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Nice City founded the ‘Nice City Municipal Symphony Orchestra’ in 1945. In 1982 Pierre Me´decin, Director at the Ope´ra de Nice, was the driving force behind the orchestra’s restructuring and since then it has been a leading musical ensemble. Georges Pre^tre, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marek Janowski, Berislav Klobucar, Emil Tchakarov, Zoltan Pesko, Jerzy Semkow, Michae¨l Sch?nwandt, Leopold Hager, Aldo Ceccato, Oleg Caetani, Pedro Calderon, Juan Pons and Gu¨nter Neuhold have been among the recent guest conductors. The orchestra is made up of 99 musicians and is at the centre of the traditionally rich musical life in Nice and on the French Riviera. Its extensive symphonic activities attract international soloists such as Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Salvatore Accardo, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhai¨l Rudy, Janos Starker, Ivo Pogorelich, Philippe Bianconi, Misha Maisky, Paul Meyer, Jean-Marc Luisada, Augustin Dumay, Gary Hoffman… It performs throughout the Ope´ra de Nice season and participates in a variety of other events, including Festival de Musique Sacre´e de Nice, Festival MANCA. Since 1983, an agreement with the Conseil Ge´ne´ral has enabled the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra to perform throughout the Alpes Maritimes department. The Nice Philharmonic has already participated in numerous prestigious summer operatic festivals: Chore´gies d’Orange, Macerata, Festival de Montpellier-Radio France and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. In 1988, international critics noted the orchestra’s exceptional quality performing Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, conducted by Berislav Klobucar, in Nice and at the The´a^tre des Champs-E´lyse´es. The orchestra also takes part in musical awareness campaigns for students with the ‘Campus en musique’ series of concerts, sponsored by the Deposit and Consignment Office. For the last five years, their series of concerts for children has met with increasing success and their series of concerts with commentary is attended by around 10 000 school children each season. On 1 October 2001, Marco Guidarini became director of the Nice Philharmonic and since then he has focused the orchestra on Brahms, Malher and Bartok. His arrival also produced two initiatives: the creation of the ‘Apostrophe’ ensemble for contemporary music and a big band. In July 2004, Nice Philharmonic Orchestra will perform at Festival d’Antibes, Chore´gies d’Orange and Festival de Montpellier Radio France. Recent recordings: In 1999, excellent reviews (5 Diapasons and 7R in Re´pertoire) greeted the
first recording of the complete series of Richard Strauss’ Lieder with, among
other soloists, the soprano Edita Gruberova, conducted by Friedrich Haider. |
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