The Slovak State Philharmonic was established in 1968 as the second professional symphony orchestra in Slovakia. It is based in Košice, the capital of Eastern Slovakia, a city with a population of over a quarter of a million. Košice is a seat of the constitutional court, and has four universities, numerous research institutes, theatres, galleries and museums.

The first concert of the newly founded orchestra was given in April 1969 under the then chief conductor Bystrík Režucha. In a short time the orchestra won wide recognition among both professional and general audiences and became one of the leading representatives of Slovak music in Slovakia and abroad.

The nearly 90-strong ensemble includes professional musicians who are graduates of conservatories and famous music academies.

Great success has been achieved with concerts in many European countries and also in leading cities in Asia. The orchestra has performed at international music festivals held in important cultural centres of the world, including Vienna, Salzburg, Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Antwerp, Lisbon, Barcelona, Athens, Rheims, Hong Kong, Luxemburg, and New York. In 1994 the orchestra undertook a month-long tour of the United States, marking the first appearance of the orchestra in America.

In addition to performances for radio and television, there have been more than 130 commercial recordings, many of them for Naxos and Marco Polo. These include rare repertoire, as well as participation in the Marco Polo recordings of the complete works of the younger Johann Strauss and of his brother Josef Strauss.

Since 1991 the orchestra has been the only one in the Slovak republic to hold two international festivals: the Košice Music Spring Festival and the International Organ Festival of Ivan Sokol. The orchestra has also organised the Festival of Contemporary Art since 2003.

www.sfk.sk

Photo: J.L’aš

Alfred Walter was born in Southern Bohemia in 1929 of Austrian parents. He studied at the University of Graz and in 1948 was appointed assistant conductor to the Opera of Ravensburg. At the age of twenty-two he became conductor of the Graz Opera, where he continued until 1965, while serving at Bayreuth as assistant to Hans Knappertsbusch and Karl Böhm. From 1966 until 1969 he was principal conductor of the Durban Symphony Orchestra in South Africa, followed by a period of fifteen years as General Director of Music in Münster. In Vienna he worked as guest conductor at the State Opera and in 1986 was given the title of professor by the Austrian government.

In 1980 he was awarded the Golden Medal of the International Gustav Mahler Society.

For Marco Polo, Alfred Walter recorded more than twenty volumes of the label’s Johann Strauss II Edition, works by von Schillings, von Einem, de Bériot, Reinecke and all the symphonic works of Furtwängler and Spohr.

Alfred Walter passed away in 2005.

The composer Franz von Suppé [Suppè] was born in Split (later to be a part of Yugoslavia). He made his career principally in Vienna as a composer and conductor of operetta.

Operettas
Music from the operettas of Suppé [Suppè] is generally familiar through the overtures to Dichter und Bauer (‘Poet and Peasant’), Die leichte Kavallerie (‘Light Cavalry’), Die schöne Galathée (‘Fair Galatea’) and Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien (‘Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna’).