The Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungary’s oldest functioning orchestra, looks back on a past of more than a century and a half. Its first concert was given on November 20, 1853 under the baton of Ferenc Erkel, who went on to conduct the orchestra’s next sixty concerts. The Philharmonic Society, created after the Viennese model, is an independent body organised from musicians first of the National Theatre and later of the Opera House, directed by the chairman-conductor and the board of directors. Over the course of the century and a half of its existence the Society has been headed by only eight chairmen-conductors: the founder, Ferenc Erkel (1835-1871), followed by his son Sándor Erkel (1875-1900), then István Kerner (1900-1918), Ernő Dohnányi (1918-1943), János Ferencsik (1960–1967), András Kórodi (1967-1986), Erich Bergel (1989–1994) and Rico Saccani has directed the ensemble since 1997.

Over the past 153 years (for close to 90 years as the country’s only professional orchestra), the Philharmonic Orchestra has played a key role in Hungarian concert life, it has brought new Hungarian and foreign compositions to the Hungarian public and has taken Hungarian music to foreign audiences.

The Philharmonic Orchestra has given the first performance of over a hundred works, including such curiosities as the first performance in 1889 of Mahler’s 1st symphony. In keeping with its Rules, the Philharmonic Society devotes special attention to new Hungarian compositions: Ferenc Erkel, Franz Liszt, Károly Goldmark, Ernő Dohnányi, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Leo Weiner, Pál Kadosa and Sándor Szokolay dedicated to or wrote many works for the orchestra, and renowned foreign composers such as Brahms, Dvořák, Mahler, Mascagni, Prokofiev, Ravel, Respighi, Richard Strauss and Stravinsky also frequently conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of their works.

Besides the chairmen-conductors, numerous great conductors have played an important role in the life of the orchestra, among them János Richter, Artur Nikisch, Sergio Failoni and Otto Klemperer, and it would be almost impossible to list the many renowned foreign and Hungarian conductors, soloists and singers who have appeared in concerts given by the oldest Hungarian concert orchestra.