The SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg was founded in 1946 as SWF Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and merged with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart (RSO) in 2016. In the seven decades of its existence it constantly gave new ideas, musicians, and compositions a chance, in the broadcasting area of SWR and also on tour. Regularly the musicians were guests at major festivals in Berlin, Lucerne, Vienna and Paris; special dedication was applied to the music of the 20th and 21st century.
Since its refounding in 1950, the Donaueschingen Festival and the SWR Symphony Orchestra BadenBaden und Freiburg have been inseparably linked. The orchestra has premiered around 500 compositions there, and has also made music history by playing the music of Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen, Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm. Today, the SWR Symphony Orchestra is still, in Donaueschingen and beyond, an essential partner for composers of our time.
However, as the long-time chief conductor Sylvain Cambreling put it, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg stands “in the center of European culture” not only regarding contemporary music. Since its foundation in 1946 the orchestra has been a center of attraction for international conductors and soloists, as well as a musical ambassador at home and abroad, playing between Hamburg and Madrid, Berlin and New York. The orchestra has recorded more than 600 works of three centuries, many of which have won awards.
In 2014 the orchestra received the German Record Critics’ Certificate of Special Merit for its work in the service of “a vibrant contemporary music culture”, the Special Achievement Award of the International Classical Music Awards, the ECHO Klassik as Orchestra of the Year 2014 for the recording of the Logos Fragments by Hans Zender, and in 2015 a GRAMMY nomination for the CD Moses and Aron. The engine of this wide ranging activity was and remain its highprofile chief conductors, from Hans Rosbaud to Ernest Bour up to Michael Gielen, Sylvain Cambreling and François-Xavier Roth. They led and shaped the orchestra which for seven decades has been taking on exceptional challenges and achieved a rare flexibility and self-assurance.