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The Musikkollegium Winterthur rounded off its 2018/19 concert season with a six-day Brahms Festival, during which – besides numerous other works by Johannes Brahms – the composer’s four symphonies were performed under Principal Conductor Thomas Zehetmair. Steeped in tradition and boasting a proud history dating back to 1629, the Swiss orchestra thus commemorated the years when Brahms was a frequent visitor to Winterthur and his compositions were released by the Winterthur music publisher Jakob Melchior Rieter-Biedermann. Eldest son of the successful Winterthur machinery manufacturer Heinrich Rieter, Rieter-Biedermann opened his publishing house in 1849 and the first two compositions appeared in 1856: Theodor Kirchner’s Albumblätter op. 9 and Hector Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été. Between 1858 and 1873, Brahms had a total of 22 compositions published by Rieter-Biedermann in Winterthur. These include such major works as the first Piano Concerto, the song cycle entitled Die schöne Magelone (The Fair Magelone), the Piano Quintet op. 34, the Paganini Variations op. 35 as well as A German Requiem. During these 15 years, Brahms wrote 165 letters to his publisher. Almost all of them are preserved today in the Musikkollegium Winterthur’s archives – valuable reminders of an important period in Winterthur’s history. Thomas Zehetmair is considered one of the most versatile musicians of our time and has been a fixture on the world’s concert stages and in the recording studio as a conductor and violinist with his own string quar­tet for many years. He has been chief conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur since the 2016/17 season. The orchestra’s recording of Anton Bruckner’s Third Symphony is testimony to this fruitful collaboration. Thomas Zehetmair was previously Music Director of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris and Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota.