This orchestra is a modern descendant of what was the orchestra of the Sociedad de Conciertos de Madrid, founded in 1866 by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri. That orchestra went downhill and the violinist Jose del Hierro, the violist Julio Frances and the cellist Victor Mirecki Larramat, the clarinetist Miguel Yuste and the flautist Francisco Gonzalez conceived the idea of regrouping and were joined by the majority of the original orchestra’s members. They had their first meeting in December 1903 where they established themselves as Orquestra Sinfonica de Madrid and were joined by the conductor Alonso Cordelas.
The orchestra gave its first concert on 7th February 1904 at the Teatro Real but Cordelas had problems with section leaders, organisation and bad reviews which led to he and the concertmaster Jose del Hierro leaving. However, when the orchestra went on to finish their first season, with critical acclaim for the premieres of Brahms’ First symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, they managed to save themselves financially.
After their first season they took on the new conductor and violinist Enrique Fernandez Arbos who remained with them for 34 years and restructured the organisation and promoted Spanish soloists and composers. He also established musical outreach, made concerts more available to those with less money, frequently led tours and often brought in well known guest conductors.
During the Spanish Civil War the number of section leaders shrunk and although the orchestra attempted to give performances in Madrid it couldn’t make them like they were before. Their conductor died in 1939 after the war and many of the section leaders were still absent after fleeing during the war. They also had other problems from 1940 when many of their players went to play with the newly formed Spanish National Orchestra. They did manage to appoint the conductor Enrique Jorda from 1940 and he remained with them until 1945.
In 1958 the tables were turning for the orchestra when they took on the role of the tenure orchestra of the Teatro de la Zarzuela. This led them to performing almost constantly as well as giving European and Latin American tours. However, in 1965 they were injured by another orchestra again with the formation of the Orquesta Sinfonica de RTVE which took several of their musicians.
In the 1970s the orchestra, thanks to its ties with the Teatro de a Zarzuela, gained a contract with Hispavox where they made many recordings of Spanish operas and zarzuelas. This brought them much needed attention and they continued to appear in all the Teatro’s productions and the TV series Antologia de la Zarzuela in 1971. This did mean their symphonic concert paid that price as there were much fewer of them being performed and the older players decided to retire which meant they needed new musicians and the quality of music suffered.
In 1975 the Minister of Culture offered a contract for the orchestra to have exclusive rights to the Teatro de la Zarzuela for zarzuelas, operas and ballets. The orchestra signed in 1981 and the orchestra gradually regained its strength.
The orchestra stayed at the Teatro de la Zarzuela until 1997 until it relocated to Madrid’s Teatro Real after signing a contract with the Community of Madrid and after the opening of the Auditorio National de Musica. They then began the performance of annual concert cycles with a contract that lasted until 2009.
Their Principal Conductor from 1999 to 2002 was Luis Antonio Garcia Navarro with the honorary conductor Kurt Sanderling. They also had a choir conducted by Martin Merry attached to them.
After Luis Antonio Garcia Navarro passed away the orchestra was led by Jesis Lopez-Cobos from 2002 until 2010.
In the field of musical education they have created an “Orchestra School” directed by Andres Zarzo.
Anton Garcia Abril recordings
3 Sonatas for Orchestra
Marco Polo 8.223849
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