Independent professional orchestra in Vienna 1907‒32, revived after World War Two.

The Tonkünstler Orchestra was established with 83 musicians in 1907 by Oskar Nedbal as a free-standing professional orchestra dedicated to concert performance (as against the Vienna Philharmonic, which was also tied to the Vienna Court Opera (= State Opera). (There was no institutional connection between the orchestra and the Wiener Tonkünstler-Verein (Vienna Musicians' Association), founded in 1885.) It gave its first concert on October 10, 1907 in the Musikverein Building, under the batons of Oskar Nedbal, Hans Pfitzner, and Bernhard Stavenhagen.

The orchestra was conducted by Nedbal until 1919, then by Wilhelm Furtwängler to 1923, then by Rudolf Nilius. In 1913 with the Philharmonic Chorus it gave the first performance of Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder, under the baton of Franz Schreker. In 1933 it was merged with the Vienna Concert Society (Wiener Konzertverein) Orchestra under the latter name.

The name was appropriated under the National Socialists between 1933 and 1944. The orchestra was revived in 1946 and continues to the present day, based in Vienna and Sankt Pölten.

The Tonkünstler-Orchester and Schenker

Schenker's diary does not record his having attended the first performance by the orchestra, but he did attend two weeks later, writing: "The Tonkünstler Orchestra under Stavenhagen garbles Schubert's B minor Symphony." Also, on March 12, 1908: "Rosenthal with the Tonkünstler Orchestra [...] plays the potpouris Piano Concerto in B-flat minor by Tchaikovsky. What superficiality, what a childish way of stretching out the content and of modulating ‒ [...] only naive, utterly naive art, although in terms of invention there is so much that might be called beautiful."

It is unclear in which years Schenker subscribed to the orchestra's series. His diary for October 21, 1912 records: "As the program booklet of the Tonkünstler concerts indicates, Vienna is taking no notice of my account of the Ninth Symphony ," which suggests that he may have subscribed for the 1912/13 season; there is no doubt that he subscribed in 1920/21; and on November 28, 1921, evidently for the 1921/22 season, Heinrich complained that the subscription had undergone an "increase of 100%").

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