was established in 1949. Two internationally reputed personalities, Václav Talich (Principal Conductor, 1949 – 1952) and Ľudovít Rajter (1949 – 1976, and the orchestra’s Artistic Director until 1961), stood at the orchestra’s birth. Other chief conductors who have played an important role in the orchestra’s musical evolution include Tibor Frešo, Ladislav Slovák, Libor Pešek, Vladimir Verbitsky, Bystrík Režucha, Aldo Ceccato, Ondrej Lenárd, Jiří Bělohlávek, Vladimír Válek, Peter Feranec, Emmanuel Villaume, James Judd. Leoš Svárovský, Rastislav Štúr and Petr Altrichter have been Permanent Guest Conductors of the Slovak Philharmonic. In the 2020/2021 season, Daniel Raiskin took up the position of Chief Conductor.
Among the many guest conductors who have worked with the Slovak Philharmonic over the years, international personalities like J. Ferencsik, W. Rowicki, V. Smetáček, K. Ančerl, F. Konwitschny, A. Jansons, V. Neumann, H. Abendroth, A. Pedrotti, Sir E. Goossens, Sir M. Sargent, R. Benzi, K. Masur, Sir Ch. Mackerras, C. Zecchi, S. Baudo, C. Abbado, K. Sanderling, Z. Košler (who, thanks to his longstanding fruitful collaboration with the orchestra, was awarded the honorary title of ‘Chief Conductor in memoriam’ in 1996), R. Muti, K. Richter, K. Kondrashin, L. Segerstam, A. Lombard, S. Celibidache, T. Sanderling, O. Danon, M. Rossi, N. Järvi, K. Kobayashi, E. Svetlanov, M. Jansons, Ch. von Dohnányi, D. Kitayenko, O. Suitner, J. Conlon, V. Gergiev, A. Rahbari, F. Luisi, Sir Y. Menuhin, P. Schreier, V. Fedoseyev, R. Weikert, M. Caridis, P. Steinberg, P. Keuschnig, T. Hanus, J. Hrůša, J. Valčuha, T. Netopil, I. Marin, P. Baleff, G. Pehlivanian, J. Märkl, I. Volkov, W. Marshall, E. G. Jensen, A. Buribayev must be mentioned, as well as composers and performers of own works like J. Martinon, K. Penderecki and A. Khachaturian.
The orchestra has made numerous recordings for radio, television and the music publishers OPUS, Supraphon, Panton, Hungaroton, JVC Victor, RCA, Pacific Music, Naxos and Marco Polo. The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra regularly gives guest performances on leading European stages and festivals, as well as in Cyprus, Turkey, and the USA, and they regularly have concert tours in Japan, South Korea, Oman and United Arab Emirates.
Among the most important events of the upcoming 2022/2023 season are foreign performances in concert halls in Switzerland (Murten) with soloists Hemsing Eldbjørg and Anatol Toth and in Austria (Vienna) with Alexei Volodin and Konstantin Litschitz. At the end of the season, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra together with chief conductors D. Raiskin and L. Svárovský will go on tour in Japan; the soloists will be pianist Olga Scheps and cellist Tatsuki Sasanuma.