DOGMA

The dogma chamber orchestra was founded in 2004 by Mikhail Gurewitsch while concertmaster of the Baden-Württemberg chamber orchestra, “I Sedici.” Under his leadership, young, but also internationally-experienced, musicians come together to combine current interpretations of classical music with modern concert arrangements.

The orchestra sees itself as a homogenous group of musicians sharing the same musical ideas, but also as an ensemble of interacting soloists. Members are encouraged to express their own personalities. The tension between soloistic expression and ensemble spirit is fully exploited. This results in an artistic blossoming. The orchestra’s repertoire spans not only the baroque, classical, and romantic, but also the works of contemporary composers, including dogma’s own compositions or arrangements.

Over the years the orchestra has attracted an ever-expanding network of admirers, and has developed into one of the best young European chamber music ensembles. The orchestra has been booked by some of the major venues, such as Bayreuth Opera House, Munich Nymphenburg Palace, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Schumann Saal Duesseldorf, St. Petersburg Philharmonie, and the Cologne Philharmonie.

Its festival engagements include the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Max Reger Tage, Kloster-konzerte Maulbronn, Vendsyssel Festival Denmark and many more. In addition, in the summer of 2017 the ensemble celebrated the successful debut of its very own biennial festival at the Schumann Saal in Duesseldorf. Special focus this year was the music of Shostakovich, a composer to whom the ensemble leader’s family has had a very special and close relationship.

In addition, the group has toured Brazil (including two Sao Paulo performances), made a mini-tour to the USA, and will be touring Japan in the 2019/20 season.

The ensemble has made five recordings so far: Musik von Tchaikovsky, American Stringbook, The Shostakovich Album, British.Now! and the recording of a live concert of Mozart and Schubert Symphonies at the Konzerthaus Dortmund. The ensemble was awarded the prestigious Echo Klassik prize twice: in 2012 for the American Stringbook, and in 2014 for its Shostakovich album, and now has won the Opus-Klassik prize 2019 for its latest recording, the Mozart and Schubert concert.

Dogma is searching intensively for new ways to bring their music to the audience as has been the case in all periods of music history. Its own unique style is to unveil the intellectual and emotional content of the music from a modern viewpoint and convey it to the audience in a captivating process. The orchestra likes interacting with its audience. Mikhail Gurewitsch moderates the performance, thereby encouraging the concertgoers to appreciate the musical experience as a dialogue, which can continue between musicians and audience following the concert.

The name of the orchestra derives from the manifesto “Dogma 95” which was published by a group of international film directors around Lars von Trier in 1995. Their manifesto was a protest against the increasingly unrealistic nature of cinema, dominated by effect and technical sophistication, and against its dramatic predictability.

More what the critics say:

"Freshness, liveliness und spontaneity."

— France Musique ("Dogma - Live")

ROUND-UP: WDR3 JazzFest in Gütersloh (Germany) – “Lively polyrhythms, interesting compositional and narrative twists, and a performance which had been thoroughly prepared but seemed very fresh."

— London JazzNews,

“The string orchestra version emphasizes the abyss, the outbursts, the extremes of this extraordinary music. The dogma chamber orchestra, founded in 2004 by Mikhail Gurewitsch, does all honor to its name. For after all it was named after "Dogma 95" , the circle of filmmakers around Lars von Trier: It is concerned with the unvarnished, the direct, the truthful - and against commercialism and mere effect.”

— FIDELITY HiFi & Music

“It’s rare enough to hear Shostakovich’s Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 34 on disc (much less in recital). Much rarer still, but no less interesting, is it to hear the work – not to be mistaken for the increasingly popular 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 – set for string orchestra. The Dogma Chamber Orchestra took on the task and recorded Grigory Kochmar’s arrangement to marvelous, delightfully unsettling effect: a new angle on an unfamiliar work gives us what amounts to brand-new Shostakovich.”

— Listen Magazine/ArkivMusic

"…Gripping performances mirroring Shostakovich’s inner turmoil, his grief and his sarcastic passion."

— pizzicato

"Here is an SACD devoted to the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovitch which, because the interpretation and instrumental brio are exemplary, will not leave one indifferent.... Directed by its first violin, Mikhail Gurewitsch, the Dogma chamber ensemble offers new depth to the scores played, where the delicacy of the playing often clothes itself in inexpressible grace."

— Opus (France)

"The Chamber orchestra version of the 24 Piano Preludes are definitely a hit, brilliantly played by these extremely virtuoso musicians."

— pizzicato

"The extra weight, layers and dimension with which a string orchestra augments a string quartet are invaluable, especially when they enhance a masterpiece of this magnitude. The 16 members of the Dogma Chamber Orchestra bring a wealth of expressive insights to this painfully evocative musical narrative."

— Classical Music Sentinel

"…The duplication of the instrumental voices in this dogma chamber orchestra interpretation gives the work more mellowness and sensuous beauty."

— WDR3

"I can only congratulate the ensemble; it plays so delicately and masterfully.”

— SWR2

"The energy of the linear tones—where most play with muscle, here is heart and mind—excellent."

— Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung

"A real journey of discovery, thrilling from the first to last note!"

— crescendo

"The ECHO award winning dogma chamber orchestra underlines with this recording, once more, its top position."

— CLASS:aktuell

“Delicate Elegance: Their interpretation in the outer movements recalls the young Mozart [Symphony F major K.138] in its freshness and vitality, while the motifs are vividly contrasted between the different instrumental groups. The middle movement, in which vibrato is selectively used, is soaring and ethereal. Peter Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C-Major op. 48 takes its romantic spirit, after all, from the tradition of classical clarity."

— Süddeutsche Zeitung

"His performance is clean, rhythmical, faithful to the score and very well disciplined. It's exciting in the last movement and charming, without ever being arch, in the 'Waltz.’ The players are a responsive group and produce a convincing and sensitively shaped account of the 'Elegy.' In short, this is very fine, with fresh, spirited playing that is likely to provide plenty of enjoyment."

— International Record Review

"Technically and musically, the playing of this young German-based ensemble is exceptional, bringing soulful loveliness to one beautiful phrase after another in a way that, while searching deep into the music, always sounds fresh and spontaneous."

— Classic FM Magazine

"These finely controlled multi-channel recordings have markedly different instrumental line-ups: Souvenir is produced in the usual sextet formation. The whole stage is set into motion by motifs composed to move through the particular instrumental positioning. The musicians play the Serenade with the 1st and 2nd violins placed opposite each other This allows significantly greater lucidity, but also has an astonishingly taut symphonic impact. The result: with do.gma#1 the young chamber orchestra achieves a successful debut, surprising us with its sprit, a fascinating freshness and an undogmatic lightness. Keep up the good work!"

— Class Actuell

“…Played with youthful verve, but also a differentiated, sumptuous sound, and with well-balanced refinement. Good string quartets spring up like mushrooms, but chamber orchestras of such quality are rare."

—SWR2,

“….Really surprises with a superlative lightness of touch, a fresh Tchaikowsky.”

— HR2-Kultur

“…To declutter music such as the String Serenade that is often played, almost too often played; to chip away the sugar icing that blanketed it for decades—that's the purpose of this chamber orchestra. And it has been successful."

— T Kultur

"(The musicians) approach both pieces with tremendous enthusiasm, and with a lightness of touch, which greatly benefits Tchaikovsky’s music: they adorn, they breathe and they dance - and they really do express ... the spirit of a new generation of musicians."

— WDR

"Classical music played with enthusiasm, freshness and lightness of touch. The dogma chamber orchestra, from the first bar gets to the core of the music. This is complete Tchaikovsky...the listener is drawn in by the sincerity and lightness of touch. ... a great concert by a young orchestra that we will be hearing much of."

— Weser Kurier

"Energy instead of Kitsch – Tchaikovsky now sounds very youthful… The ensemble impresses with its supreme precision... To experience the seamless harmonic relationship between the highs of the violins and the lows of the violas and cellos was a breathtaking pleasure."

— Nassauische Neue Presse

"The orchestra is able to demonstrate its special abilities with feeling, modulated dynamic, powerful tonality and youthful freshness."

— Rieser Nachrichten / Augsburger ]\— Allgemeine

"A full sound and dramatic playing.…The uniformity of the passages played in unison is awesome."

— Suedwest Presse

"Refreshingly different… The dogma chamber orchestra thrills with Schubert and Tchaikovsky in the Margravial Opera House."

— NBK

"Over-polished aesthetic and formality are dispensed with.....concerts and recordings that hardly give the listener the chance to sit back ...here the public is involved as a partner in a dialogue."

— Kulturjournal Foyer