On two evenings in November 2012 and March 2013, the finale of the large-scale Wagner series will be ushered in at the Philharmonie with four performances of the “Der Ring des Nibelungen". World-renowned Wagnerian singers will be heard in “Das Rheingold”, “Die Walküre"; “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung".
On the weekend of September 27 - 30, the RSB will be holding a Mozart concert weekend at the Kulturforum. Two symphonic concerts will be performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, with a chamber concert at the St. Matthäus Kirche sandwiched between them. Refined works by Mozart will be juxtaposed with later compositions by Maurice Ravel and Max Reger making reference to the exceptional Salzburg composer.
The one hundredth birthday of Polish composer and conductor Witold Lutosławski would have been celebrated in January 2013. In his honor, Janowski and the RSB will be performing his music commemorating Béla Bartók as well as his concerto for orchestra in concert on January 27.
The RSB will be playing 63 concerts in the 2012-13 season, 48 of them in Berlin. Of the concerts, 30 will be conducted by the chief conductor, 17 of these in the German capital and 13 guest performances.
The RSB will be greeting fifteen guest conductors over the course of its new season. Among them, James Gaffigan, Alondra de la Parra and Jean-Christoph Spinosi will be making their debut on the conductor’s podium at the RSB. Also, Mihkel Kütson, Vasily Petrenko and Frank Strobel are among those returning to work with the RSB. There will also be repeat concert appearances by such soloists as Martin Helmchen, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Iveta Apkalna, Johan Reuter, Anna Vinnitskaja, Christian Tetzlaff and Arabella Steinbacher.
Once again, the RSB will be collaborating for a sixth consecutive season with Herbert Feuerstein, subtle and witty moderator to guide audiences through the three “Concerts for the Curious”. He will be rendering homage to composer John Williams in the concerts as well as exploring what people, music and machines have in common and delving into the soul of Mexican music. In June, Feuerstein will be venturing a musical gallop through the world of Westerns at the Landgestüt Redefin.
For its chamber music concerts, the RSB will largely be reverting to time-tested musical spaces, with three concerts to take place in the Felleshus of the Nordic embassies and three in the Neues Museum in cooperation with the Berlin State Museums, the latter of which facilitates special pre-concert tours. The concert at the St. Matthäus Kirche over the Mozart weekend marks a new location for the RSB. The atrium of the German Historical Museum will also once again be serving as concert stage for the eighth annual Schlüterhof concerts around Ascension Day, or about ten days before Pentecost.
The high point of the seven family concerts will be the hands-on concert entitled “Zirkus Klangrausch” (“Circus Rush of Sound”) at the Radialsystem V and the three-part concert performance of “The Flying Dutchman” for children. The latter will not – as indicated in the season brochure – take place at the Atze Musiktheater but rather at the Astrid Lindgren Bühne, a space on the FEZ Berlin campus.
Guest appearances will be leading the orchestra to various festivals including the Choriner Musiksommer, the Septembre Musical de Montreux, the Settimane Musicali di Ascona in Locarno and the Meraner Musikwochen. Plans for spring include a tour through Spain, with performances in Alicante, València and Barcelona, as well as a concert tour to Aschaffenburg, Cologne and Nuremberg. June will bring guest appearances at the Hoppegarten Klassik and the music festival of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Redefin before three concerts in the framework of the Festival international de musique classique de Colmar at the beginning of July.
Eighteen symphony concerts will be broadcast live or time-delayed by Deutschlandradio Kultur. In addition to the live recordings of the Wagner series by PentaTone, studio recordings continue to be one of the main pillars in the activities of the RSB. With Hans Werner Henze’s Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 10, Janowski will be completing the recording project of the entire body of Henze’s symphonic works for WERGO over the course of this season. In addition, Richard Strauss’ Symphonia Domestica will also be recorded on the PentaTone label.
