Howard Griffiths, Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra - Turkish Flavours - 100 Years of Turkish Symphonic Music (2024)

Conductor Howard Griffiths has an exceptionally long record of guest appearances with orchestras around Europe. He has made more than 100 recordings as a guest and as the long-term leader of Switzerland's Zürcher Kammerorchester and the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester in Germany.

Griffiths was born in Hastings on the south coast of England on February 24, 1950. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London. Griffiths moved to Switzerland in 1981 and has lived there ever since; his personal website is exclusively in the German language. He retained ties in Britain, however, and after performing with the English Chamber Orchestra for the first time in 1993 (in London's Barbican Hall), he appeared regularly with that group. He was the principal guest conductor of the Oxford Orchestra da Camera from 1994 to 1997. Griffiths made his recording debut with the English Chamber Orchestra on the Novalis label in 1991, issuing an album of works by the little-known Classical-period composers J.F.X.D. Stalder and Constantin Reindl. He has continued to cultivate a specialty in the music of lesser-known composers. He also frequently appeared with England's Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Griffiths served as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Zürcher Kammerorchester ("Zurich Chamber Orchestra") from 1996 to 2006, and as chief conductor of the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester ("Brandenburg State Orchestra") in Frankfurt, Germany, from 2007 to 2018. With the Zürcher Kammerorchester, he toured as far afield as Eastern Europe, Turkey, and East Asia. His career has been marked by guest appearances with an unusually wide variety of orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic in London, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Orquesta Nacional de España, and the Polish Chamber Orchestra. In performance, he has appeared with such major stars as trumpeter Maurice André, soprano Kathleen Battle, violinist Joshua Bell, and historical pianist Rudolf Buchbinder.

In addition to the neglected repertory of the 18th and 19th centuries, Griffiths has various other specialties, including contemporary music, Swiss music, and Turkish music. He has worked with top contemporary composers such as Hans Werner Henze (giving the Swiss premiere of that composer's Requiem in Henze's presence), George Crumb, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Arvo Pärt. Griffiths' recording catalog is vast and includes albums with many of the orchestras he has worked with over his long career. He has recorded for the CPO, Koch Schwann, Profil, and Sony Classical labels, among others; his recordings of unknown Classical-era and Romantic symphonic repertory have mostly been made for CPO but have involved various orchestras. Griffiths remained active through the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing ten albums between 2020 and 2023, including several recordings of Mozart piano concertos with the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg (and various pianists) on the Alpha label. In 2024, Griffiths returned on CPO with an album of viola concertos by C.P.E. Bach and Johann Gottlieb Graun, featuring violist Mathis Rochat and the Camerata Schweiz chamber orchestra. ~ James Manheim

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With a history as a broadcast orchestra stretching back to the post-World War II era, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin has also became a major concert attraction. The group has attracted an international set of chief conductors and has often added contemporary works to its repertory.

Ultimately responsible for the orchestra's founding was the government of the American military occupation in West Berlin, which established the RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) broadcaster in 1946. The radio station in turn assembled an orchestra that by 1948 was well established and had hired its first permanent conductor, the Hungarian Ferenc Fricsay. He remained in his post until 1954. The orchestra underwent a period of instability in the mid-'50s as West and East Berlin dealt with forced cultural separation. It was renamed the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1956 and became the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 1993, after German reunification. Fricsay returned from 1959 to 1963, often programming the music of Bartók and doing much to foster that composer's international popularity. His successors included the American Lorin Maazel (1964-1975), the Italian Riccardo Chailly (1982-1989), and the Russian-Icelandic Vladimir Ashkenazy (1989-1999); with the exception of Ingo Metzmacher (2007-2010), none of the orchestra's principal conductors has been German. The orchestra's leaders in the modern era have also included the American contemporary music specialist Kent Nagano (2000-2006), the Russian Tugan Sokhiev (2012-2016), and as of 2017, the Briton Robin Ticciati.

The orchestra still broadcasts on the radio but offers a full concert season, mostly at the Philharmonie in Berlin. Its recording catalog is large and includes a 2011 recording of music by Kaija Saariaho, conducted by Nagano, that won a Grammy award. Ticciati led the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in a performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 6 in A major released on Scotland's Linn label in 2019; the orchestra has also recorded for CPO, Sony Classical, Capriccio, and other labels.

TRACKLIST

CD 01 (9 / 50:41)
1. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Ayin Raks, Op. 57
2. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Enstantaneler: No. 1, Balıkçılar Ağları Çekerken
3. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Enstantaneler: No. 2, Âmâ Dilenci Kadın
4. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Enstantaneler: No. 3, Eyüp Güvercinleri
5. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Enstantaneler: No. 4, Boş Cami İçi
6. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Enstantaneler: No. 5, Bayram
7. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Senfonik Bölüm
8. İris Şentürker;Alican Süner - Poème
9. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Türk Kapriçyosu

CD 02 (6 / 49:59)
1. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Nehrin Düşleri
2. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths;Jamal Aliyev;Tansu Karpınar - Şahmeran, Op. 85: I. Şahmeran’ım cennet Bahçesi
3. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Şahmeran, Op. 85: II. İhanet
4. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Kayıp Sessizliğin Anısına Rağmen
5. Paul Heyman;Mathis Rochat;Emmanuel Coppey;Abigel Kralig - String Quartet No. 1 “hırçın“
6. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;Howard Griffiths - Gel