Christoph König
“König offered a fresh, sensitive, elegant, and totally unmannered interpretation. Beethoven’s full textures were uncommonly well balanced.”
Pittsburgh Tribune (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven Symphony No 6))
A conductor of deep intelligence and musicality, Christoph König is widely admired for his clarity, sensitivity and elegant interpretations. He is currently Principal Conductor & Music Director of the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg. Whilst Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música (2009-2014) he toured with them to Brazil and in Europe including performances in Vienna, Rotterdam, Strasbourg and Madrid. With the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg he has performed at the Cologne Philharmonie and at the Schleswig- Holstein Music Festival.
As a guest conductor he has performed with the Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester St Gallen, Dresden Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic, RTVE Orchestra Madrid and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra whom he led on a highly successful tour of China. Further afield he has conducted the Melbourne Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Adelaide Symphony and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra. An impressive debut in the USA in 2010 has led to multiple engagements with orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Colorado Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Orchestras. His upcoming diary includes the Fort Worth Symphony and returns to Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Milwaukee, Oregon and Baltimore.
Elsewhere, highlights of the current season include returns to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken, Bremen Philharmoniker, Real Filharmonía de Galícia, Orquesta de Euskadi and the Orquesta Sinfónica Castilla y León.
Christoph König’s opera experience includes productions of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte and Il Turco in Italia at Zurich Opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Don Giovanni at the Staatsoper Stuttgart and Die Zauberflöte and Rigoletto at Deutsche Oper Berlin. CD recordings include Melcer with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Hyperion), Beethoven Symphonies with the Malmo Symphony Orchestra (DB Productions), Schoenberg, Prokofiev and Sibelius with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música (Ao Vivo) and Mozart, Wagner, Prokofiev and Beethoven with the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg for Chandos and SEL Classics.
König was born in Dresden where he sang in the celebrated Dresdner Kreuzchor. He studied conducting, piano and singing at the Dresdner Musikhochschule. His early work as a conductor took him to masterclasses given by, amongst others, Sergiu Celibidache and Sir Colin Davis, with whom he worked as assistant conductor/ Korrepetiteur at the Dresden Opera/Sächsische Staatskapelle. He began his professional career as Erster Kapellmeister at the Opera in Bonn.
Solistes Européens, Luxembourg
These musicians are Europeans from the best orchestras of the old continent who have been meeting regularly in Luxembourg for more than 25 years – their first concert was on 20 September 1989 – for recitals, concerts and recordings. They also tour around Europe on a regular basis.
Each season in Luxembourg, and now in the capital’s magnificent Philharmonie, they offer their faithful public regular concerts on Monday evenings. They have accompanied the most renowned soloists and captivated both audiences and critics the major European musical centres. In May 2004, they performed at the UN in New York on the occasion of the EU enlargment.
They have a vast repertoire and have been playing works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Milan Slavicky and Thierry Escaich for the first time, extending their range to contemporary composers. In 2008 they created Milan Slavicky’s Family of Man as part of the 10th Birthday of the European Central Bank.
For the past four years, they have been playing at each annual opening concert a work commissioned by the Ministry of Culture:
Eager to promote the future of music, each season the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg organize concerts for young talents, both from Luxembourg and abroad.
This orchestra, whose activities are supported by the Ministry of Culture and the City of Luxembourg, as well as by numerous corporate sponsors, is one of the main attractions of Luxembourg’s musical offering.
Christoph König and SEL have released two critically acclaimed albums on Rubicon RCD1020 Mehul Symphony No.1 & Beethoven Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’, and RCD1025 Schubert Symphony No.9 ‘Great’ & Berio ‘Rendering’ after Schubert Symphony No.10. Dvořák’s evergreen ‘New World’ symphony is programmed on this new album with two quintessentially American works by the maverick Charles Ives, and Aaron Copland’s ‘Quiet City’ written in 1939 as incidental music to a play by Irwin Shaw. The play was a failure, but Copland returned to the score making this concert version.
Just before his death in 1828 at the age of just 31, Franz Schubert was at work on his 10th Symphony in D major D936a, and had signed up for counterpoint lessons with Simon Sechter, who later taught the young Anton Bruckner. The 10th was destined to become yet another unfinished Schubert work, and his 6th unfinished symphony, but the extensive sketches are fascinating and show Schubert clearly moving into new sound worlds that anticipate Mahler in the central slow movement. Berio’s ingenious work ‘Rendering’ brings Schubert’s sketches alive by creating a new work around and within the framework of the unfinished symphony.
17 Leeward Quay
Eastbourne
East Sussex
BN23 5UD
United Kingdom
+44 (0)7703 20 20 23
