Philippe Jordan · Music Director
Music Director of the Opéra national de Paris since 2009 and the Principal Conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker since the 2014/15 Season, Philippe Jordan is counted among the best established and most sought-after conductors of his generation. He has been appointed Music Director of the Wiener Staatsoper beginning in 2020.
Maestro Jordan’s career on the podium began as Kapellmeister at Germany’s Stadttheater Ulm and at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. From 2001 to 2004 he was Principal Conductor of Austria’s Oper Graz and the Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester. During that period, Jordan also debuted at many of the most important international opera houses and festivals, including the Metropolitan and Houston Grand Operas, the festivals of Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence and Glyndebourne, as well as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. From 2006 to 2010, Jordan served as Principal Guest Conductor of Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and in summer 2012 he made his debut at the Bayreuther Festspiele leading a production of Parsifal. He returned to New York in Spring 2019 to conduct The Ring of the Nibelungen at the Metropolitan Opera.
As a symphonic conductor, Maestro Jordan has worked with such renowned European orchestras as the Berliner, Münchner and Wiener Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Wiener Symphoniker, the RSO Wien, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester, the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg and the Salzburger Mozarteumorchester. In North America, he has conducted the symphony orchestras of Seattle, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington, Minnesota, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. In the current season he will work again with the New York Philharmonic as well as the LA Philharmonic.
In his work with the Wiener Symphoniker, Maestro Jordan has developed complete cycles of Beethoven’s symphonies and piano concerti (combined with the large orchestral works of Béla Bartók) and the symphonies of Schubert. Additionally, he has begun work on a cycle of the great masses and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to recordings, Maestro Jordan’s Beethoven Symphony Cycle has been performed in both the Musikverein Wien (2016/17) and the Wiener Konzerthaus (2017/18). Additionally, in the 2017/18 Season, he led a three-part Bruckner project, also at the Musikverein, in which the composer’s 7th, 8th, and 9th symphonies were presented in contrasting dialogue with classic works of the modern period by Kurtág, Ligeti, and Scelsi. In the 2018/19 Season, Maestro Jordan’s work with the Wiener Symphoniker focused on the works of Hector Berlioz, including performances of not only the composer’s best-known works such as Le Damnation de Faust and Symphonie fantastique, but also rarely performed works such as the opulently instrumented Requiem, the lyrical melodrama Lélio ou Le retour à la vie und the song cycle Les Nuits d’été. In the centre of his final season as Principal Conductor of the Symphoniker stands the work of Johannes Brahms. In addition to concerts featuring the First Piano Concerto and the Violin Concerto Jordan will also present all four Brahms –symphonies at the Musikverein to open the orchestra's season 2019/20. As part of the celebrations in honour of Beethoven's 250th anniversary Jordan will reconstruct the legendary 1808 Orchesterakademie both in Paris and Vienna. Under the title "Milestones" he will conduct works that transformed and revolutionised musical history: in addition to Stravinsky's "Sacre" and another Bach-programme this series will also include both Mahler's 2nd and 8th symphonies which will be performed towards the end of the season.
At the Opéra national de Paris he has conducted a huge number of revivals and premieres such as Moses und Aron, La Damnation de Faust, Der Rosenkavalier, Samson et Dalila, Lohengrin, Don Carlos (French original version), Benvenuto Cellini, Bérénice and Les Troyens und Don Giovanni. In the 2019/20 season he will conduct Borodin´s Prince Igor and Der Ring des Nibelungen.
In the Summer of 2017 Maestro Jordan conducted a new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Bayreuth, which he repeated 2018 and 2019, and will repeat again in 2020.
Recordings and CD-Releases
Philippe Jordan has also been active as a recording artist releasing recordings such as Carmen (Glyndebourne Festival), Werther (Wiener Staatsoper), Doktor Faust (Opernhaus Zürich), Salomé (Royal Opera Covent Garden), Tannhäuser (Baden-Baden), and Le Nozze di Figaro (Opéra de Paris). His recording of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra national de Paris was awarded the “CHOC de l’année” Prize for Classical Music DVDs. In addition to operatic recordings, Maestro Jordan has recorded extensively for the Naïve label, including the complete Beethoven piano concerti with François-Frédéric Guy at the piano and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony with the orchestra of the Opéra national de Paris, which also received the “CHOC de l’année Classica” award. Additionally, Jordan’s recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was honored with the „CHOC du Monde de la Musique“ Prize. On the Erato label, Maestro Jordan and the orchestra of the Opéra national de Paris have recently released recordings of Verdi’s Requiem and symphonic excerpts from Wagner's Ring and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and La Valse. On DVD he released with the orchestra of the Opéra national de Paris, the complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies 2016 and a cycle of the six Tchaikovsky symphonies in 2019.
His recording work with the Wiener Symphoniker includes discs of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique” (September 2014) and Schubert’s 7th and 8th symphonies (August 2015). A recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Wiener Symphoniker was completed in Autumn 2019. The first part, encompassing the composer’s 1st and 3rd symphonies was released in Fall 2017, the second with 4th and 5th symphonies in Spring 2018. The full 5-disc set is planned to be completed by the end of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in 2020, with further releases in Fall 2018 (symphonies 2 and 7), and Winter 2019 (symphonies 6 and 8). In the summer of 2019 a double CD featuring Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique and its second, less known part Lélio was released to critical acclaim. For the 2019-20 the release of all four Brahms symphonies is planned.
