Wiener Philharmoniker (also known as the Vienna Philharmonic) is an Austrian
symphony orchestra based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, founded on March
28, 1842, by composer and conductor Otto Nicolai alongside August Schmidt and
Alfred Becker. Formed by members of the Vienna Court Opera (now the Vienna State
Opera) orchestra, the ensemble operates as an independent, democratically
self-administered association whose members are selected exclusively from the
opera orchestra following a three-year probationary period. Karl Anton Eckert
conducted the orchestra's first subscri...