Editing Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (section)

===1888–1945: Kes and Mengelberg===
Willem Kes served as the orchestra's chief conductor from its 1888 founding to 1895. In 1895, [[Willem Mengelberg]] became chief conductor and remained in this position for fifty years, an unusually long tenure for a music director.<ref>Other long tenures at major orchestras include [[Evgeny Mravinsky]] at the [[Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra]], [[Ernest Ansermet]] at the [[Orchestre de la Suisse Romande]], [[Robert Kajanus]] at the [[Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra]], and [[Eugene Ormandy]] at the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]].</ref>  He is generally regarded as having brought the orchestra to a level of major international significance, with a particular championing of such then-contemporary composers as [[Gustav Mahler]] and [[Richard Strauss]].

[[File:Concertgebouw in Amsterdam Nederland.jpg|thumb|The [[Concertgebouw, Amsterdam|Concertgebouw]]]]

For approximately its first 75 years, the Concertgebouw Orchestra had a complex roster of conductors.  In addition to the chief conductor, the orchestra had conductor positions titled ''"eerste dirigent"'' ("first conductor"), who assisted the chief conductor with programming, and ''"tweede dirigent"'' ("second conductor"), who did "what he was told."<ref>Wisse, Kees, notes to Q-Disc Issue "Eduard Van Beinum: The Radio Recordings", Q-Disc (translated Lodewijk Odé, Ko Kooman and Chris Gordon).</ref>  During Mengelberg's time as chief conductor, several of these first conductors included [[Karl Muck]] (1921–1925), [[Pierre Monteux]] (1924–1934), [[Bruno Walter]] (1934–1939), and [[Eugen Jochum]] (1941–1943), each of them internationally respected and holding positions at other orchestras as well.  Musicians who served as "second conductor" were all Dutch and included the composer [[Cornelis Dopper]], Evert Cornelis and [[Eduard van Beinum]].

In 1945, because of the controversy over his relationship with the Nazi occupying forces during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, Mengelberg was removed as chief conductor and subsequently banned from conducting in The Netherlands.  The ban was initially imposed for the remainder of his life, but after an appeal, reduced to six years, applied retroactively from 1945. Mengelberg died in 1951 just before the end of his sentence, and thus never conducted the orchestra again after 1945.