May – while the second release is a historic 1952 recording of Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 conducted by Romanian legend Sergiu Celibidache.
Issued on both CD and vinyl these new releases mark the start of the label’s plans to release two to four discs per year, including live recordings and historical material.
Founded in 1900, the orchestra has been at the centre of Vienna’s classical music scene for more than a century and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra regularly performs at Vienna’s stunning Musikverein and the Konzerthaus Wien.
The orchestra can count Richard Strauss, Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwangler and George Szell among its former conductors and Herbert von Karajan held the position of chief conductor from 1950-1960. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra also remains the orchestra-in-residence at the Bregenz Festival, a position it has held since 1946.
‘The launch of the label “Wiener Symphoniker” gives the orchestra the opportunity to consistently follow its artistic line on disc,’ says the orchestra’s chief conductor Fabio Luisi.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra continues its busy live concert schedule. On Friday 12 October, Philippe Jordan, who is taking over from Luisi in 2014, will conduct Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. In January, Luisi will be conducting concerts featuring works by Bruckner, Richard Strauss, Schubert and Stravinsky, plus a new work by Austrian composer Gerd Kühr (9 Jan).