Royal Danish Orchestra

Today, the Royal Danish Orchestra is considered to be the oldest orchestra in the world. Its history begins in 1448, when Det Kongelige Kapel was founded as a royal trumpet corps with twelve trumpets, timpanis and six trombones and an associated choir at Copenhagen’s royal court. Even though it was transferred into state hands in the middle of the 19th century, the Kongelige Kapel’s ties to the royal house were never eradicated. An expression of this solidarity is that guest performances by the Royal Danish Orchestra remain under the patronage of I.K.H. Princess Benedikte of Denmark.

Approximately 440 years after the orchestra’s foundation, a composer was to be found among the second violins who was become the Danish central star among European composers of the turn of the last century: Carl Nielsen. His Fifth Symphony, which was composed in the shadow of World War I and represents a musical manifestation of the struggle between the most elementary natural forces – is considered to be his most sonically most advanced work. In this concert, it is flanked by Arnold Schönberg’s monodrama “Erwartung” (Expectation), an attempt to formulate the moment of highest emotional excitement stretched temporally using musical means.