Residentie Orchestra

Residentie Orchestra

Het Residentie Orkest (literal translation, The Residence Orchestra; known also in English as The Hague Philharmonic) is a Dutch orchestra based in The Hague. Its primary venue is the Dr. Anton Philipszaal.

Henri Viotta founded the orchestra in 1904. Its early home was the Gebouw voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen (K & W). The orchestra received its first acclaim during the 1911 Richard Strauss Festival, in which the composer himself conducted some of his works. The orchestra soon attracted other composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Max Reger, Maurice Ravel, and Paul Hindemith.

In 1915, the Residentie Orchestra took over the summertime performances of the Kurzaal Concerts in Scheveningen from the Lamoureux Orchestra. The orchestra's second chief conductor was the composer and conductor Peter van Anrooy, from 1917 until his resignation in 1935. Frits Schuurman became the next chief conductor, holding the post through World War II. After the war, Willem van Otterloo led the orchestra as chief conductor from 1949 to 1973.

After the K & W was destroyed in a fire in 1964, the orchestra played in various venues around the city without a permanent home. A fund-raising campaign, which included the release of several recordings known as "bouw-mee" ("help us rebuild") recordings, culminated in the construction of a new hall for the orchestra, the Dr. Anton Philipszaal or "DAPZ" — named after Anton Frederik Philips, co-founder of Philips Electronics — where the orchestra began to reside in September 1987 and which formally opened in the presence of Queen Beatrix.

Succeeding Van Otterloo as chief conductors were Jean Martinon, Ferdinand Leitner, Hans Vonk, and Evgeny Svetlanov. Jaap van Zweden, chief conductor from 2000 to 2005, now has the title of honorary guest conductor (ere-gastdirigent) with the orchestra. Neeme Järvi was the orchestra's most recent chief conductor, from 2005 to 2012. Järvi now has the title of chief conductor emeritus.

The orchestra has undertaken several major tours which included cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Vienna, Munich and Berlin. It has performed under guest conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Hans Knappertsbusch, Carl Schuricht, Arturo Toscanini, and Bruno Walter. The orchestra has commercially recorded works by Dutch composers such as Alphons Diepenbrock and Johannes Verhulst. A selection of recordings made during the fifties at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw under the baton of Willem van Otterloo has been issued on CD in 2007. The orchestra made its first appearance at The Proms in September 2008.

In October 2012, the city council of The Hague announced a reduction in the municipal subsidy for the orchestra, from 5.1 million € to 3.5 million €. The orchestra subsequently expressed concerns of consequences to the orchestra such as job losses for a number of the musicians, and diminished representation of larger-scale symphonic works in the orchestra's concert repertoire.