“Time and again he elicited from the musicians of the Radio Philharmonic moments of unusual and surprising nuance, so that at times one felt one was hearing the all too familiar “Pastoral” as if for the first time. There were well-deserved bravos for Atzmon’s compelling but completely unpretentious conducting.”
NDR Radiophilharmonie

 

AFTER A LONG AND DISTINGUISHED CAREER, THE FINE CONDUCTOR MOSHE ATZMON DECIDED TO RETIRE AT THE AGE OF 85 WHILST IN RETENTION OF HIS FULL FACULTIES. HIS FINAL CONCERTS WERE IN JAPAN DURING DECEMBER 2016 AND THE LAST ONES PERFORMANCES OF BEETHOVEN’S 9TH SYMPHONY WITH THE NAGOYA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA OF WHICH HE IS HONORARY CONDUCTOR.

Moshe Atzmon has conducted in all the important music centres of the world working with many of the great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, the major London Orchestras, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi of Milan receiving re-invitations from orchestras in Europe, Japan and South America. He has been Chief Conductor of the NDR Sinfonieorchester in Hamburg, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra (he is now their Conductor Laureate), Basel Orchestra Society, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the KBS Philharmonic Orchestra in Seoul and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre de Bretagne as well as the Jyväskylä Sinfonia in Finland. A spectacular review in The Netherlands reads “…in this performance [of Sibelius’s 1st symphony] the audience was captivated from start to finish, gripped, with no sound from them in the quieter moments throughout, and left overwhelmed by what it had experienced.”

Moshe Atzmon is well-known both in the opera house and on the concert platform. He was General Music Director of Dortmund Opera for several years and has conducted at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Basel State Opera, Istanbul Opera and Royal Danish Opera amongst others. Most recently he has conducted Nabucco, Carmen and Tosca during three seasons for Hungarian National Opera.

Moshe Atzmon was born in Hungary where he began his musical education in Budapest. When he was thirteen his family emigrated to Israel where he continued at the Academies of Music in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem studying the cello, horn, conducting and composition. After graduating he became a professional horn player before continuing his conducting studies in 1960 at London’s Guildhall School of Music and working with the late Antal Dorati. Three years later he took second prize at the Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York followed by the Leonard Bernstein Prize at Tanglewood and in 1964 he was awarded First Prize at the Liverpool International Conducting Competition.

Moshe Atzmon has made many recordings, principally for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI and BIS.