Witness to History: Christoph Eschenbach, the Orchestra’s Seventh Music Director

By Judith Kurnick

Christoph Eschenbach, The Philadelphia Orchestra’s music director from 2003 to 2008, was known to Philadelphians first as a brilliant pianist. In one of his first appearances after being announced as Wolfgang Sawallisch’s successor, he performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 under Sawallisch’s baton. “Maestro Sawallisch was very important for me when I was a young,” Eschenbach recalls. “When I was in high school, he was music director in a place called Aachen [in Germany]. My parents lived there and took me to all the concerts that he conducted. And I learned through him the symphonic literature, to appreciate it and to listen to it again and again and again. So, he was a very important figure for me.”

When Eschenbach came to lead the Orchestra, he brought an interest in connecting with the community both inside the concert hall and beyond. “I’ve found everywhere in the world this ‘invisible curtain’ between the orchestra and the audience, because maybe people were a bit afraid of classical music,” he explains. “I remember very well that we decided in Philadelphia that this invisible curtain had to be raised and abolished if possible.”

As part of that effort, Eschenbach became the first Orchestra music director to meet with music students and community members in West Philadelphia, at the Paul Robeson House, and in North Philadelphia, at Taller Puertorriqueño, and he participated in numerous other community events. He invited them to performances at the Kimmel Center.

Eschenbach’s musical legacy also includes an innovative pairing of Beethoven symphonies with contemporary works. “Beethoven is so basic for an audience,” he says, “and brings symphonic literature so near to the listener that, at the same time, the listener could be open to new music.” Among the contemporary composers Eschenbach featured was then-Philadelphian Jennifer Higdon, whom he recalls as “a wonderful asset to our work.”

Eschenbach secured the Orchestra’s first recording contract in many years, with Ondine. “The recordings were unusual at that time, but an orchestra like Philadelphia needs and wants the appearance on recordings,” he points out. “I had done some other recordings with Ondine and was very pleased with them, so we did a Mahler cycle, which was also important for this orchestra with their tradition. I have just come from Japan, and the fans came with those Philadelphia recordings for me to sign.”

Early in his tenure, Eschenbach joined Joseph H. Kluger, then the Orchestra’s president, on a visit to Mrs. Walter Annenberg at her home in California. The visit was the culmination of a long relationship that was highlighted in 2002 when the Orchestra hosted and performed at the memorial for her husband at the Academy of Music. “She understood my language in a way, my musical language,” Eschenbach recalls, “and I understood what she thought was needed for the future.” Soon after the visit, she gave a transformational $50 million grant to the Orchestra, which included naming the music director chair. “She was a great friend,” Eschenbach recalls.

Christoph Eschenbach returns to Philadelphia in October 2025 to conduct the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. “They have a beautiful program, these three young cellists playing the Penderecki Triple Concerto, and a Bruckner symphony. I look forward to that, knowing that so many musicians in The Philadelphia Orchestra came from Curtis, studied at Curtis with great masters. And so the Curtis tradition is kept on in the Orchestra, which I love.”