Whether overtures by Richard Wagner, the 6th symphony by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, operettas and operas, waltzes or polkas - the concerts of the “Staatsbad Philharmonie Kissingen” have something for every music lover!

 

Living tradition since 1836.

 

There has been spa music in Bad Kissingen since 1836. At that time, 15 important soloists worked as a salon orchestra and entertained the royal spa guests for one season. With great success: afterwards, ensembles were regularly engaged for the summer months. They were made up of members of the Würzburg Theater, the Meininger Hofkapelle and later the Munich Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony. So there has been a spa orchestra since then. In order to better illustrate the high musical quality of the orchestra, the spa orchestra was further developed and, in addition to a modern appearance, was given the name “Staatsbad Philharmonie Kissingen”.

 

The “Staatsbad Philharmonie Kissingen” keeps up the tradition of the otherwise dying genre of the large Berlin salon orchestra line-up and is playing again in its founding formation. Rossini, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Glazunov and Yehudi Menuhin enjoyed regularly concerts of that orchestra. A particular advantage: In the period from 1880 to 1950, a large number of works throughout Germany were rewritten for the salon orchestra and others were newly composed by composers. Since no orchestra plays in this formation anymore, guests at the concerts of the  “Staatsbad Philharmonie Kissingen” can hear numerous forgotten works that are not played anywhere else! The main focus of the repertoire is on composers relevant for the period from 1880 to 1950 such as Paul Lincke, Joe Rixner, Hans Zander, Helmut Ritter, Willi Richards, Hand Bund and the Kissinger composer Cyrill Kistler.

​

The entire orchestra of the Wiener Concertverein, which achieved international fame under its current name Wiener Symphoniker, took over the spa music in Bad Kissingen from 1906 to 1918 in the summer months. In addition to the lead conductor Martin Spörr, Josef Roubicek, Adolf Grohmann and Ernst Netsch also conducted. In weekly symphony concerts, Viennese composers, above all Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler, took center stage. Famous guest conductors such as Ferdinand Löwe, Felix Mottl and Max von Schillings came, as well as famous soloists such as Ferruccio Busoni, Bronislaw Huberman and Ernst von Dohnanyi.

 

At the inauguration of new venues, the largest foyer in Europe with a revolving stage (1911), as well as the Regentenbau in today's

Max-Littmann-Saal, one of the most beautiful concert halls in the world (1913), the architecture, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the orchestra with its Concerts in the focus of reporting in the world press.

 

The Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Bad Kissingen - a great time for the Bavarian State Bath and in the orchestra's annals.

 

We are all the more pleased that the Wiener Symphoniker are taking over the patronage for the subscription concerts of the “Staatsbad Philharmonie Kissingen”.