Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle
After the Robert Franz Singing Academy had joined it in 1953 and Hermann Abendroth had become honorary conductor, the Halle Symphony Orchestra was founded.
The orchestra experienced its heyday under the chief conductor Olaf Koch, who led the Hallesche Philharmonie to national recognition in the 1970s and 1980s.
Well-known orchestra directors such as Bernhard Klee (1999/2000) and Wolf-Dieter Hauschild (2001-2004) now worked as conductors in Halle.
[1] The second Kapellmeister at the Halle Opera House, Arthur Bohnhardt, now seized the opportunity and formed a string orchestra in April 1946, which gave its first concert on Good Friday in the St. Laurentius Church [de].
[1] Bohnhardt then performed with his orchestra under various names, reaching a wider audience for the first time in July 1946 in the courtyard of the Moritzburg as the Halliches Sinfonie-Orchester.
[1] In September 1946, at a meeting of the Saxon Provincial Administration of the Arts and Literature Department and the municipal People's Education Office, the Good Friday for the orchestra was decided.
[1] After Bohnhardt's resignation in February 1949, Kapellmeister Heinz Hofmann initially took over the direction of the orchestra on a provisional basis.
[4] Since all[5] musicians had left the orchestra, the now vacant positions were partly filled by an additional staff from Dresden and the Loh-Orchester Sondershausen.
[10] After the founding of a third orchestra in Halle, which was supported by the trade union and tended to cultivate light entertainment music, the Landes-Volksorchester Sachsen-Anhalt was able to develop into the Kulturorchester [de] in the 1950s.
[9] Well-known artists such as Eva Barth, Werner Heutling and Hugo Steurer made guest appearances in Halle.
[9] After the dissolution of the East-German Länder, the orchestra was placed under the Rat des Bezirkes [de] Halle.
[8] In addition to its relationship with the Musikhochschule, the orchestra maintained intensive contact with the Evangelische Hochschule für Kirchenmusik Halle.
[9] The 1953/54 season also saw the affiliation of the Robert-Franz-Singakademie and the rise of the Landes-Sinfnieorchester to Staatliches Sinfonieorchester, so that there would now be three of its kind in the GDR: Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach, Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle in Schwerin and Halle.
[9] The next season featured equally important soloists Brünnhild Friedland, Hélène Boschi, Hugo Steurer, Ingeborg Robiller-Roloff, Dieter Zechlin, Helga Hussels, Egon Morbitzer, Vittorio Brero, Karl Suske and Mirko Dorner.
[11] The 1956/57 season produced the new concert series "Musica viva", which included performances by foreign composers such as Darius Milhaud, Kurt Atterberg, Dmitry Kabalevsky and Grażyna Bacewicz.
[12] Well-known guest conductors such as Otto Ebel von Sosen, Alois Klíma and Heinz Bongartz came to Halle for special concerts.
[5] After Förster's departure, Gerhart Wiesenhütter [de] and Karl-Ernst Sasse were considered promising candidates to succeed him.
[5] However, he was not very successful in his programme planning among others the positively received chamber music rights with Rudi Zücker and Horst Uhlig were not continued.
[5] Koch placed an emphasis on Neue Musik from the GDR and the Soviet Union, in addition to musical modernism.
[19] The symphony concerts of the Philharmonic State Orchestra were initially held in the Steintor-Varieté [de] until the restoration was finished.
[20] In 1998, Beissel inaugurated the Great Hall of the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Halle in the Nördliche Innenstadt [de], the orchestra's first permanent venue.
[22] During Beissel's tenure as General Music Director, the orchestra gave guest performances in Argentina, Spain and Austria, among others.
[25] Hauschild, however, then left the orchestra prematurely because of the threatened merger with the Orchester des Opernhauses Halle.
