Tonhalle Orchester Zurich © Gaëtan Bally

©Photo: Gaëtan Bally

Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich

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“The Zurich-based band is Switzerland’s most distinguished orchestra.”
(The Times)

Following the celebrations for the 150^th anniversary of the Tonhalle Society Zürich over the past two seasons, which also featured numerous world premières and staged performances, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich began a new chapter of the orchestra’s history as of the 2019/20 season together with Chief Conductor and Music Director Paavo Järvi. David Zinman directed the orchestra until the 2013/14 season and is now its Conductor Laureate; Lionel Bringuier was Chief Conductor until the 2017/18 season. A successful tour of Asia with Paavo Järvi in the autumn of 2018 was followed by live recordings for the first CD, with orchestral works by Olivier Messiaen. Recordings of all the Tchaikovsky symphonies are planned for the 2019/20 season, complementing Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich’s more than 40 CD productions. These include complete recordings of all the Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms and Schubert symphonies, as well as Ravel and anniversary box sets.

Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich Credits Gaëtan Bally — Tonhalle Orchester Zurich © Gaëtan Bally

Consisting of just over 100 musicians from 20 nations, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich performs 50 different programmes at more than 100 concerts every season. These are supplemented by guest appearances in more than 70 cities in 16 countries to date. The orchestra’s principal players can be heard in the TOZ Soloists series. Both at home and on tour, the ensemble performs with renowned soloists such as Janine Jansen, Martin Grubinger, Joshua Bell, Rudolf Buchbinder, Julia Fischer, Gautier Capuçon, Yuja Wang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Lisa Batiashvili and Sabine Meyer.

The orchestra maintains close links with guest conductors such as Franz Welser-Möst, Bernard Haitink, Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Krzysztof Urbański, Jakub Hrůša, Kent Nagano, Giovanni Antonini and Jan Willem de Vriend.

The orchestra has played at the Tonhalle Maag since the beginning of the 2017/18 season. The 2019/20 season is the last of three during which the ensemble has performed in Zürich’s 5^th District before it moves back to the renovated Tonhalle concert hall on the shores of Lake Zürich.

Music Director Paavo Järvi zur Saison Clip 2021/22 © Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich

Paavo Järvi for 2020/21 season © Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich TOZ

Welcome to Zurich, Paavo Järvi! © Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich TOZ

Paavo Järvi nach der ersten Probe © Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich TOZ

Das Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich auf Asientournee mit Paavo Järvi © Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich TOZ

#TOZontour with Paavo Järvi © Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich TOZ

“This was an effervescent performance, full of verve, and the audience lapped it up. It was noticeable how often the players smiled to each other and with the conductor, surely a sign of great harmony to come under their incoming Chief Conductor.”

(Seen and Heard International, April 2019)

“The performance – and the orchestra’s playing – was, in a word, sensational.”

(Seen and Heard International, October 2018)

“[He] knew he was going to be in charge of a fine orchestra, which will follow his instructions to the letter. As I say, a Golden Age beckons.”

(Seen and Heard International, October 2018)

“… the whole orchestra starred. On the smaller scale, that translated to a pulse by the timpani, which syncopated rhythms rose above (…) Despite the demands of the score, individual players – clarinet and flute to start, oboe and bassoon to follow − were consistently confident and powerful.”

(Bachtrack)

“David Zinman skilfully kept the momentum going as he steered the fabulous Tonhalle Orchestra through this 85-minute work.”

(Susan Nickalls, The Scotsman)

“It’s superbly done… there’s wonderful transparency in the playing, far removed from the thick textures favoured by some interpreters. A thrilling account of Siegfried’s Rhine Journey is the high point.”

(Tim Ashley, The Guardian)

“As he has in Strauss, Mahler and latterly Schubert, Zinman presents here a leanly textured, clear and exciting interpretation of these Wagner highlights. The Ride of the Valkyries and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey knock your socks off, while his Sunrise is richly coloured and deeply touching.”

(Guy Weatherall, Classical Music)

“In short, Zinman has produced one of the best modern accounts I’ve heard. His ear for clean orchestral textures produces a first movement that has just the right sort of lucidity as well as a thrilling pace…Zinman and his orchestra phrase so intelligently – really breathing with the music – and orchestral balance is impeccable as well as clear…”

(International Record Review)

“Zinman brings such a musicianly personality to everything he touches: phrasing and articulation are completely natural, without a trace of the overemphatic leanness of period instrument performance, but equally avoiding the lugubriousness of 20^th century tradition. Together with his immaculately balanced Zurich orchestra, the Tonhalle, he captures the wit and lilt of the Third Symphony, in a way that makes it sound like a young cousin of Haydn’s ultra-civilised London symphonies. The weightier Fourth, subtitled “Tragic”, is treated to an equally fresh performance.”

(Financial Times)

“The Tonhalle and Zinman come up with another winning coupling of Nos 3 and 4… The spry, lucid performances generate just the right kind of atmosphere of classical poise and romantic aspiration.”

(The Daily Telegraph)

“Firm accents, punchy rhythms and muscular playing give this performance of Schubert’s “Unfinished” (here numbered 7 rather than the usual 8) a distinct impetus, clarity of definition and a powerful aura of B minor foreboding, without any loss of melodic geniality in the second movement.“

(The Daily Telegraph)

“These are splendid performances, passionately felt and never losing sight of the architecture. The orchestra under David Zinman is on top form. I like his choice of tempos – alert and dynamic throughout the fast movements, never too slow. The recording, too, is unusually well balanced, lending clarity to the subsidiary lines.”

(Brahms: Symphonies - BBC Music Magazine)