Symphony No 4 | Piotr Tchaikovsky | Opera National de Paris: Philippe Jordan
Coming from an artistic Swiss family, Philippe Jordan’s is regarded as one of the most established and important conductors of our time. He has been appointed Music Director of the Wiener Staatsoper beginning in September 2020.
Jordan started his career at the age of 20 as musical director at Theater Ulm. In 1998 he became assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera. From 2001-2004 he was principal conductor of Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra. During this period he also debuted at several of the world’s leading opera houses and festivals, for example the Metropolitan Opera New York, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Bavarian State Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and the festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne and Salzburg. From 2006-2010 Jordan returned to the Berlin State Opera as principal guest conductor. During this time he also appeared regularly in his hometown at the Zurich Opera. In the summer of 2012 Philippe Jordan debuted at the Bayreuth Festival. In Summer 2021, Philippe Jordan will leave his post as musical director of the Opéra national de Paris, which he has helmed since 2009. During his time as musical director in Paris he has conducted numerous premieres and revivals, including Moses und Aaron, La Damnation de Faust, Der Rosenkavalier, Samson et Dalila, Lohengrin, Don Carlos (French original version), Benvenuto Cellini, Bérénice and Les Troyens, Don Giovanni and the new production of Borodin’s Prince Igor. In his last season as musical director at Opéra national de Paris he will conduct Wagner’s “Ring” cycle in a concert version.
As a symphonic conductor, Philippe Jordan has conducted the world’s most famous orchestras. He has also been principal conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker from 2014 to 2020. Together with the orchestra he has developed complete cycles of Schubert’s symphonies and Beethoven’s symphonies and piano concerti, and a cycle of J. S. Bach’s major masses and oratorios. In a three-part Bruckner project at the Wiener Musikverein, he performed the composer’s seventh, eighth and ninth symphonies in a contrast-filled dialogue with modern classics by Kurtág, Ligeti and Scelsi. For the Beethoven anniversary year, he also performed a reconstruction of the legendary Grand Concert of 22 December 1808 with performances in Paris and Vienna.
His recording work with the Paris Opera Orchestra includes discs of Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie, Stravinski’s The Rite of Spring, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s and Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies.
