Thomas SANDERLING
General Consultant
Music Director Laureate- Osaka Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Sanderling was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra from Summer 2017 until March 2022.
Born in St. Petersburg, where his father - the eminent conductor Kurt Sanderling - was permanent conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Thomas Sanderling was appointed Music Director of the Halle Opera at the age of 24. By his mid-twenties, Sanderling was already conducting the likes of the Dresden Staatskapelle and Leipzig Gewandhaus, and at the Komische Oper Berlin. His premiere recording of Shostakovich’s Michelangelo Suite directly led to his becoming assistant to both Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. In the early 1980s, Sanderling became permanent guest conductor of the Deutsche Staatsoper, and made his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper conducting Die Zauberflöte (“A Mozart full of mysteries...Astonishing!”, Wiener Kurier) and Le Nozze di Figaro. He has won many prizes – including an OPUS KLASSIK Award for his recording of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Thomas Sanderling has conducted many of the world’s finest orchestras and opera companies, including the Baltimore Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, The Hallé, NDR Elphilharmonie, Oslo Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, WDR Symphony, London Philharmonic and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal; the Deutsche Oper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Hamburg State Opera, Mariinsky Theatre, Finnish National Opera and Teatro La Fenice.
Photograph credit - Andrea Felvegi
A stunning Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition... And the encore was simply the icing on the evening's glorious cake
*****Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post
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Two great 20th-century works are united on a powerful new disc from Accentus... played by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted with cogent high energy by Thomas Sanderling
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian
Photograph credit - Boguslaw Beszlej
Thomas Sanderling enjoyed a close relationship with Dmitri Shostakovich for many years, and still works in close collaboration with Irina Shostakovich. He originally met the composer whilst making his Moscow debut, conducting the State Orchestra of Russia at the invitation of Evgeny Svetlanov. Greatly impressed, Shostakovich entrusted Sanderling with the translation into German of the texts of his 13th and 14th Symphonies, and he conducted the German premieres of both works. Sanderling also recently conducted the world premiere recordings of the Michelangelo Suite with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for Orfeo, and the orchestral version of the Six Romances on Verses by British Poets with the Helsinki Philharmonic and Gerald Finley for Ondine. He has recorded for many other labels including DGG, Sony Classical, BIS and Chandos.
Highlights of recent seasons included a special concert with the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin on 6 October 2021 to mark the 80th Anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre; an acclaimed recording of Stravinsky and Sibelius for Accentus with the Philharmonia Orchestra; a return to the Osaka Symphony (as Lifetime Music Director Emeritus); and engagements with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Berlin Konzerthausorchester, the Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Lübecker Philharmoniker.
Spring 2023 saw Thomas Sanderling conduct acclaimed Austrian premiere performances of Mieczysław Weinberg's The Idiot at the Theater an der Wien with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and upcoming highlights in 2023/24 include concerts with the Minas Gerais Philharmonic, a return to the George Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest, a European tour with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and concerts in Paris and Budapest with the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France and the MÁV Symphony Orchestra.
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more REVIEWS
“Sanderling inspired a sustained interpretation and conducted the comprehensive work with precise assurance and detailed awareness of tension throughout the gigantic soundscapes. Great acclaim”
Kronen Zeitung (Vienna)
“The Philharmonia Orchestra on top form under the enriching authority of the German conductor Thomas Sanderling”
Jean-Luc Caron, ResMusica
“A folksy swagger to the playing... Sanderling's stroll around Mussorgsky's artworks had a lovely coherence to it”
****The Herald (Scotland)
media CLIPS
Shostakovich 11 with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Short film of Challenge Records LSO/Roth sessions
Shostakovich 13 with Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin at Babyn Yar
Short film of Ondine Helsinki Philharmonic/Finley sessions