Idomeneo has long been one of Sir Simon Rattle's favourite works, and with good reason. Mozart's "dramma per musica" from 1781 completely revitalised the opera seria genre, which had previously been considered outmoded. It opens the series of operas from the composer's mature period. For this commissioned work for the excellent ensemble of the Munich Residenztheater, Mozart had unlimited musical resources at his disposal. It was his most extensive and ambitious stage work to date, featuring demanding arias, differentiated role portraits, a virtuoso orchestral part and several large choral scenes that rank among the most impressive in his oeuvre. - Mozart's first great opera gave Simon Rattle the opportunity to work intensively with the Chorus immediately after taking up his position as the new Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra in the autumn of 2023, further deepening his interest in historical performance practice in Munich. He was supported by an exceptional cast of singers, including British tenor Andrew Staples in the challenging title role, soprano Sabine Devieilhe and mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena as the tender lovers Ilia and Idamante, soprano Elsa Dreisig as the envious and distraught Elettra, and several other soloists and choral soloists. Howard Arman directs the Bavarian Radio Chorus, and Simon Rattle conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The music of the composer, educator and musicologist Liza Lim, who was born in Perth, Australia in 1966, has a collaborative and transcultural focus. Her recent works have explored beauty, anger and noise, ecological issues, and women's spiritual traditions. Liza Lim has received commissions from leading orchestras and institutions worldwide, and her works continue to be performed at prestigious festivals. In 2024, she was named "Composer of the Year" by OPUS KLASSIK. Liza Lim is Professor of Composition and Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. As part of a Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, she will lead a five-year program starting in 2025 to promote the exploration of pressing climate and social issues through music. Her gender equity initiatives through Sydney Con's Composing Women have had a significant impact on commissioning, performance and next-generation leadership in Australian music. A Sutured World for cello and orchestra was commissioned in 2024 by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Cello Biennale Amsterdam, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Casa da Musica Porto. The world premiere recorded on this CD took place in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on October 25, 2024, with Nicolas Altstaedt (cello) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. The orchestral work Mary - Transcendence after Trauma was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in 2020/21. The world premiere of the work at musica viva, originally scheduled for January 28, 2022, had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. In the meantime, the triptych was premiered at the Cologne Philharmonie on April 29, 2022 as part of "Musik der Zeit" with the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cristian Macelaru. This CD features the musica viva recording of May 12, 2023 in Munich's Herkulessaal by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Franck Ollu. The Compass for flute, didgeridoo and large orchestra was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2005/06. The premiere took place at the Sydney Opera House on August 23, 2006 with Rosamund Plummer (flute), William Barton (didgeridoo) and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Briger. This CD features the musica viva recording of the European premiere of the work on January 12, 2007 in Munich's Herkulessaal, with Carin Levine (flute), William Barton (didgeridoo) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Poppen. ? The main work on the CD is Liza Lim's latest composition: a live recording of the world premiere of the cello concerto "A Sutured World" (2024) as part of the musica viva concert series by the Bayerischer Rundfunk from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz - with the famous cellist Nicolas Altstaedt ? The CD also features Liza Lim's compositions "Mary - Transcendence after Trauma" (2020/21) and "The Compass" (2005/06) as live recordings from the musica viva concert series ? Performed and conducted by renowned musicians, all of them experts in contemporary music

JOHANNES BRAHMS - HUNGARIAN DANCES: Before the publication of his Hungarian Dances in their original version for piano four hands, Johannes Brahms was hardly known to the educated middle classes, but the works ensured that the composer became a household name. In their subsequent orchestral versions, the Dances entered the repertoire of prestigious concert orchestras and, after music had become technically reproducible, went on to become even more massively popular. On this CD, BR-KLASSIK presents Brahms' 21 Hungarian Dances in their orchestral versions, in a studio production with the Munich Radio Orchestra under it's former chief conductor Roberto Abbado. Johannes Brahms had become acquainted with Hungarian melodies and scales through the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi, with whom he had undertaken his first concert tour in 1853. His Hungarian Dances for piano four hands were composed from around 1858 onwards; the first ten were published in 1869, the others in 1880. In 1872, Brahms presented a version of the first ten dances for solo piano and in 1873 he orchestrated Dances Nos. 1, 3 and 10, premiering them in Leipzig on February 5, 1874. In his Hungarian Dances, Brahms skilfully combined various Hungarian folk song melodies with his own. The fact that the originals were, and remain, unknown to most listeners is probably what makes the compositions so appealing. His Hungarian Dances were extremely popular right from the start, and are still among his best-known works today. None other than Antonin Dvorak was responsible for the orchestrations of other dances, and popular orchestral versions were also produced by Albert Parlow, Andreas Hallen, Martin Schmeling, Paul Juon and Hans Gal.

GIACOMO PUCCINI "LE VILLI" - Opera ballo in two parts Libretto by Ferdinando Fontana after the story "Les Willis" by Alphonse Karr With his first stage work 'Le Villi', the young Giacomo Puccini instantly struck a chord with his contemporaries. His unerring instinct for deeply moving melodies made him a beacon of hope for a new generation of Italian opera composers. In this 'opera ballo' he masterfully set to music the gruesomely beautiful legend of an unfaithful fiance who is killed by the frenzied dance of the "Willis" - elemental spirits haunting the Black Forest. On October 13, 2024, a few weeks before the centenary of the composer's death on November 29, the Munich Radio Orchestra presented a concert performance of the two-act version of 'Le Villi' at the city's Prinzregententheater. Anita Hartig, Kang Wang and Boris Pinkhasovich performed the solo parts, the Bavarian Radio Chorus sang, and the Munich Radio Orchestra played under it's chief conductor, Ivan Repusic. To mark the 100th anniversary of the great Italian composer's death, BR-KLASSIK is now presenting the live recording of this extraordinary concert on CD. 'Le Villi' was composed in the autumn of 1883. The 25-year-old Puccini, who had just passed his final exams at the Milan Conservatory, took part in a one-act opera competition organised by the publisher Sonzogno, but came away empty-handed. The premiere of the one-act version on May 31, 1884 at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan was nevertheless a sensational success, largely due to the magical sound of the music and the charming melodies. Admittedly, the dramaturgy of this 'opera ballo' was probably too unusual for it to remain in the stage repertoire for very long. It's sensational success quickly faded and could not be revived even after several reworkings (the two-act version created in 1884, and first performed on December 26 of that year at the Teatro Regio in Turin, forms the basis of this recording). Nevertheless, this first work paved the way for all of Puccini's subsequent operatic triumphs. - Celebrating the Puccini year 2024, the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Ivan Repusic presents the composer's first stage work 'Le Villi' in the two-act version from 1884 in Italian - Recording of a recent concert on October 13, 2024 from the Prinzregententheater in Munich - Featuring renowned opera performers Anita Hartig, Kang Wang and Boris Pinkhasovich as well as the Bavarian Radio Chorus

Musica viva KALITZKE AND FERRARI Johannes Kalitzke: Zeitkapsel - Totentanz fur gro�es Orchester ("Time Capsule - Dance of Death for large orchestra") Luc Ferrari: Histoire du Plaisir et de la Desolation ("A Story of Pleasure and Desolation") On November 10, 2023, Johannes Kalitzke presented himself in a double role as conductor and composer ("the one makes you want the other") in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz with the world premiere of his Zeitkapsel - Totentanz for large orchestra ("Time Capsule - Dance of Death for large orchestra"), commissioned by musica viva, as well as with Luc Ferrari's Histoire du Plaisir et de la Desolation, a sonic search for "new sensuality". - Both compositions can be experienced in this CD live recording of the musica viva concert. Johannes Kalitzke (born 1959) is a renowned German conductor and composer. Zeitkapsel - Totentanz for large orchestra was commissioned by Bavarian Radio's musica viva in 2022-2023. The world premiere documented on this CD took place on November 10, 2023 in Munich. Sebastian Schottke was responsible for the sound direction. Representing time capsules in the material sense, the orchestral piece contains musical artifacts from different times and cultures that were rediscovered at a later date and that characterise the sonic context of the piece, above all the first ever acoustic recording in history: a recording of sound waves on wax paper from 1860. Fragments of it can be heard at the end of the piece, like a revelation. Histoire du Plaisir et de la Desolation for orchestra by Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) was written in 1979-1981 as a Radio France commission for the Orchestre National de France, and was premiered in Paris in 1982 by that orchestra under the direction of Michael Luig. Orchestral music is not necessarily what one associates with the name Luc Ferrari. The composer, who died young, became known primarily as an exponent of musique concrete, opening up new creative paths in his use of tape technology. His sonic quest leads from the promising opening movement Harmonie du diable to the double-edged nature of pleasure (Plaisir-Desir), only to fail brilliantly with the "rupture of all logic" in the final Ronde de la desolation. ? Johannes Kalitzke conducts the world premiere of his orchestral piece Zeitkapsel - Totentanz for large orchestra; live recording from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz as part of Bavarian Radio's musica viva concert series ? He also conducts the impressive and rarely performed orchestral piece Histoire du Plaisir et de la Desolation by the French composer and sound artist Luc Ferrari ? The conductor and composer Kalitzke conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Johannes Kalitzke, conductor

Joseph Haydn's The Creation - a musical masterpiece that was celebrated from the very beginning. For Simon Rattle there is no question that Haydn's Creation contains everything. The whole world. It looks both towards the past and far into the future of everything music can be. It is balance and revolution at the same time - a true work of the Enlightenment. "Magnificent choruses, graceful melodies, the finest polyphony, all firmly anchored in an optimistic view of humanity - anyone who doesn't automatically feel better after hearing it really needs help, " says Simon Rattle with a wink. "The Creation is healthy in a very honest way, " he adds. But health also includes a good dose of humour, and Haydn provides it, even in a setting as sacred as the Creation story. At the same time, a work radiating light also casts a few shadows on our own present. What has remained of the spirit of the Enlightenment? And what have we done with "this world, so great, so wonderful"? To mark his inauguration as Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle chose Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation. After two concerts on September 21 and 22, 2023 in Munich's Herkulessaal, the work was performed on September 24 in the historic basilica of Ottobeuren in Upper Swabia, together with the three outstanding soloists Lucy Crowe, Benjamin Bruns and Christian Gerhaher. The Munich recording of the inaugural concerts is now being released on 2 CDs by BR-KLASSIK. With this late work, Joseph Haydn celebrated his greatest triumph: The acclaim he received for his oratorio The Creation placed all his previous successes firmly in the shade. He was already very famous as a symphonic composer, his string quartets had won him the adoration of countless nobles and amateur musicians, and his late masses had secured the unwavering approval of his Esterhazy prince. However, at it's first performance in 1798, "The Creation" caught the spirit of the age - and continues to do so today. The work unites Haydn's orchestral finesse with powerful choruses, combining the vivid account of the creation story with subtle musical interpretation and making it a musical manifesto, as it were, of the Age of Enlightenment. In this regard, the oratorio has enjoyed an unbroken performance tradition, and continues to pose a challenge to every world-class ensemble today. In 1946, one year after the end of the war, Haydn's masterpiece was the first oratorio ever to be performed in the basilica in Ottobeuren - at that time still in the organ loft. The 1986 performance by the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein remains legendary to this day.

The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which came to an abrupt end with Haitink's death in October 2021. BRKLASSIK now presents outstanding and previously unreleased live recordings of their concerts from past years. This recording of Dvorak's Seventh Symphony documents a concert given in March 1981 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. The "Scherzo capriccioso" is a studio recording, also from March 1981. Following the success of Antonin Dvorak's first visit to London in 1884, the London Philharmonic Society asked him to return the following year and to compose a new symphony for the occasion. It was an honourable request - after all, the London Philharmonic Society had commissioned Beethoven's Ninth Symphony six decades earlier! When Dvorak began sketching out the symphony on December 13, 1884, he was well aware of the high expectations involved - both his own and those of others. Most music critics and Dvorak biographers, however, have struggled with the interpretation of this exceptional piece. For example, it has been interpreted "politically" against the background of the growing German-Czech tensions of those years. But the existential power of the D minor Symphony - it's anger, it's expansive pessimism, i.e. it's confessional character - may also derive from the biography and personality of it's composer, which were probably far more complex, painful and problematic than any "Bohemian idyll" we might assume. Even in Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, which is considered to be more cheerful, and in his last symphony, "From the New World", one can still detect a more or less latent tendency towards tragic longing. The world premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place on April 22, 1885 in London, with the composer conducting. It became one of Dvorak's greatest successes. Dvorak's Scherzo capriccioso of 1883 is certainly more than just a filler on this CD. The fact that it is more dramatic and passionate than it's playful title suggests is probably due to the fact that it was written at a time of crisis in the composer's life. The work is an elaborate composition of convincing craftsmanship

BERNARD HAITINK conducts: SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY No. 15 in A major op. 141. The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which came to an abrupt end with Haitink's death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and previously unreleased live recordings of their concerts from past years. This recording of Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony documents a concert given in February 2015 in Munich's Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. Haitink first conducted a Munich subscription concert in 1958, and from then on was a regular guest with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - either in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz or in the Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. This congenial collaboration lasted for more than six decades. The orchestra musicians and singers enjoyed working with him just as much as the BR sound engineers. As an interpreter of the symphonic repertoire, and especially that of the German-Austrian Late Romantic period, Haitink was held in high esteem throughout the world. With him, the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich were always in the best of hands. Haitink's driving principle was to make the sound architecture of a musical composition, with it's complex interweaving, transparently audible; extreme sensitivity of sound was combined with a clearly structured interpretation of the score. As the last symphony in the oeuvre of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, the Fifteenth is a kind of symphonic conclusion. Although the composer set out to write a "happy symphony" and this epithet has since become commonplace, everything cheerful in it has a dimension that is exaggerated into the bizarre and grotesque. The work also contains musical references, for example to Rossini's "William Tell" overture, Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung" (the so-called "fate motif") and "Tristan and Isolde", and Alban Berg's "Wozzeck". Quotations from Shostakovich's own earlier works also appear. The symphony was composed in 1971 in Repino, a suburb of St Petersburg. The world premiere took place on January 8, 1972, under the baton of the composer's son Maxim.

In November 2021, even before taking up his post as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle began a cycle of Mahler symphonies with a performance of the Ninth (BR-KLASSIK 900205). The Sixth followed in September 2023 (BR-KLASSIK 900217), and the conductor is now tackling the composer’s Seventh Symphony. This cycle marks the beginning of a new chapter in Mahler interpretation, as Rattle is just as passionate a Mahler admirer at the helm of the orchestra as his predecessors Jansons, Maazel, and Kubelík.

Simon Rattle gained his international reputation during his 18 years as Principal Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998), which he made world famous. In 2002 he was appointed to succeed Claudio Abbado as Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, a position he retained until June 2018. In March 2015 the London Symphony Orchestra elected him as their new Chief Conductor for the 2017-2018 season, a position he retained until summer 2023. Simon Rattle also maintains close ties with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestras, as well as the Vienna Philharmonic.

Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich from the 1980s onwards. It was then that he learned to appreciate and love the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in particular. In October 1976, Bernstein had appeared with an all-Beethoven programme, and in 1983 he began a series of annual concerts with the orchestra. This CD from BR-KLASSIK presents the live recording of the Beethoven concert on October 17, 1976, in which Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Leonore Overture No. 3. The programme of the Munich concert in October 1976 included Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which can be seen as stroke of liberation in the sense of "per aspera ad astra" ("through hardships to the stars" or "through darkness to light") and also a symphonic piece that he had written for his only opera "Fidelio": the Third Leonore Overture, with it's lone trumpet signal announcing the arrival of the minister Don Fernando - and thus the rescue of Florestan from arbitrary violence and imprisonment. Joachim Kaiser, Munich's leading music critic at the time, said: "Bernstein demonstrated to a spellbound Munich audience how much he is filled with Beethoven, the man is full of a freedom and fire that can be produced and reproduced. Even if Bernstein's leaps, crouches and crescendos may seem violent to anxious listeners, the inner rightness of the music - which sounds natural, powerful, wonderful and relaxed - is overwhelming." The live recording was made on October 17, 1976 at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich from the 1980s onwards. It was then that he learned to appreciate and love the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in particular. In October 1976, Bernstein appeared with an all-Beethoven programme, and in 1983 he began a series of annual concerts with the orchestra. In November of that year, he rehearsed Robert Schumann's Second Symphony and his own Divertimento (1980), which were performed in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. This BR-KLASSIK CD presents the live recording of that concert event. Bernstein commendably championed Robert Schumann's Second Symphony - a work from 1845 that was repeatedly perceived as still immature and in need of improvement, and which Schumann himself confessed to having written in poor health. The critic Joachim Kaiser picked up on both facts in his concert review for the Suddeutsche Zeitung: "So what did Bernstein do differently to silence this scholarly talk, at least for all those who were lucky enough to listen to his Schumann? (...) Bernstein believed not only in Schumann's melodies - not difficult in itself - but also, and fervently, in the work's great symphonic developmental arcs. And because he was able to inspire the musicians of the superbly organised Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in such a natural, free and yet highly differentiated way, the power of Schumann emerged!" Bernstein's Divertimento, composed in 1980 for the 100th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, consists of eight miniatures developed from the semitone B-C. It begins with a fanfare and progresses through a waltz, a mazurka, a samba and a blues to a Radetzky-like march. The music is jazz-like, full of happy syncopation, unusual time signatures and dance-like verve. Bernstein also draws on memories of his first concerts - popular programmes that he attended as a child with his father in Boston's Symphony Hall.

Puccini's "Messa di Gloria" is one of the most popular settings of the Latin Mass, and is also featured on many concert programmes in the Puccini Year of 2024. The musical quality, energy and freshness of this youthful work ensured it's ever-growing popularity after it's rediscovery in the early 1950s. The composer even went on to quote some of the melodies in his famous operas, notably "Manon Lescaut". The "Messa di Gloria" was most recently performed on June 27, 2024 in the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Munich by the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the Munchner Rundfunkorchester under it's chief conductor Ivan Repusic. To mark the 100th anniversary of the death of the great Italian composer, BR-KLASSIK is now presenting the live recording of this outstanding concert on CD. Giacomo Puccini wrote his "Messa a quattro voci con orchestra" ("Mass for Four Voices with Orchestra") between 1878 and 1880 as the final thesis of his music studies in his hometown of Lucca. The first preparatory work was done when he was just eighteen, and the young composer was only 21 when the work was first performed on July 12, 1880. The Mass remained unpublished during his lifetime but became immensely popular after it's rediscovery in the early 1950s. However, in the first printed edition and in later performances it was inaccurately described as a "Messa di Gloria", a term that in fact refers to a (usually shorter) composition consisting only of Kyrie and Gloria; Puccini's Mass is in fact a full work, the complete setting of the Latin Ordinary with Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus and Agnus Dei. Puccini had begun his work on the Credo as early as 1878. In the "Messa di Gloria", the choir takes centre stage with increasingly beautiful melodies; the solo parts for tenor and baritone are sung by Tomislav Muzek and George Petean. The approximately 45-minute-long work is complemented on this CD by Puccini's orchestral works "Preludio sinfonico" and "Crisantemi" - the latter in an arrangement for string orchestra by Lucas Drew. (Studio recordings from February 2023.)

Following the conventions of the Paris Opera, Giuseppe Verdi was also obliged to compose ballet music for the French premieres or first performances of his stage works. Between 1847 and 1894, he wrote a total of seven so-called divertissements, some extensive, for Jerusalem, Les v�pres siciliennes, Le trouvere, MacBeth, Don Carlos, Aida and Otello. With catchy melodies, lively, accentuated rhythms, descriptive sound effects and vivid gestures, but above all with incredibly colourful instrumentation, he succeeded in giving new impetus to the ballet music of his day. While the ballet music was generally omitted from productions of Verdi's operas for a long time - with the exception of Aida - it has recently been performed increasingly often and linked to the dramaturgy of the respective work. These beautiful, well-crafted pieces of music should no longer be withheld from the public. On the new double CD from BR-KLASSIK, the Munich Radio Orchestra and it's chief conductor Ivan Repusic present Verdi's complete ballet music. In 19th-century Italian operas, a ballet was not part of the composition but was performed either between the acts or after the opera performance - and was usually a work created by a ballet composer who had little or no connection to the operatic work in question. The strict convention at the Paris Opera, however, was that an extensive dance interlude had to be included as a divertissement in the third act of a grand opera. So if an Italian opera composer wanted to have his works performed in Paris (and who would not, given the international importance of that great opera house in Europe's leading musical metropolis), ballet music had to be provided as well. In the case of works originally written for the Paris Opera, the ballet was included in the French-language libretto from the outset, and ballet music also had to be newly added to all existing works as well. Italian opera composers such as Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi were hardly ever enthusiastic about this French preference for extensive dance interludes in the third act, but they had to bow to convention. Verdi's ballet music for Les v�pres siciliennes (Les quatre saisons - The Four Seasons) and Jerusalem was the most extensive he created. In the dance sequence composed for Le trouvere, which utilises musical material from the gypsy scenes, he created a close musical and dramaturgical link with the stage action. He composed extensive ballet music for MacBeth to illustrate the Hecate scenes of Shakespeare's drama. In the third act of Don Carlos, a Ballet de la Reine entitled La Peregrina is performed in Queen Elisabeth's gardens to celebrate the coronation anniversary of the Spanish King Philip the following day. And for the premiere of Aida in Cairo, there were no obligations regarding the design of the dance interludes, which is why Verdi probably came closest to his ideal of linking the dances as directly as possible to the opera's plot. His shortest ballet music, with oriental-sounding dances, was composed for Otello.

For Nikolaus Brass, the "concrete confrontation with the existential fragility of human existence, with new beginnings and happiness, but also pain, infirmity and death" acted "like a compass in the search for expression." He refers to his music as characterised by "flowing time processes, questions of order and disturbance, the scanning of the acoustic outer surface for what it harbours as an echo, as well as aspects of human existence, " within a "permanent circle of losing and finding again." This musica viva CD features three of his compositions, created between 2012 and 2023. Nikolaus Brass studied medicine and composition in Munich and Berlin, and with Helmut Lachenmann in Hanover. He took part in the Darmstadt Summer Course from 1980 to 1986. His works have been regularly performed at festivals since 1981. In addition to his profession as a medical doctor, which he practised for many years, he has composed numerous works, including several commissioned by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (as part of the musica viva series), the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Donaueschingen Music Days and the Wittener Tage fur neue Kammermusik. In 2009, Brass was awarded the Music Prize of the City of Munich. He has been a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts since 2014. Brass' composition "In der Farbe von Erde" ("In the colour of earth") - music for viola, 44 strings and two percussionists" was first performed on February 17, 2023, with Tabea Zimmermann and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni. The work was commissioned by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk. The title of the composition refers to a short text by the French-speaking Swiss poet Philippe Jaccottet (1925-2021). "Der goldene Steig" ("The Golden Path") - A narrative for soprano and orchestra" is based on a text by Peter Kurzeck. The fourth part of his novel cycle "Das alte Jahrhundert" has an impressionistic feel to it - and served as a mood painting for Brass' sound fantasies. In addition to the richly scored percussion, the entire orchestra also contributes to the sound development with meticulously prescribed tapping and rattling instructions. The work was commissioned by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk and first performed on December 16, 2016, with Sarah Maria Sun and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Rundel. Brass' "Der Garten" ("The Garden") - music for orchestra with four obbligato male voices (vocalises)" was also commissioned by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk. The first performance, with the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Eotvos, took place on June 16, 2012. The new BR-KLASSIK CD documents the live recordings of each of the three first performances, recorded in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz.

Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich from the 1980s onwards. It was during this time that he came to appreciate and love the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in particular. In October 1976, Bernstein had appeared with an all-Beethoven program, and in 1983 he began a series of annual concerts with the orchestra. In 1987, he rehearsed Franz Schubert's Great C Major Symphony, which was performed in the Congress Hall of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. This BR-KLASSIK CD features not only the live recording of this concert event but also a rehearsal recording on a bonus CD, "Conductors in Rehearsal," which has been preserved in the sound archives of Bavarian Radio. Bernstein's warmth and friendliness, as well as his astonishingly good German, are most impressive.

Franz Schubert most probably composed his Great C Major Symphony in Bad Gastein in the summer of 1825. Chronologically speaking, it is his eighth symphony, although it is still sometimes referred to as his ninth. It can be assumed that Schubert, who had witnessed the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna in 1824, wanted to be on an artistic level with his much older colleague. He dedicated his work to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, in whose archives the score can be traced back to the end of 1826. However, it was not until 1839—after Schubert's death—that the history of its performance began, after Robert Schumann became aware of the work and organized its publication. In 1840, after the posthumous first performance by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy on March 21, 1839, Schumann formulated one of the most famous quotations about Schubert’s symphony, that of its "heavenly length." Because of the value the composer himself attached to it, and to distinguish it from the much shorter Sixth Symphony in the same key (therefore often referred to as the "Little C Major"), it was titled "The Great.

"The live recording was made on June 13 and 14, 1987, in the Congress Hall of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. In the rehearsal recording “Conductors in Rehearsal – Leonard Bernstein Rehearses with the BRSO in German,” Friedrich Schloffer (narrator) and Johannes Ritzkowsky (horn) can be heard alongside Bernstein.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is world-famous as the composer of the musicals Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, but his Requiem has also achieved international acclaim. Winner of a Grammy Award, this grand-sounding masterpiece of contemporary classical music, written in 1985, is dedicated to the memory of Webber's late father. The recording of a concert by the Munchner Rundfunkorchester on June 15, 2023, a tribute to the British composer who celebrated his 75th birthday in March 2023, is now presented on CD by BR-KLASSIK. This live recording from the Herz-Jesu Church in Munich features the Bavarian Radio Chorus accompanied by a select ensemble of soloists, under the baton of principal guest conductor Patrick Hahn. There was much surprise when Andrew Lloyd Webber presented his Requiem to the public in 1985. Although classical composers had repeatedly ventured into the spheres of the so-called "light muse", hardly any path led in the other direction - from musicals or operettas to the sublime heights of sacred music. The fact that a composer like Franz von Suppe also wrote a requiem as well as operettas is a rarity. Lloyd Webber's career in the "serious" genre, however, was laid in his cradle: his father, William Lloyd Webber (1914-1982), had worked his way up from humble beginnings to become one of the leading church musicians of his day. He encouraged the classical training of his sons Andrew (b. 1948) and Julian (b. 1951), an excellent cellist. Andrew found his niche in the entertainment industry. His song "Try it and see", written for the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, was not yet a hit, but from a pop cantata he developed his first successful piece Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), and from the concept album Jesus Christ Superstar, in which "Try it and see" also found a new home, he created the rock musical of the same name (1971). With Evita (1976), Cats (1981), Starlight Express (1984) and The Phantom of the Opera (1986), Lloyd Webber repeatedly demonstrated his flair for contemporary material that lent itself to a new kind of treatment and appealed to a wide audience. By the mid-1980s, he was the most commercially successful composer of musicals. As Requiem Masses had been abolished in Anglican England since the Reformation, the composer did not have to consider liturgical functionality or ecclesiastical suitability. Verdi had demonstrated that the texts of the Latin Requiem Mass provided an excellent model for grand opera. And Lloyd Webber found inspiration for the lyrical dimension with hit potential in composers such as Gabriel Faure. The texts of the Requiem were rearranged with a sense of dramaturgy. The repeated insertion of the pithy lines "Requiem aeternam" and "Dies irae" gave them a fundamental, leitmotif-like character. The theatrical potential of the sequence ("Dies irae") was expanded, as it had been with Verdi, into a kaleidoscope of human emotions in the face of death and the Last Judgement. In a poll conducted by BBC Radio 4 a few years ago, listeners voted Barber's Adagio for Strings the "saddest piece in the world". There is no doubt that it's broad musical lines have an elegiac, almost religious tone - something the composer himself emphasised in the choral version, written as an Agnus Dei. However, the Adagio's association with farewell and mourning was not intended by Barber, who conceived of his work as purely instrumental. It has however been used on repeated occasions to mark the deaths of prominent Americans, including Alfred Einstein, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. As funeral music, the Adagio has also been a feature of several films since the 1980s, and two lines of tradition have emerged. On the one hand, the Adagio is often associated with the death of a main character, as in the final transfiguration of the Elephant Man in David Lynch's film of the same name (1980) or, in a light-hearted alienation of the theme, in The Fabulous World of Amelie (2001), where the heroine imagines her own death being televised. On the other hand, the austere serenity of the Adagio is contrasted with images of violence and suffering, most emphatically in Oliver Stone's anti-war film Platoon (1986). All these traditions came together in the days after September 11, 2001, when Barber's Adagio was played over and over again by American radio and television stations - both as a tribute to the victims of the attacks and as a musical expression of American patriotism. Particularly memorable was the live performance on September 15, 2001, when the American conductor Leonard Slatkin conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Last Night of the Proms in London, leaving the hushed audience deeply moved. Thanks to it's melancholic yet comforting sound, the Adagio for Strings was often the piece of choice internationally during the Covid-19 pandemic to commemorate the many victims - online or "open air", on radio and television, and at concerts and other events.

The music of composer Milica Djordjevic, born in Belgrade in 1984, is based on an exuberant and imaginative use of sound. She has full command of the entire arsenal of contemporary sound and performance techniques, which never cease to surprise. She began her composition studies in her native city of Belgrade, where she was already working with electronic music, then went on to Strasbourg and IRCAM in Paris before completing her studies from 2011-2013 in Berlin with Hanspeter Kyburz at the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler. Her already extensive oeuvre, which is performed by leading international soloists and ensembles, includes pieces for solo instruments, chamber music works in a wide variety of formations, vocal works, and large-scale orchestral compositions. The diversity of her work highlights her versatility and technical virtuosity. Djordjevic has received numerous prestigious prizes and awards for her compositions, including the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music (2015), the Composition Prize of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation (2016) and the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize of the Berlin Philharmonic (2020). In Milica Djordjevic's short orchestral work Mali svitac, �estoko ozaren i prestravljen nesnosljivom lepotom (Little firefly, brightly lit and shocked by unbearable beauty), commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2023, the composer is concerned with "the immense energy it takes to make things glow". Her extended orchestral work Quicksilver was commissioned by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk and premiered on December 16, 2016 by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Rundel in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. It is precisely the strict limitation of the melodic movement to very few, narrow interval steps that makes it "all the richer and more colourful on the inside". Cvor (Knot) for winds, piano and percussion, a work commissioned for the Donaueschingen Music Festival, briefly but very intensively describes a knot that squeezes and twists and finally bursts. The fourth work on this BR-KLASSIK CD - Mit o ptici (Myth of the Bird) for choir and orchestra - was commissioned by musica viva in 2020 and premiered on October 28, 2022 with the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra under the direction

It is difficult to say anything about Mozart's famous Requiem – the masterpiece having been described and analysed all too often. It is known to almost everyone in the world, either in its entirety or in large parts, or is familiar to them at the very least from its title. Almost everybody has come into contact with the Requiem’s music, whether from the concert hall or merely from watching Miloš Forman's 1984 film drama "Amadeus". What breathes new life into this work and this music time and again are congenial performances with outstanding casts. A true highlight in the performance history of the Requiem was Mariss Jansons' interpretation of it in May 2017, which absolutely delighted the Munich concert audience and was also highly acclaimed by the trade press. Under Jansons' direction, the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks gave of their best, with an excellent quartet of vocal soloists rounding off the outstanding ensemble. This made the performances of Mozart's Requiem in the popular completed version by his student Süßmayr a truly memorable experience.

The live recording from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz was made on May 11 and 12, 2017 and has now been released on a single CD by BR-KLASSIK.

In addition to his symphonies, Anton Bruckner is best known for his sacred works: his stirring masses and his deeply moving a cappella motets. On this new BR-KLASSIK CD, to mark the Bruckner Year 2024, the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Peter Dijkstra present his Mass No. 2 together with five well-known motets and the two short Aequali for three trombones from 1847. The new studio recordings were made in connection with the opening concert of the 2023/24 season on October 28, 2023. On a second CD, "Bruckner's World" by Markus Vanhoefer offers not only an introduction to the recorded works but also a detailed description of the life and work of this important Late Romantic composer.

After Bruckner's uncommissioned Mass (No. 1) in D minor had brought him to the attention of a wider public – following its premiere on November 20, 1864 in the Old Cathedral in Linz and a repeat performance in the city’s Redoutensaal – Bishop Franz Joseph Rudigier commissioned a second mass from the composer. Bruckner wrote the work between August and November 1866, and it was to be premiered at the consecration of the Votive Chapel of the New Cathedral; due to delays in the construction work, however, the performance could not take place until September 29, 1869. The premiere of the Mass (No. 2) in E minor for eight-part mixed choir and wind ensemble was also a great success, and Bruckner described it as “the most glorious day” of his life. The unusual instrumentation was due to the occasion and the open-air performance venue on the cathedral building site (the new chapel had proven too small for the choir). The work derives its particular tension from the sharp contrasts between archaic, psalm-like monophony and a strictly polyphonic movement structure modeled on Palestrina, combined with the "modern" wind accompaniment in sweeping, romantic harmony.

Bruckner thoroughly revised the Mass (No. 2) between 1876 and 1882, and the premiere of the second version in the Old Cathedral on October 4, 1885, as part of the Diocesan Jubilee in Linz, was once again an outstanding success. The composer "stood at the organ during the performance and gazed rapturously at the vault of the cathedral, his lips moving in silent prayer."

Bruckner's sacred motets are characterized by Catholic worship and the church spaces that were Bruckner's home from childhood. In 1837, at the age of 13, he was admitted as a choirboy to the Augustinian canons' monastery of Sankt Florian near Linz, where he worked as an organist from 1848 to 1855. His religious devotion and early influence meant that he initially saw himself as a church musician, before broadening his scope to include symphonic music - in whose sound architecture the organ also found an audible echo.

The BR-KLASSIK label is now commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024 by releasing previously unreleased recordings of concerts worth listening to on CD and as a stream for the first time. Hector Berlioz's passionate "Symphonie fantastique," the nearly revolutionary symphonic masterpiece by the great French composer, was performed by Colin Davis with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Munich’s Philharmonie im Gasteig on January 15 and 16, 1987.

In his "Symphonie fantastique", subtitled "Episodes from the Life of an Artist", Berlioz combines the structures of the musical symphony with the form of a five-part classical drama. Using a leitmotif (an "idée fixe"), he narrates to the listener the story of the beloved woman of his dreams. The "Symphonie fantastique" thus paved the way for the symphonic poems of the Romantic period as well as the leitmotif method in Wagner's music dramas.

"I am still unknown," wrote Berlioz in June 1829 at the age of 25 – but he was certain that he could achieve resounding success with the idea of a major instrumental work. With his "Symphonie fantastique", he created a new kind of programmatic music. Berlioz was inspired by the works of Goethe and by Beethoven's symphonic music – and also by the fascination he felt for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, whom he saw play Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Odéon Theatre in Paris on September 11, 1827. The "Idée fixe", the main theme, represents the artist going through his life story in various inner states of mind.

Guido Bardi, the son of the Duke of Florence, kneels before Bianca, the wife of the rich merchant Simone, and holds her hands. Simone, who has returned early from a business trip, then enters the room. The very beginning of Alexander Zemlinsky's one-act opera "A Florentine Tragedy", based on Oscar Wilde's play of the same name in the German translation by Max Meyerfeld, presents the conflict from which the tragedy arises. This stage work by the Austrian composer, who was forgotten for many decades, had its world premiere on January 30, 1917, in Stuttgart and was not performed again until 1977. This CD from BR-KLASSIK documents the Munich premiere on November 27, 2022, with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Patrick Hahn, recorded live at the city’s Prinzregententheater.

With the "Florentine Tragedy", albeit rather belatedly, Zemlinsky followed the fashion for Renaissance and one-act works at the turn of the century. Richard Strauss had made his mark in that genre with "Salome" and "Elektra" – and the literary basis for the former had also been provided by Oscar Wilde. In the very first notes, seemingly aware of this similarity with Strauss’s work, Zemlinsky goes on the offensive with an "upbeat fanfare" – as the prelude to an orchestral introduction that can easily be interpreted as a musical representation of the main romantic relationship. At the transition to the actual stage action, however, Zemlinsky switches to a somber minor-key atmosphere. When Simone appears, the music already makes it clear that the plot cannot end otherwise than tragically. For whom, we do not yet know…

In the Munich premiere of Zemlinsky's "A Florentine Tragedy", Rachael Wilson (mezzo-soprano) sang the part of Bianca, Benjamin Bruns (tenor) was Prince Guido Bardi, and Christopher Maltman (baritone) portrayed the merchant Simone. The Münchner Rundfunkorchester performed under the young conductor Patrick Hahn. Last year, the 27-year-old Austrian – who since 2021 in Wuppertal has been the youngest Generalmusikdirektor in the German-speaking world – was engaged as the Münchner Rundfunkorchester’s Principal Guest Conductor.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024, the BR-KLASSIK label is releasing previously unreleased recordings of concerts for the first time on CD and as a stream. Excerpts from Richard Strauss's comic opera "Die schweigsame Frau" ("The Silent Woman") were pre-produced as studio recordings for a television program in November 1960. The impressive cast was almost identical to that of the opera production at the Salzburg Festival in 1959 under the premiere conductor Karl Böhm: Hans Hotter (Sir Morosus), Hermann Prey (Barber), Fritz Wunderlich (Henry), Ingeborg Hallstein (Aminta), and many others sang. Here, Heinz Wallberg conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In contrast to the live recording from Salzburg, which is marred by the clearly audible stage noises of a turbulent production, the outstanding cast of singers in this recording is more effective. The BR-KLASSIK label is now marking the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024 by making this previously unreleased studio production available for the first time on CD and as a stream.

After the death of Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Strauss thought he had reached the end of his operatic career – but then he found a librettist of equal calibre in Stefan Zweig, who provided him with "the best libretto for an opéra comique since Figaro" (Strauss). The comic opera was written between 1932 and 1935 and, despite the fact that Zweig was a Jewish librettist (who had since emigrated), Strauss managed to have the opera premiered in Dresden on June 24, 1935, conducted by Karl Böhm. However, because the composer insisted on printing Zweig's name on the posters and in the program, the Nazis boycotted the performance. After the Gestapo intercepted a letter that Strauss had written to Zweig expressing his delight at the successful premiere, the composer finally fell out of favor. The opera was taken off the program after only three performances and was not performed at any other German theater until 1946. Strauss resigned from the presidency of the Reich Chamber of Music "for health reasons".

Strauss endowed "Die schweigsame Frau" with an overabundance of musical ideas: turbulent ensembles and individual tone colors, light comedy, and grand arias alternate. He casually quotes himself and a dozen other composers, including Rossini, whose "Barber of Seville" was the model for his talkative and manipulative barber. Music connoisseurs appreciate the many musical allusions in the work.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024, the BR-KLASSIK label is releasing previously unreleased recordings of concerts worth listening to, available on CD and as a stream.

Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony remains today one of the greatest and most powerful creations of the Late Romantic period. The immense symphony, longer and more monumental than others, incorporates texts from the collection of poems by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim entitled “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”. Composed over a period of four years from 1892 to 1896, with particular focus during the summers of 1895 and 1896 spent at the Attersee in Austria, it was premiered in its entirety on June 9, 1902, at the 38th “Tonkünstler Festival” in Krefeld. Mahler conducted the Städtische Kapelle Krefeld and Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra at this momentous event, which garnered great acclaim from his contemporaries. Between 1902 and 1907, the composer conducted his Third Symphony a further 15 times.

Among the symphony's six powerful movements, the slow fourth movement necessitates not only a large orchestra but also a mezzo-soprano solo for a setting of the “Midnight Song” (“O Man! Take heed!”) from Friedrich Nietzsche's poetical-philosophical work "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." In the cheerful fifth movement, the mezzo-soprano soloist is joined by a children’s choir and a female chorus for the song "Es sungen drei Engel" from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn." The symphony presents a significant challenge for all its performers, and this concert recording from December 2010 features a prestigious lineup: Mariss Jansons conducting the Chor and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, with the Tölzer Knabenchor, and solo parts sung by Nathalie Stutzmann.

Among Simon Rattle's first concert programs as the new chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony. The performances marked the beginning of a new chapter in Mahler interpretation, for Rattle, like his predecessors Jansons, Maazel and Kubelík, is an ardent admirer of the composer. BR-KLASSIK has now released the live recording of the concerts.

Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony is perhaps the darkest work he ever wrote – its nickname is "The Tragic". And there is something almost destructive about the final movement. "But strangely enough," says Simon Rattle, "it is also a very classical symphony. Yes, it is extreme, but for long stretches it is less wild than other works of his – although of course it does convey a harrowing message. But it's like a lot of great works: there are always different ways of reading them. I've been conducting the Sixth for forty years now, and over time I’ve come to realise that it also contains hope."

A young female singer in 17th-century Venice: she is a virtuoso and extremely charming, and the gentlemen of her select audience are at her feet. They call her the "Singing Venus". But Barbara Strozzi wants more: she regularly publishes her compositions – more than any woman before her. The new BR-KLASSIK audio biography tells her story.

Until the 20th century, female composers had a hard time in a male-dominated art. And in historiography for even longer: it was not until 1978 that a female American musicologist published the first specialist article on Barbara Strozzi. Today, it is generally accepted that she is one of the most important voices in the history of vocal chamber music. She is featured on a growing number of CDs, concert programmes and websites. However, although research has begun, a lively account of her life and work, accessible to a wider audience, has been lacking.

This audio biography brings together all the key documents and research that represent her – and also vividly introduces us to the unique cultural space in which the composer lived. The exuberance of Carnival, the development of the fledgling art of opera, and Venice - the"città galante"- are all linked to the phenomenon of"Barbara Strozzi" and her art. Listeners unfamiliar with this music are invited to rediscover lost treasures – and to get to know one of the great women of music history. Wiebke Puls, an actress at the Münchner Kammerspiele and a singer herself, lends her voice to Barbara Strozzi.