Bruckner’s 3rd Symphony – joy and anguish of the world

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2017. He has meanwhile extended his contract until 2027. In parallel, he has been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

After receiving training at the Moscow Conservatory The conductor, pianist and musicologist Vladimir Jurowski emigrated to Germany in 1990. Here he continued his studies at the music conservatories in Dresden and Berlin.  In 1995 he made his international debut at the British Wexford Festival with Rimski-Korsakov’s Mainacht and in the same year at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Nabucco. Subsequently he was, among other things, First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997- 2001) and Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001-2013). In 2003 Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and has been its Principal Conductor since 2007 until 2021. He was also Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra Yevgeny Svetlanov of the Russian Federation until 2021, Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain. He works regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the ensemble unitedberlin.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

He is a recurring guest conductor in in London, Berlin, Dresden, Luzern, Schleswig-Holstein und Grafenegg as well as at the Rostopowitsch-Festival. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, in future he would like to concentrate his activities on that geographical area which is acceptable to him from an ecological point of view.

In 2022/2023 he performed with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in concerts in various cities in Germany, Italy and Antwerp in the Netherlands. The joint CD recordings of Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and soon again Schnittke.

Vladimir Jurowski has been the recipient of numerous awards for his achievements, including various international record prizes. In 2016, he was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Prince Charles at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018, the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards named him Conductor of the Year. In summer 2020, Jurowski was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Romanian President in recognition of his work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival.

The oboist Clara Dent-Bogányi, who grew up in Salzburg, comes from a family of musicians. A number of important international awards decorated the beginning of her artistic career, such as the ARD Competition and the Geneva Competition (CIEM).

Clara Dent-Bogányi performs as a soloist with many renowned orchestras and has already recorded numerous solo works on CD and for radio. Her solo albums “Les Folies D`Espagne” and “La Primadonna” have received critical acclaims.

As a chamber musician she attends invitations to festivals throughout Europe and Asia, as she has already performed during the Berlin festival weeks, the Schloss Elmau Festival, the Bach Festival Weeks in Salzburg and the “International Oboe Festival” in China. Her chamber music partners include artists such as Radek Baborak, Irena Grafenauer, the Kuss Quartet and many more.

Since 1999, Clara Dent-Bogányi has been the solo oboist with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and a welcome guest with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bayerische Staatsoper München and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In 2009, Clara Dent-Bogányi responded to the call of the Nuremberg University of Music and since then has held the professorship of oboe.

Born into a family of musicians, Konstanze von Gutzeit began playing the cello at the age of three. She completed her studies from the age of thirteen with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna, and later with Jens Peter Maintz in Berlin and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt in Weimar.

Since 2012 Konstanze von Gutzeit has held the position of principal cellist of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. She is also internationally active as a soloist and chamber musician. She has performed with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Bochumer Sinfoniker, the Vienna, Munich and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and many others. She has worked with conductors such as Kurt Masur, Vladimir Jurowski, Michael Sanderling, Marek Janowski, Alexander Shelley and Yuri Bashmet. She has appeared at festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Verbier Festival and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in numerous recitals and chamber music concerts.

From the beginning of her musical career, Konstanze von Gutzeit drew attention to herself through numerous international competition successes. She is a prizewinner of the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann 2010 and the International Prague Spring Competition 2012. In 2013 she was awarded 1st prize at the “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” University Competition in Berlin as well as the interdisciplinary “Mendelssohn Prize”. She was also the winner of the Domenico Gabrielli Competition in Berlin, the “Gradus ad Parnassum” Competition in Austria, the “International Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award” in Switzerland and the “International Suggia Prize” in Portugal. At the German Music Competition 2010 she was awarded a scholarship by the German Music Council and included in the national selection “Concerts of Young Artists”.

Konstanze von Gutzeit plays a cello by Gioffredo Cappa from 1677 as well as a new instrument by the Berlin instrument maker Ragnar Hayn from 2017.

Ralf Sochaczewsky received conducting lessons under Christian Grube and Marc Piollet at the Berlin University of the Arts. Later he studied choir conducting under Jörg-Peter Weigle and orchestral conducting under Prof. Reuter at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”.

He directs the Berlin choir Cantus Domus, with which he won a 1st prize at the Berlin Choir Competition in 2017 and a 3rd prize at the 8th Choir Competition of the Deutscher Musikrat in Dortmund . From 1998 to 2012, he conducted the Ensemberlino Vocale choir and successfully participated in choir competitions (1st prize at Chorfest Bremen (Bremen Choir Festival) 2008).

He regularly works with choirs like the Berlin Vocalconsort, the Cappella Amsterdam, the RIAS Kammerchor, and the Berliner Rundfunkchor.

In 2016, he conducted the European premiere of the oratorio “Anthracite Fields” by Julia Wolfe, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015, with the DR Vocalensemble and Bang on a Can-All Stars.

Ralf Sochaczewsky has performed with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the National Radio Orchestra Bucharest, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Minsk Philharmonic. He conducted operas at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Opera National du Rhin, and the Lithuanian National Opera.

Ralf Sochaczewsky collaborated with various pop groups and artists such as Stargaze and André de Ridder, Bon Iver, Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, and Tocotronic. With Cantus Domus, he is a regular guest at festivals such as HaldernPop and KalternPop.

He teaches choral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”. For his great service to the Berlin choir scene, the Chorverband Berlin awarded him the Geschwister Mendelssohn Medal in 2017.