| Biography | The Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1925, is the oldest radio symphony orchestra in the world. Two conductors in particular have largely been responsible for building up the orchestra from the start: the legendary Fritz Busch, and the Russian Nicolai Malko, who is still honoured by the orchestra every third year at the International Malko Competition for Young Conductors.
Many of this centurys great conductors have conducted the orchestra, among them Paul Kletzki, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, Bruno Walter, Rafael Kubelík, Sergiu Celibidache, Vaclav Neumann, Daniel Barenboim, Paavo Berglund, Sixten Ehrling and Herbert Blomstedr. Other contemporary conductors of the orchestra include international top figures like Giuseppe Sinopoji, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Temirkanov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Evgeny Svetlanov as well as Kurt Sanderling. In 1995 the German conductor Ulf Schirmer took over as principal conductor of the orchestra. Leif Segerstam has been associated as honorary conductor, with Dmitri Kitaenko and Michael Schønwandt as principal guest conductors.
Touring forms a major part of the orchestras activities and includes regular visits to the United States and several European countries. Throughout the years countless recordings of the orchestra have been issued, including complete cycles of symphonies by Sibelius and Mahler on the Chandos label as well as numerous Danish works on the label Dacapo. The orchestra collaborated with Decca and Ulf Schirmer on works by Carl Nielsen. |