page_title: Argentine National Symphony Orchestra
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Argentine National Symphony Orchestra / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Maestro Pedro Ignacio Calderón and the Argentine National Symphony Orchestra.
context_page_description: The Argentine National Symphony Orchestra is the state symphony orchestra of Argentina, based in Buenos Aires.
context_section_description: Established as the State Symphony Orchestra, on November 20, 1948, via a bill (Law 35879) signed by President Juan Perón, the orchestra was created that it could "constitute the pitch of universal resonance that our music needs, while providing the most effective means of popular education in the arts." 
  Philharmonic associations had, by then, a long tradition in Argentina, and could be traced in Buenos Aires to the 1822 formation of the Academy of Music and of the Philharmonic Association, the following year. These orchestras struggled under the instability prevailing during the years of the Argentine Confederation, however, and their performances were only sporadic. The German Argentine community helped advance the medium with the founding a number of choral societies between 1852 and 1863, notably Concordia, Germania and the Deutsche Sing-Akademie, and these were complemented by the Buenos Aires Orchestral Society (1876) and the Musical Mutual Society (1894). The latter ultimately formed the first orchestral guild in Argentina, the Orchestra Professionals' Association (APO), in 1919.
  The APO Orchestra was constituted as such in 1922, and prospered with its collaboration with the local Wagner Association, reaching its zenith under the baton of Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet. The great depression later limited its activity sharply, and the orchestra was nearly closed in 1935, highlighting the need for state support. Accordingly, the Buenos Aires Symphony (today the Buenos Aires Philharmonic) was founded in 1947, and in 1948, the State Symphony Orchestra.
  The symphony was created under the aegis of the Secretariat of Culture, and with 92 musicians. Directed initially by Roberto Kinsky, its first concert took place at the renowned Colón Opera House on November 30, 1949; on that evening's program was Ludwig van Beethoven's Consecration of the House Overture, Johannes Brahms's Symphony No.2, and Igor Stravinsky's Scherzo Fantastico. Its repertoire was soon expanded to include works by classical Argentine composers, as well, notably Carlos Guastavino, Carlos López Buchardo and Alberto Williams. Apart from its performances at the Colón Opera House, the symphony would appear often in the Cervantes and Gran Rex theatres, and it increasingly featured 20th-century classical music, notably Ottorino Respighi's Sinfonia Drammatica and Sergei Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky; among the well-known guest musicians during the symphony's early years was violinist Henryk Szeryng. 
  The 1955 overthrow of President Juan Perón led to the State Symphony's reorganization as the Argentine National Symphony. Its first post-Perón conductor, former Colón Opera House Director Juan José Castro, had returned from exile and took the baton to acclaim on November 11, leading the symphony in their performance of La Mer, by Claude Debussy. He worked to widen its appeal by incorporating works by contemporary composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók, and by securing guest conductors such as Willem van Otterloo and Igor Stravinsky, who conducted performances of his own works in 1960. Frustrated by bureaucratic tedium, however, Castro resigned in October. 
  The symphony followed a more traditional line after Víctor Tevah's appointment as chief conductor in 1961, and the contemporary music programs were cancelled. Its itinerary was steeped up, and would include a successful tour of theatres in the Argentine hinterland as well as in Asunción, Paraguay, in 1962. Highlights from this period included guest conductor Paul Klecki's Beethoven concert series and the rise to prominence of pianist Martha Argerich. Ongoing administrative disputes, however, took their toll, and the appointment of Teodoro Fuchs in March 1966 as its first full director since Castro met one the body's chief demands, though budget scarcities led to his resignation later that year.
  The installation of a dictatorship under General Juan Carlos Onganía led to a marked influence of the Catholic Church over the repertoire, and its new director, Juan Carlos Zorz
caption: Maestro Pedro Ignacio Calderón and the symphony
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