Basel is well known as a city of art. But it is first and foremost a city of music, boasting as many as four different orchestras of international standing. La Cetra specialises in baroque music, and the Basel Sinfonietta in contemporary music. The Basel Chamber Orchestra has a wide-ranging repertoire, while Sinfonieorchester Basel plays opera as well as major symphonies.
Does a small city like Basel really need that many orchestras? Hans-Georg Hofmann smiles nonchalantly. The Basel Symphony Orchestra (BSO) artistic director says that all four ensembles are different in their own way. They do not compete with each other. They even have their own respective home venues. “We make music on behalf of the city of Basel,” he is quick to stress. “We are its orchestra.” They march to a different beat in Basel. It is all about the journey, less about the destination.
Things look even rosier when you consider that the BSO now plays in one of Switzerland’s most magnificent, visitor-friendly and acoustically pleasing concert halls, the Stadtcasino, which underwent a face-lift that was completed by architects Herzog & de Meuron in 2020.
Whisper it, but the BSO itself is also going through a period of renewal, with Markus Poschner (born in 1971) having been elected its new chief conductor in February. The BDO had been on the lookout for a new maestro for quite some time, and has now made an excellent choice. Poschner, who comes from Munich, made a triumphant debut in Bayreuth last summer and has been doing sterling work as the principal conductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana. He also has enjoyed some surprising success on CD.
The BSO is not averse to making its own CD recordings either. It also attracts 60,000 listeners every month on Spotify – proof that rare masterpieces from composers like Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) and Charles Koechlin (1967–1950) have a keen audience. Its CD release containing Benjamin Britten’s “Gloriana” suite and other pieces hit a nerve worldwide in September 2022 following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The “Gloriana” suite comes from the eponymous opera, which Britten wrote for the late monarch’s coronation. Meanwhile, the BSO is perfectly happy to let other orchestras play Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 for the umpteenth time instead.
Comments