The SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg is renowned for its commitment to artistic innovation and to new performers and new works. François-Xavier Roth took up his post as principal conductor at the final concert of the 2011 Donaueschingen Festival, clearly signalling the significance he too places on new music. Ever since the festival’s re-establishment in 1950, it has been inextricably linked with the SWR Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg. The orchestra has given the première of some 400 compositions at the festival and made music history with the works of Hans Werner Henze, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen, Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm. The orchestra is an indispensable partner for the composers of today in Donaueschingen and beyond. Since its establishment in 1946, it has attracted in equal measure internationally acclaimed conductors and soloists, from Hamburg to Madrid and from Berlin to New York. The orchestra’s discography includes over six hundred works, spanning three centuries. The driving force behind these many activities has been, and continues to be, its distinguished principal conductors, from Hans Rosbaud and Ernest Bour to Michael Gielen, Sylvain Cambreling and François-Xavier Roth.