What is Residentie Orchestra?
[[Image:Residentieorkest.jpg|450px|thumb|The Residentie Orchestra in [[1914]]. Henri Viotta, their first conductor, in the middle.]] The '''Residentie Orchestra''' ([[Dutch language|Dutch]]: '''Residentie Orkest''') is an [[orchestra]] from [[The Hague]] in the [[Netherlands]]. Outside the Netherlands it is often known as '''The Hague Philharmonic'''. The name “Residentie” (“Residence”) shows that it comes from The Hague, which is where the Dutch [[parliament]] meets. The Hague is the “residence of the Queen’s parliament”, although it is not the capital city of the Netherlands. The orchestra are internationally famous. ==History of the Orchestra== The orchestra started to form in [[1903]] when a group of musicians who called themselves the “Residentie Orkest” gave a concert in the Gebouw voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen (Building for Arts and Sciences) in the centre of the Hague. By the end of the following year they had formed to give regular concerts. Their concert on [[20 November]] [[1904]] is taken to be the official beginning of the orchestra. The first conductor of the orchestra was Henri Viotta, who soon made it a very good orchestra. Famous composers came to conduct their own works with the orchestra. These included [[Richard Strauss]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Max Reger]] and [[Maurice Ravel]]. The orchestra was sometimes conducted by the Dutch composer Peter van Anrooy, as well as their guest conductor [[George Szell]]. The orchestra continued to be internationally known, and some very famous conductors came to conduct the orchestra, including [[Arturo Toscanini]], [[Bruno Walter]], [[Leonard Bernstein]] and [[Hans Knappertsbusch]]. . During the years after [[World War II]], from 1949 to 1973, [[Willem van Otterloo]] was the chief conductor. They gave regular concerts in the Hague and in [[Amsterdam]] and made recordings for [[Philips]] Gramophone. Van Otterloo introduced them to many different styles of music. As in its earlier days, the orchestra often played modern music conducted by