Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich: 150 Years Celebration

In the year 1865, a group of Zürich citizens founded the Orchesterverein as the city’s first permanent orchestra. The founding of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich followed several years later, in 1868. Both ensembles continue to perform in Zürich today. In 2018, the orchestra can celebrate the 150th anniversary of it’s foundation. This 14CD box set presents all the orchestra’s principal conductors insofar as radio or other recordings of performances with them do exist. All of the material has never before been available on a recording medium. All recordings have been digitally remastered and represent the state of the art regarding digital audio restoration. The list of conductors presented in this box is impressive. Recorded musical material with composer Othmar Schoeck for instance is very rare and the discovery of tapes with his interpretation of Schumann’s fourth symphony in the archives of Swiss Radio SRF can be seen as quite a sensation. Other conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Rudolf Kempe, Bernard Haitink, David Zinman, Christoph Eschenbach or Herbert Blomstedt rank among the finest conductors of the second half of the 20th century.