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.

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.

Sir Georg Solti was a frequent guest conductor with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Born in Hungary in 1912, he played a decisive role in rebuilding the Bavarian National Theatre after the war. From the 1960s onwards, he was considered one of the world's leading conductors alongside Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan. Georg Solti returned to Munich once more for a special concert on February 10, 1984, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. Aged 71 and at the height of his career, he conducted excerpts from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Works by these two Russian composers, as well as Bruckner and Mahler, suited him particularly well, as they sounded musically spirited and exceptionally transparent. Prokofiev's three-act ballet Romeo and Juliet was written in 1935 for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, but it's premiere did not take place until 1938, in Brno in the Czech Republic. At the special concert in Munich in 1984 with Georg Solti, fifteen numbers from the ballet music were performed in chronological order. Pyotr Tchaikovsky dedicated his Fourth Symphony - composed in 1877/78 at the same time as his opera Eugene Onegin - to his patron Nadezhda von Meck. Despite their lengthy correspondence, they never actually met. In a letter to her dated March 1878, Tchaikovsky outlined the feelings he had experienced while composing his Fourth Symphony, though no specific programme can be discerned from them.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 concerts from past years. This recording of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony documents concerts given in November 1981 at the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz.

Haitink first conducted a Munich subscription concert in 1958, and from then on was a regular guest with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – either at the Herkulessaal of the Residenz or at the Philharmonie im Gasteig. This congenial collaboration lasted 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 Anton Bruckner were always in the best of hands. His driving principle was to make the sound architecture of a musical composition, with its complex interweaving, transparently audible; extreme sensitivity of sound was combined with a clearly structured interpretation of the score.

REVIEW:

Haitink was a master at pacing large symphonic structures with impeccable, understated eloquence. Few pieces reward this skill like Bruckner’s Seventh, and here he shapes with just enough momentum to propel the vast opening movements onward without sacrificing the music’s sonic splendor. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra plays with a refinement that’s expected, and a transparency that surprises. The ensemble’s brasses are appropriately potent at the work’s many apexes, but they impress even more when the score calls for delicacy and restraint.

Bruckner front-loads so much in the first two movements that the other half of the symphony can feel like an afterthought. One additional virtue of this account is that Haitink makes the mazelike finale spring with energy, charm and a constant sense of wonder.

-- New York Times (David Weininger)

The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which was brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK is now presenting outstanding live recordings of concerts from the past years that have not yet been released. This recording of Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony documents a concert given in September 2006 at Munich’s Philharmonie im Gasteig.

For Shostakovich's contemporaries, educated in the spirit of Socialist Realism, it was clear that the Eighth Symphony had to have a programme and, even more specifically, a topical reference to current events. And at the time, there could hardly have been anything more topical than the recent, decisive turning point in the war in the form of the battle for Stalingrad. It is therefore hardly surprising that the Eighth Symphony, composed in less than nine weeks between July 2 and September 9, 1943, was also referred to as the "Stalingrad". Under the pressure of circumstance, Shostakovich was obliged to develop an aesthetic of ambiguity, secret hidden meanings and abysmal irony that was almost without parallel in cultural history. This work also expresses the sheer compulsion under which a musical language in conformity with the system had to be created.

Haitink first conducted a Munich subscription concert in 1958, and from then on was a regular guest with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – either at the Herkulessaal of the Residenz or at the Philharmonie im Gasteig. This congenial collaboration lasted more than six decades. The orchestral 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, Dmitri Shostakovich's symphonies were also always in the best of hands. Haitink’s driving principle was to make the sound architecture of a musical composition, with its complex interweaving, transparently audible; extreme sensitivity of sound was combined with a clearly structured interpretation of the score.

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."

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 Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks were linked by a long and intensive artistic collaboration, brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and as yet unreleased live recordings of concerts from the past years.

This recording of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony documents concerts from January 2012 in Munich‘s Philharmonie im Gasteig. Haitink first conducted a Munich subscription concert in 1958, and from then on he repeatedly stood on the podium of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks – either in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz or in the Philharmonie im Gasteig. This congenial collaboration lasted more than six decades. The orchestral 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 worldwide. It was on the borderline between High and Late Romanticism, where the style of the times was to change and finally dissolve, that Anton Bruckner once again conjured up the very essence of the Romantic attitude to life with his Fourth Symphony.

It was the composer himself who gave the work its popular title "Romantic"; the name appears in much of his correspondence. – This "Romantic" symphony conjures up an ideal world in bright, unbroken colours, and looks back on an intact and carefree past. The consistently relaxed and positive mood of the symphony seems all the more astonishing when one considers the complicated history of the work’s genesis. The first version of 1874, a year of professional setbacks, was rejected by Bruckner after several plans for a premiere came to nothing; with relentless self-criticism, he referred to it as “overladen” and "too restless". In 1878 he subjected it to radical revision, in the course of which, among other things, a completely new third movement was written - the Hunting Scherzo. The other three movements were also profoundly reworked, partly shortened and formally condensed, and up to 1880 Bruckner repeatedly altered the final movement, which gradually grew into a crowning finale within the symphonic structure that would dissolve and overcome every last contradiction.

It was in this version of 1878/1880, which also forms the basis of this recording, that the Fourth Symphony was premiered on February 20, 1881 in Vienna, played by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of the Wagner aficionado Hans Richter. The performance was a great triumph, and marked a decisive change in the reception of Bruckner's music. His symphonic work to date had largely met with rejection, but now, with the "Romantic", he had made his breakthrough. As one of Bruckner’s most-performed works alongside the Seventh, the Fourth has remained just as successful to this day. Indeed, the symphony’s unbroken popularity also underscores the timeless appeal of Bruckner’s work: that deeply human longing for the “Romantic”, which has left no-one unmoved to this day.

Anton Bruckner 200 (1824-2024)

Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were linked by a long and intensive artistic collaboration, brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and as yet unreleased live recordings of concerts from the past years.

This recording of Bruckner's "Te Deum" and his Eighth Symphony (version by Robert Haas, 1939) documents concerts performed in the Philharmonie im Gasteig in November 2010, and in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz in December 1993.

Following the 2015 release of "The Rhinegold" – the Vorabend or „preliminary evening“ of Richard Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung" – and of "The Valkyrie" in 2019, BR-KLASSIK is now releasing "Siegfried" as the second day of the enthusiastically received tetralogy under Sir Simon Rattle - recorded live on February 3 and 5, 2023 at Munich's Isarphilharmonie im Gasteig.

With "The Rheingold", Rattle had already decisively refuted the longstanding claim that he and Wagner were not a good match, and with "The Walküre", he dispelled any remaining doubts. His recent performance of “Siegfried” – with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and a first-class lineup of Wagner singers – proves yet again how well the conductor understands and is able to interpret Wagner's music. Now, just a few months after the live event, this powerful and immensely popular music drama is released on three CDs.

Wagner's "Siegfried" tells the story of how the hero forges his own sword, gains invulnerability by slaying the dragon and bathing in its blood, and finally conquers Brünnhilde. The outstanding soloists include Simon O'Neill (Siegfried), Peter Hoare (Mime), Michael Volle (The Wanderer/Wotan), and Anja Kampe (Brünnhilde). Moreover, orchestral highlights of "Siegfried" such as the lyrical "Forest Murmurs" or the prelude to Act Three are brilliantly performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. As Simon Rattle says: “'Siegfried' contains some of the most dramatic, richly-coloured and enchanting music Wagner ever wrote. I am looking forward immensely to the continuation of our 'Ring', together with the greatest singers one could ever wish for.”

The distinguished Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as a regular guest, conducted Johannes Brahms' Variations in B-flat major on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a, in concerts on February 13 and 14, 2014 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. This new BR-KLASSIK CD presents not only the live recording of this compelling interpretation but also a live orchestral rehearsal recording from February 10, 2014. The latter forms part of BR-KLASSIK's acclaimed series Conductors at Rehearsal, offering a glimpse into their artistic work with the orchestra. Brahms composed the Variations on a Theme by Haydn in Tutzing during the summer of 1873. The work was premiered on November 2, 1873 in Vienna, conducted by the composer himself. A short while later, Brahms introduced an alternative version for two pianos (Op. 56b), which premiered in 1874, also in Vienna. The Variations are based on the melody of the so-called "Chorale St. Antoni, " taken from the second movement of a Divertimento in B flat major (Hob. II:46) that was most likely mistakenly attributed to Joseph Haydn. The chorale may not even have been written by the composer of the Divertimento and could originally have been a pilgrimage song honouring St. Anthony of Padua in western Hungary (present-day Burgenland). Regardless of their origins, Brahms' Variations (theme with nine variations and finale) stand as one of the composer's most important and most celebrated orchestral works, and remain a cornerstone of the Romantic repertoire. The detailed rehearsal recordings on the CD provide a deeper insight into this magnificent work. Listeners can experience first-hand how the conductor's wishes, ideas and instructions are implemented, how his explanations and his temperament change the resulting sound, and what thoughts lie behind the interpretation of the work. Thanks to this series, which is now also available on CD, the unique artistic partnership between Herbert Blomstedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra can be documented. Blomstedt's seemingly inexhaustible source of energy - music itself - is palpable in every word and every bar. ? Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in concerts on February 13 and 14, 2014 ? Live recording of Johannes Brahms' famous Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a ? Includes "Conductors at Rehearsal": live recording of the orchestra rehearsal on February 10, 2014 for the Munich concerts ? Electrifying live atmosphere from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz