The Blüthner Orchestra was a symphony orchestra based in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Germany. Founded in 1908 and sponsored by the Blüthner

Blüthner

Blüthner, formally Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik GmbH, is a piano-manufacturing company founded by Julius Blüthner in 1853 in Leipzig Germany.- History :...

 piano company, it functioned until the 1920s.

The orchestra specialised in engaging young players. Its first leader (concertmaster) was the 21-year-old Louis Persinger

Louis Persinger

Louis Persinger was an American violinist and pianist.Louis Persinger trained at the Leipzig Conservatory, before finishing with Eugène Ysaÿe in Brussels. He became leader of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra and the Royal Opera Orchestra in Brussels. In 1915 he was appointed leader and assistant...

, afterwards one of Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

's teachers, and some years later the future conductor Eugene Ormandy

Eugene Ormandy

Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...

 (then known as Jenö Blau) held the same post at the age of 18. . Another conductor, the contemporary-music specialist Hermann Scherchen

Hermann Scherchen

Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...

, played among the violas of the orchestra while still in his teens. The orchestra's conductors included at various times Max von Schillings

Max von Schillings

Max von Schillings was a German conductor, composer and theatre director. He was chief conductor at the Berlin State Opera from 1919 to 1925....

, Siegmund von Hausegger

Siegmund von Hausegger

Siegmund von Hausegger was an Austrian composer and conductor.-Early life:Siegmund was born in Graz, the son of Friedrich von Hausegger , a lawyer and writer on music...

 and Selmar Meyrowitz. In 1913 the orchestra gave the first performance of Dmitry Bortniansky's first piano concerto, with Hugo van Dalen as soloist.

In the same year the orchestra was engaged by the Anker

Anker

Anker is a given name of Danish and Norwegian origin, sometimes used as a surname. Anker may also refer to a place name.-Given name:*Ancher Nelsen , American politician*Anker Boye , Danish politician...

 record company for the first-ever recording of a substantial extract from Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

's Ring des Nibelungen, namely about three-quarters of the first act of Die Walküre

Die Walküre

Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...

. The conductor was Edmund von Strauss, the orchestra's business manager, and the principals were Jacques Decker (Siegmund) and Erna Denera (Sieglinde).