With a series of concerts in Bregenz, the Wiener Konzerthaus and Grafenegg, Philippe Jordan's tenure as Music Director of the Wiener Symphoniker comes to an end this August. Now it is time to say goodbye - and to look back on six formative and fruitful years together.

The bare figures of the concert statistics give a first impression of the productivity and intensity of the ending aegis. Jordan has conducted the Wiener Symphoniker over 160 times in the past six seasons, eight tours have taken the orchestra under his direction to 14 different countries and no fewer than five CD productions in the Symphoniker’s own label document the joint artistic path.

In the context of the popular concert format Wienersymphoniker@7 and the Kammermusik-Fest, Philippe Jordan could also be experienced six times as a pianist and chamber musician, playing together with orchestra members and with such illustrious international stars as Khatia Buniatishvili, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Renaud Capuçon and Julia Fischer.

The cooperation with top-class soloists gained a new level of systematic constancy during his tenure with annually changing artists in residence. Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Julia Fischer, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and Yefim Bronfman became continuous artistic partners and companions of the orchestra.

With works by more than 40 composers, Jordan presented the full range of the repertoire from Bach's masses, the central milestones of the classical-romantic repertoire and modernity, and world premieres of new works - unforgettable, for example, the recording of Wolfgang Rhim's violin concerto “Poem of the painter” together with the dedicatee Renaud Capuçon,  which was awarded the Echo Klassik 2017. At the same time, Jordan's light-footedness in dealing with the tonal languages from four centuries was never exposed to the risk of arbitrariness - also because the versatility contrasted with the intensive and systematic examination of key composers. Here, too, Jordan's approach, which is well-planned for the long term, becomes clear: Even the programs of his first seasons aimed at systematically preparing for the Beethoven year 2020.

In their first season, the Symphoniker and Jordan turned to the sound world between Viennese classic and romantic. The intensive examination of Franz Schubert's artistic legacy in 2014-15 culminated, among other things, in a cyclical performance of his symphonies and the recording of a highly acclaimed CD production. In the following two seasons, the orchestra and Music Director set off on their Road to Beethoven, a project with which they meticulously prepared for the Beethoven year 2020 from 2015 on. In 2015–16, the focus was on the piano concertos with the exceptional French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, each of them combined with a great orchestral work of Béla Bartók.

In the following season, Jordan and the Wiener Symphoniker finally set about re-measuring what are probably the most monumental milestones in symphonic literature: Beethoven's nine symphonies. The 2016–17 concert series at the Wiener Musikverein, which was celebrated by critics and audiences alike, was not just the orchestra's first Beethoven cycle in decades - the complete recording that appeared successively in the following years was also to be the first in the history of the orchestra and was awarded the prestigious Trophée Radio Classique.

In 2017–18, the focus on Bruckner, whose symphonies were juxtaposed with works by Scelsi, Kurtág and Ligeti, represented a counterpoint to the ongoing engagement with Beethoven. One year later, Berlioz finally came into focus: Philippe Jordan and the Wiener Symphoniker performed almost all of his symphonic works in an unprecedented action in the 2018–19 season, followed by an acclaimed CD recording of Lélio and the Symphonie Fantastique.

The beginning of the last season of Jordan’s aegis was all about Johannes Brahms, whose four symphonies resounded in Bregenz and in the Wiener Musikverein. This is also where the recently released complete recording was made, with which Philippe Jordan and the Wiener Symphoniker present the culmination of their joint CD productions. Already at the concerts in autumn 2019, the critics were enthusiastic: “Brahms in the Musikverein (...) shows what Jordan has achieved in five years” could be read in the press, and the courier struck a similar note: “Philippe Jordan has qualified (...) the Wiener Symphoniker for the top division”.

At the beginning of the Beethoven Year 2020, it was finally time to reap the harvest of the dealing with the great Viennese by choice. During the celebrated reconstruction of the legendary Musical Academy of 1808, the Viennese and Parisian audiences were able to convince themselves again of Jordan's celebrated Beethoven interpretations.

The unprecedented events of spring 2020 finally brought Jordan's final season as chief conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker to an unexpectedly abrupt provisional end. In times of the imperative to distance, the planned farewell concert with Gustav Mahler's Eighth “Symphony of a Thousand”, could no longer be thought of. All the greater the joy when the ban on events was lifted on June 1st after ten long weeks and there was an opportunity to make music together again on the stage of the Wiener Musikverein. Jordan and the Symphoniker served Beethoven's Third Symphony “Eroica” in front of an audience of 100 people.

At the end of August, Philippe Jordan will conduct the Wiener Symphoniker for the last time in his function as Music Director at concerts in Bregenz, at the Grafenegg Festival and in the Wiener Konzerthaus. With a program dedicated to the great symphonic poems by Richard Strauss, orchestra and conductor say goodbye to each other with gratitude and a pinch of wistfulness for the six intense, formative and fruitful years spent together.