Méhul: Symphony No. 1 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" Christoph König & Soloists Européens Luxembourg

Principal conductor and music director of the Solistes Européens Luxembourg, German-born Christoph König (also spelled Koenig) has been active with an unusually wide variety of ensembles in Europe, the U.S., and South America. König was born in Dresden, then in East Germany, in 1968. When he was nine, he won a place in the prestigious Dresden Kreuzchor boys' choir. Studying orchestral conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber Conservatory in Dresden from 1988 to 1993, he began to find conducting posts soon after graduating. In the 1990s, he was Kapellmeister at the Wuppertal-Gelsenkirchen Opera House, and in 2001 he became First Kapellmeisters at Opera Bonn and the associated Beethovenhalle Orchestra. König was named chief conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in Sweden in 2003, and in 2008 he moved to Brazil to take the same post at the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Musica. Remaining there until 2014, he became known in European cities as he took the orchestra on tour to Vienna, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Strasbourg, and Luxembourg, where he attracted the attention of the Solistes Européens and was named their music director in 2010. König has made guest conducting appearances with major ensembles in Europe (the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with whom he toured in China), and the U.S. (the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh, Houston, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras). He has also conducted opera at major houses in Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. These varied orchestral associations have often resulted in recordings: In 2003, König recorded Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and he has recorded Beethoven and Sibelius with the Solistes Européens. In 2018, he released with that group a recording of the Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 of the 19th century French composer Louise Farrenc. König lives in Vienna and appeared on a postage stamp issued by the Luxembourg government. ~ James Manheim