Description
The history of today's Badische Staatskapelle begins with a list of the expenses of the court of the Margraves of Baden-Durlach. In 1662, the court musicians are mentioned for the first time, but the exact founding date of the court orchestra is unknown. There must have been musical performances at court before that, but obviously no permanent ensemble. At that time, the residence of the Margraviate was Karlsburg Castle in Durlach; the city of Karlsruhe did not even exist yet.
This first court orchestra was small. It consisted of five musicians, only three of whom were fully paid. There was also a group of court trumpeters and a military timpanist. Three and a half centuries later, the small beginnings have become a renowned orchestra consisting of over 90 musicians and has been led by Georg Fritzsch as General Music Director since 2020. A current CD edition shows the abilities of the orchestra, especially in the design of the late Romantic repertoire, which has been intensively cultivated since Hermann Levi's tenure in Karlsruhe.
Part 3 of the edition contains the 4th Symphony in E-flat major by Anton Bruckner, whose 200th birthday the music world will celebrate in 2024. Historically, the Badische Staatskapelle has a very special relationship with this work. On January 2, 1874, Bruckner began work on his Fourth and finished his work on the first version in November of the same year. The second version from 1878 with the finale from 1880 is the most frequently played version of the symphony to date. It was premiered in this form on February 20, 1881 in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Richter and can also be heard on this CD, here based on the edition prepared by Robert Haas in 1936. The German premiere took place on December 10, 1881 in Karlsruhe with the then Grand Ducal Baden Court Orchestra under the young conductor Felix Mottl. It was also the first performance of a Bruckner symphony in Germany.
