The Janowski era
With the opening downbeat of its three-year Wagner cycle series, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra once again reached a whole new level of recognition, establishing itself afresh as a foremost player on the music scene both across Germany and internationally. Over the course of its many years as a first-tier European concert orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Germany’s oldest broadcast ensemble, has definitively established itself while also coming into its own as an outstanding representative of Berlin culture. Marek Janowski, artistic director and chief conductor since 2002, has been a constant in nurturing the refinement and increasing perfection of the orchestra’s signature sound. Janowski’s basic approach, which has had a measurable impact in educating both the orchestra and the public, is manifest in miniature at every concert, with his cyclical programming focused on the works of Schumann, Mozart, Hartmann, Schostakowitsch, Haydn, Bartók, Ravel, Bruckner, Strauss, Beethoven and Wagner. At the same time, Janowski’s approach also serves as a promising indicator of things yet to come in the shared future of the orchestra and its conductor, particularly following the request on the part of the orchestral musicians in 2008 that Janowski’s position as chief conductor be extended to one of lifelong tenure.
Guest conductors
The conductor’s podium of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra – a more attractive ensemble than ever before under Janowski’s direction – regularly features internationally renowned young conductors. Andris Nelsons, Kristjan Järvi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Kazuki Yamada, showcased at the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in past seasons, will be followed in the 2011-2012 season by such conductors as Juraj Valcuha, Vasily Petrenko, David Afkham, Michał Dworzynski and Ludovic Morlot. Guest conductors also play a large part in determining the basic programmatic focus set by the repertoire, such as the current focus on Slavic culture and its relationship to the legacy of Richard Wagner as well as the new light being shed on the works of Gustav Mahler due to the worldwide celebration of his double anniversary years in 2010 and 2011.
Repertoire
The core repertoire of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, which has cultivated a particularly strong focus on new music since its inception, encompasses the symphonic music of all eras, from the pre-classical period to contemporary music. Looking back, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra can boast performances by numerous foremost 20th-century composers who have conducted or performed as soloists with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in the premieres of their very own works, among them Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Sergei Prokofjew, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schönberg, Igor Strawinsky, Wladimir Vogel, Kurt Weill and Alexander Zemlinsky and, more recently, Krzysztof Penderecki, Peter Maxwell Davies, Friedrich Goldmann, Berthold Goldschmidt, Siegfried Matthus, Matthias Pintscher, Peter Ruzicka, Heinz Holliger and Daniel Schnyder.
Festivals and tours
For more than 50 years now, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra has been as much at home on the finest stages across Germany and the world as it has been in Berlin. For the 2011-2012 season, it will be giving guest performances within the framework of its extensive tours to Korea, Taiwan and Japan and returning to the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern music festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Kölner Philharmonie as well as performing for the first time at the renowned Kissinger Sommer.
Official media partners
In addition to its public concerts, the orchestra also makes major broadcast appearances and CD productions in cooperation with its primary sponsor and official partner, Deutschlandradio. Its visionary recording partnership with the PentaTone label in productions of works such as Brahms’ German Requiem and Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass is set to enter its most notable project yet with the orchestra’s comprehensive recording of the Wagner Ring Cycle. Plans are also underway for a studio production of Richard Strauss’ “Three Hymns,” to be sung by Anja Harteros under the direction of Marek Janowski. Following on the heels of the recordings released of Hans Werner Henze’s Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Symphonies on the WERGO label, a June 2012 recording of Henze’s Sixth Symphony is scheduled as the next in a comprehensive collection of Henze’s recorded symphonies. Further projects are also underway in cooperation with such labels as Capriccio and Sony/BMG.
The orchestra and broadcasting
The history of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra can be traced back to October of 1923, when the first musical broadcast hour hit the radio waves in Germany. Its chief conductors (among them Sergiu Celibidache, Eugen Jochum, Hermann Abendroth, Rolf Kleinert, Heinz Rögner and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos) shaped an ensemble that was to accompany Germany in a singular way through the twists and turns of its 20th-century history until 1994, when it joined forces with the Rundfunk-Orchester and -Chöre GmbH Berlin (roc berlin), established that same year. The roc berlin is an organization that encompasses four of the capital’s broadcasting ensembles (the RIAS Chamber Choir, the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin) and is jointly sponsored by Deutschlandradio (as 40% shareholder), the Federal Republic of Germany (35%), the Bundesland of Berlin (20%) and Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting (5%).
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