Marek Janowski
first came to the Dresden Philharmonic as principal conductor from 2001 to 2003, during which time he already impressed with unusual and challenging programs. With the 2019/2020 concert season, he returned to the Dresden Philharmonic as principal conductor and artistic director.

Born in Warsaw in 1939, raised and educated in Germany, Marek Janowski looks back on an extensive and successful career both as an opera conductor and as artistic director of major concert orchestras. After years as assistant conductor and conductor in Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Hamburg, his artistic path led him to Freiburg i. Br. and Dortmund as GMD. Between the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, between Chicago, San Francisco, Hamburg, Vienna, Berlin and Paris, there is no opera house of world renown at which he has not been a regular guest since the late 1970s.

In concert, on which he has concentrated since the late 1990s, he continues the great German conducting tradition. From 2002 to 2016, he was principal conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB). Prior to that, and partly in parallel, he served as chief conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2005-2012), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (2000-2005), and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (1984-2000), among others, which he developed into France's top orchestra. He was also chief conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne for several years (1986-1990).

Marek Janowski is known worldwide as an outstanding conductor of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner and Strauss, but also as an expert in the French repertoire. For more than 35 years, more than 50 recordings, most of which have won international awards - including several complete opera recordings and complete symphonic cycles - have contributed to making Marek Janowski's special abilities as a conductor known internationally.

A special focus for him is Richard Wagner's ten operas and music dramas, which he realized in concert with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Rundfunkchor Berlin and a phalanx of international soloists between 2010 and 2013 in the Berlin Philharmonie. All concerts were released on SACD by Pentatone in cooperation with Deutschlandradio. Marek Janowski also returned to an opera house once again for Wagner, conducting the "Ring" at the Bayreuth Festival in 2016 and 2017. He had already recorded this cycle for the disc with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden from 1980 to 1983. For the years 2014 to 2017, he was invited by the NHK Symphony (the most important orchestra in Japan) to conduct Wagner's tetralogy in concert in Tokyo.

Under his direction, several recordings have already been made with the Dresden Philharmonic, such as the one-act operas "Cavalleria rusticana" and "Il Tabarro" by Mascagni and Puccini, as well as Beethoven's "Fidelio", also recorded by the Pentatone label.

The Dresden Philharmonic
can look back on 150 years of history as the orchestra of Saxony’s capital Dresden. When the so-called “Gewerbehaussaal” opened on 29 November 1870, the citizens of the city were given the opportunity to organise major orchestra concerts. Philharmonic concerts were held regularly starting in 1885; the orchestra adopted its present name in 1923. In its first decades, composers such as Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák and Strauss conducted the Dresdner Philharmonie with their own works. The first desks were presided over by outstanding concertmasters such as Stefan Frenkel, Simon Goldberg and the cellists Stefan Auber and Enrico Mainardi. From 1934, Carl Schuricht and Paul van Kempen led the orchestra; van Kempen in particular guided the Dresden Philharmonic to top achievements. All of Bruckner’s symphonies were first performed in their original versions, which earned the orchestra the reputation of a “Bruckner orchestra” and brought renowned guest conductors such as Hermann Abendroth, Eduard van Beinum, Fritz Busch, Eugen Jochum, Joseph Keilbert, Erich Kleiber, Hans Knappertsbusch and Franz Konwitschny to the rostrum.

After 1945 and into the 1990s, Heinz Bongartz, Horst Förster, Kurt Masur (from 1994 also honorary conductor), Günther Herbig, Herbert Kegel, Jörg-Peter Weigle and Michel Plasson were the principal conductors. In recent years, conductors such as Marek Janowski, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Michael Sanderling have shaped the orchestra. Starting in the 2019-20 season, Marek Janowski will rejoin the Dresden Philharmonic as principal conductor and artistic director.

Its home is the highly modern concert hall inaugurated in April 2017 in the Kulturpalast building in the heart of the historic old town. In romantic repertoire, the orchestra has preserved its very own “Dresden sound”. Furthermore, it is characterised by a flexibility in sound and style for the music of the Baroque and First Viennese School, as well as for modern works.

World premieres continue to the present to play an important part in the orchestra’s programmes. Guest performances in major concert halls around the world demonstrate the high esteem enjoyed by the Dresden Philharmonic in the world of classical music. High-calibre education and family formats round out the offering for young people; the youngest concertgoers are brought into contact with classical music by attending rehearsals and school concerts. The orchestra supports young musical talent in the Kurt Masur Academy.

The Philharmonic’s discography, which has been growing since 1937, also testifies to their broad spectrum. A new climax was reached with the CD cycle conducted by Michael Sanderling dedicated to the complete symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich and Ludwig van Beethoven (Sony Classical).