World’s oldest radio orchestra?

World’s oldest radio orchestra?

Orchestras

norman lebrecht

December 14, 2024

Denmark started broadcasting in 1925 and DR immediately adopted the Danish National Symphony Orchestra as its radio ensemble. The BBC Symphony was not founded until 1930.

The Danes will take a centennial tour around European cities with chief conductor Fabio Luisi next month. (Not London, of course.)

Berlin Philharmonic Hall, 13 January
Stuttgart, Liederhalle, 15 January
Antwerp, De Singel, 17 January
Essen, Alfred Krupp Hall, 18 January
Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie, 19 January
Munich, Gasteig, 21 January
Linz, Brucknerhaus January 22
Budapest, Müpa, 23 January

UPDATE:
OK, perhaps not the oldest.
Readers remind us that Leipzig had a radio orchestra in 1924 and Berlin in 1925.
The French musicologist Alain Paris points out that Denmark’s radio orchestra had just 11 players in 1925.

Other early radio orchestras were:
1925 Riga, Latvia
1926 NHK Japan
1927 Finland and Estonia
1928 Romania

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