Christoph von Dohnányi is recognized as one of the world's pre-eminent orchestral and opera conductors. In addition to guest engagements with the major opera houses and orchestras of Europe and North America, his appointments have included opera directorships in Frankfurt and Hamburg; principal orchestral conducting posts in Germany, London and Paris; as well as his legendary 20 year tenure as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra.
In North America this season, Maestro Dohnányi leads subscription concerts at the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, and at the New York Philharmonic. Last season he became Honorary Conductor for life of the Philharmonia Orchestra; this season he leads the Philharmonia in Madrid, Cardiff, Hong Kong, in a Brahms symphony cycle at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Maestro von Dohnányi has also held the position of Chief Conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra since September 2004. As well as giving concerts in major venues throughout Europe (including Lucerne, Cologne, Frankfurt, Bonn, Warsaw and Luxembourg) Dohnányi and the orchestra have toured in North America, South America and Japan.
Maestro Dohnányi’s highly successful partnership with the Philharmonia Orchestra began in 1994, when he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor and, from 1997 onwards as Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser. In addition to the subscription concerts at the South Bank Centre and in venues around England, recent seasons have seen Dohnányi and the orchestra giving a three-concert residency in Vienna's prestigious Musikverein, touring Germany and making a substantial West Coast tour of the US, with dates at Walt Disney Hall, Davies Symphony Hall and at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Together they developed a successful collaboration with the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, their many performances there having included productions of Strauss’s Arabella, Die Frau ohne Schatten and Die schweigsame Frau, Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex and Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. In concert, they also performed all the Brahms symphonies in 1994.
Highlights of recent seasons include a series of concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he led the four Brahms symphonies over a two-week period; weeks the Boston and Chicago Symphonies, the New York Philharmonic; and his first appearance with the Cleveland Orchestra since he assumed the title of Music Director Laureate of that orchestra in 2002. Maestro von Dohnányi also returned to the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia and the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, and led performances of Fidelio at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
During his years as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra, Mo. von Dohnányi led the orchestra in a thousand concerts, fifteen international tours, twenty-four premieres, and the recording of over one hundred works. Immediately upon the completion of his tenure there in 2002, Mo. von Dohnányi made a great sweep of long awaited and triumphant guest appearances with orchestras in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York.
Maestro von Dohnányi conducts frequently at the world's great opera houses, including Covent Garden, La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, Berlin, and Paris. He has been a frequent guest conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, leading the world premieres of Henze's Die Bassariden and Cerha's Baal. Mo. von Dohnányi returned to Salzburg in the summer of 2001 for a new production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, and in October 2001 he conducted Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten at Covent Garden. Mo. von Dohnányi also appears with the Zurich Opera, where in recent years he conducted Strauss's Die Schweigsame Frau, a double bill of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, and new productions of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera and Berg's Wozzeck.
Maestro von Dohnányi has made many critically acclaimed recordings for London/Decca with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. With Vienna, he recorded a variety of symphonic works and a number of operas, including Beethoven's Fidelio, Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu, Schoenberg's Erwartung, Strauss' Salome, and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. With the Cleveland Orchestra, his large and varied discography includes concert performances and recordings of Wagner's Die Walküre and Das Rheingold, the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann, symphonies by Bruckner, Dvorak, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert and Tchaikovsky, and among many others, works by Bartók, Berlioz, Ives, Varèse and Webern.
![[Christoph Von Dohnanyi]](/images/_images/_musicians/dohnanyix95.jpg)
