New album release

Brahms was 43 years old when, after a long period of maturation, his First Symphony was published. The conductor Felix Weingartner commented on it ‘taking hold like the claw of a lion’ and its urgency marked a new phase in Brahms’ musical development. The Second Symphony is traditionally seen as the pastoral element in the cycle, while the Third, with its melodic beauty, has the courage to end quietly, an act of astonishing serenity. The compelling Passacaglia finale of the Fourth Symphony represents a fitting summation to one of the greatest symphonic cycles in the classical canon.

2022 marks 25 years of close, innovative cooperation between Adam Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra

This has resulted in a number of releases, and gained international recognition. The conductor commented:

The many years together have created the foundation for a mutual understanding of music and a highly distinctive style of playing that has been recognised far beyond Denmark’s national borders.

The previous set of Beethoven’s complete symphonies (8505251) was the most-awarded Naxos release in 2019. It won the Opus Klassik and International Classical Music Awards ‘Best Symphonic Recording’ categories, as well as ICMA’s ‘Recording of the Year’ award.

Forget everything you think you know about classical music by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. If know nothing at all, even better. The Danish Chamber Orchestra is here to prove that this is the most modern, invigorating and moving music ever created.

For more than two decades, the orchestra’s conductor Ádám Fischer has been on a mission to make us hear and feel music differently. The first step was getting his orchestra to play it differently. In the Danish Chamber Orchestra, he has honed one of the most reactive, sensitive, hyperactive and expressive orchestras in the world.

For the Danish Chamber Orchestra, even acoustic performances are electric. Each one comes from a desire to sense the artist’s motivation and to question canonical thinking. From Beethoven to Efterklang, the orchestra uses the full force of its technical capabilities to leave no corner of a score’s emotional range unexplored and to keep expression at the maximum.

Entertainment is in the Danish Chamber Orchestra’s DNA. Until 2015, it was the concert orchestra of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation with roots stretching back to 1927. Since 2015, it has been Denmark’s only major independent orchestra, owned and governed by its musicians. It is as versatile operationally as it is musically – proudly collaborating with some of the great names in popular music and the only Nordic orchestra to have recorded the complete symphonies of both Mozart and Beethoven.

The orchestra’s recordings have seen critics’ jaws drop from Vienna to New York. ‘Sensational,’ wrote the Wiener Zeitung of its Mozart. ‘Few other sets even come close,’ wrote the American magazine Fanfare of its Beethoven. More than ever, the Danish Chamber Orchestra is travelling abroad to provoke the same reactions in live audiences around the world. In 2019, it performed at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna.

The orchestra’s determination to see things differently has seen it reimagine where and how concerts should be presented. It has mounted spatial performances and ventured away from concert halls. Every month, it works on pedagogical projects with Danish citizens from Viborg on the west coast to Copenhagen on the east.

Wherever it goes and whatever it plays, the Danish Chamber Orchestra invites you to hear great music differently – to experience its power and sense the coursing of its lifeblood. It always stays true to its Danish title: Denmark’s entertainment orchestra.

link to our concert calendar

We wish to create great musical experiences for all – throughout the country, across genres and generations. The Danish Chamber Orchestra is Denmark’s first major musician-owned orchestra. We want to push the limits of what a classical orchestra can do, which leads us to continually develop new musical concepts with interesting collaborators. Large-scale popular concerts with the best soloists are part of our DNA. At the same time, we play top-level classical concerts both nationally and internationally. We are particularly known for our interpretations of the Viennese classical repertoire with Principal Conductor Ádám Fischer. Engaging with children and the younger generations is one of our top priorities, inviting them into the world of music through concert formats that actively involve and speak to them.

Adam Fischer

Principal Conductor

The Hungarian-born conductor Adam Fischer is much in demand within both the opera and concert repertoire and has cooperated with a great number of leading international concert halls and opera houses, including the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera as well as such orchestras as the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2019, he gained the international Wolf Prize, was nominated Conductor of the Year by PrestoClassical in the UK and received an Orchestral Award from the BBC Music Magazine for his recording of Mahler’s First Symphony with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, he received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).

Homepage: Adamfischer.at