Wolf Michael Storz und Claudio Estay González stellen geben einen historischen Abriss über die Entwicklung vom Carillon über das Tastaturglockenspiel bis hin zur Celesta. Sie bilden damit den Abschluss unseres Instrumenten-Spezials zum Jubiläumsjahr 500 Jahre Bayerisches Staatsorchester.

Photo credit: Alice Bloomfield

The story of Sakuntala’s Ring is based on Kalidasa’s drama Sakuntala. This is one of the most famous love stories in world literature. The illustrations were commissioned by the Bayerisches Staatsballett on the occasion of the revival of the ballet La Bayadère in May 2023. Seven illustrators have each illustrated one act of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. Click through the acts, look at the pictures and listen to the sound design by Renu Hossain. She has worked with a recording of La Bayadère with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Using the menu, you can not only set the language, but also choose whether you want to show or hide the texts and music. We would be delighted if you could send us a message via the menu item “Participate” and share your ideas with us.

https://www.in-toon.com/en/ballets/sakuntalas-ring/act-1

Photo credit: Alice Bloomfield

Photo credit: Gage Lindsten

The story of Sakuntala’s Ring is based on Kalidasa’s drama Sakuntala. This is one of the most famous love stories in world literature. The illustrations were commissioned by the Bayerisches Staatsballett on the occasion of the revival of the ballet La Bayadère in May 2023. Seven illustrators have each illustrated one act of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. Click through the acts, look at the pictures and listen to the sound design by Renu Hossain. She has worked with a recording of La Bayadère with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Using the menu, you can not only set the language, but also choose whether you want to show or hide the texts and music. We would be delighted if you could send us a message via the menu item “Participate” and share your ideas with us.

https://www.in-toon.com/en/ballets/sakuntalas-ring/act-2

Photo credit: Gage Lindsten

Photo credit: Jiahuan Wang

The story of Sakuntala’s Ring is based on Kalidasa’s drama Sakuntala. This is one of the most famous love stories in world literature. The illustrations were commissioned by the Bayerisches Staatsballett on the occasion of the revival of the ballet La Bayadère in May 2023. Seven illustrators have each illustrated one act of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. Click through the acts, look at the pictures and listen to the sound design by Renu Hossain. She has worked with a recording of La Bayadère with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Using the menu, you can not only set the language, but also choose whether you want to show or hide the texts and music. We would be delighted if you could send us a message via the menu item “Participate” and share your ideas with us.

https://www.in-toon.com/en/ballets/sakuntalas-ring/act-3

Photo credit: Jiahuan Wang

Photo credit: Antoine Leisure

The story of Sakuntala’s Ring is based on Kalidasa’s drama Sakuntala. This is one of the most famous love stories in world literature. The illustrations were commissioned by the Bayerisches Staatsballett on the occasion of the revival of the ballet La Bayadère in May 2023. Seven illustrators have each illustrated one act of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. Click through the acts, look at the pictures and listen to the sound design by Renu Hossain. She has worked with a recording of La Bayadère with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Using the menu, you can not only set the language, but also choose whether you want to show or hide the texts and music. We would be delighted if you could send us a message via the menu item “Participate” and share your ideas with us.

https://www.in-toon.com/en/ballets/sakuntalas-ring/act-4

Photo credit: Antoine Leisure

Photo credit: Pete Sharp

The story of Sakuntala’s Ring is based on Kalidasa’s drama Sakuntala. This is one of the most famous love stories in world literature. The illustrations were commissioned by the Bayerisches Staatsballett on the occasion of the revival of the ballet La Bayadère in May 2023. Seven illustrators have each illustrated one act of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. Click through the acts, look at the pictures and listen to the sound design by Renu Hossain. She has worked with a recording of La Bayadère with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Using the menu, you can not only set the language, but also choose whether you want to show or hide the texts and music. We would be delighted if you could send us a message via the menu item “Participate” and share your ideas with us.

https://www.in-toon.com/en/ballets/sakuntalas-ring/act-5

Photo credit: Pete Sharp

Photo credit: Raman Djafari

The story of Sakuntala’s Ring is based on Kalidasa’s drama Sakuntala. This is one of the most famous love stories in world literature. The illustrations were commissioned by the Bayerisches Staatsballett on the occasion of the revival of the ballet La Bayadère in May 2023. Seven illustrators have each illustrated one act of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. Click through the acts, look at the pictures and listen to the sound design by Renu Hossain. She has worked with a recording of La Bayadère with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Using the menu, you can not only set the language, but also choose whether you want to show or hide the texts and music. We would be delighted if you could send us a message via the menu item “Participate” and share your ideas with us.

https://www.in-toon.com/de/ballets/sakuntalas-ring/act-6

Photo credit: Raman Djafari

Photo credit: Masanobu Hiraoka

The story of Sakuntala’s Ring is based on Kalidasa’s drama Sakuntala. This is one of the most famous love stories in world literature. The illustrations were commissioned by the Bayerisches Staatsballett on the occasion of the revival of the ballet La Bayadère in May 2023. Seven illustrators have each illustrated one act of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. Click through the acts, look at the pictures and listen to the sound design by Renu Hossain. She has worked with a recording of La Bayadère with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Using the menu, you can not only set the language, but also choose whether you want to show or hide the texts and music. We would be delighted if you could send us a message via the menu item “Participate” and share your ideas with us.

https://www.in-toon.com/de/ballets/sakuntalas-ring/act-7

Photo credit: Masanobu Hiraoka

Christiane Arnold, violist in the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, talks about the discovery of what is believed to be the first viola acquired by the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Violin maker Osamu Nambu goes into more detail about the elaborate restoration that brought the imitation Stradivari instrument back to life.

Find out from Moritz Winkler, bassoonist in the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, how he came to play his instrument and more about the concert in Carnegie Hall 2018.

Click here for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI53hNFGsLw&list=PLXtVSYTiDLYTFYEZmEQw4iwDsF5AdcmXK&index=4

Thomas Herbst, double bass player in the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, introduces the historic Guarneri bass.

The oboist of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester Giorgi Gvantseladze talks about his instrument and how he came to play it.

Click here for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF_5KDG-wVw&list=PLXtVSYTiDLYTFYEZmEQw4iwDsF5AdcmXK&index=9 

Hindemith’s opera in five acts Die Harmonie der Welt was premiered at the Prinzregententheater on 11 August 1957 – the composer himself conducted. The astronomer and physicist Johannes Kepler is at the centre of the plot, which spans several decades and takes place in Prague, Linz, Sagan in Silesia and Regensburg. Other historical figures such as Wallenstein, Emperor Rudolf II and Emperor Ferdinand II also appear.

Photo credit: Bavarian State Opera Archive

Find out more about her instrument and the acoustic challenges in the Elbphilharmonie, where the Bayerisches Staatsorchester played in 2018, from the double bass player Alexandra Hengstebeck.

Click here for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=danUb7_QVsY&list=PLXtVSYTiDLYTFYEZmEQw4iwDsF5AdcmXK&index=3

1653: The first opera in Munich, Giovanni Battista Maccioni’s L’arpa festante, is premiered in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz. This is followed in 1657 by L’Oronte by court conductor Johann Caspar Kerll, which marks the inauguration of the first free-standing theatre building north of the Alps: the opera house on Salvatorplatz. A string ensemble together with the continuo group formed a prefiguration of today’s orchestra, which was to grow steadily.

Photo credit: Nösselt, Hans-Joachim: Ein ältest Orchester.

Find out more about the special role of the percussion section in Joby Talbot’s ballet Alice in Wonderland in this video.

On 15 October, the chamber music series of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester will open its new season. Music from Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio in an arrangement by Wenzel Sedlak, Eugène Bozza's Octanphonie and Arvo Pärt’s Fratres for wind octet and percussion will be heard in the Allerheiligen Hofkirche. In addition, Gideon Klein’s text On Culture will be performed before his Divertimento is heard. Klein was a Czech-Jewish composer born in 1919 whose budding career as a piano virtuoso was abruptly interrupted by performance bans and the war. His Divertimento was written at a time when Klein had to interrupt his studies in musicology in 1939 due to the closure of the Prague Conservatory, and deals with the political events of the time. In December 1941, Klein was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he gave concerts and lessons as well as lectures. Shortly before the liberation by the Allies, Klein died in the Fürstengrube concentration camp on 27 January 1945.

Alexander Zemlinsky’s opera Sarema, based on Rudolf Gottschall’s story The Rose of the Caucasus, was written between 1893 and 1895 and won the 25-year-old composer the Luitpold Prize in 1896. The premiere followed on 10 October 1897 under Hugo Röhr at the Munich National Theatre, thus marking the Austrian composer’s first years of success. Zemlinsky received the Beethoven Prize of the Tonkünstlerverein for his Symphony in B flat major composed in 1897, and by 1899 he had written his opera Es war einmal, …, which was acclaimed in Vienna in 1900 under Gustav Mahler’s direction.

Photo credit: Bavarian State Opera Archive

Franz Lachner’s opera Benvenuto Cellini was premiered on 7 October 1849. Lachner used the French libretto by Léon de Wailly and Henri-Auguste Barbier as a model, which was also the basis for the opera of the same name by Hector Berlioz, which was first performed in Paris in 1838. The plot centres on the historical figure of the goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, who lived in Florence in the 16th century and whose autobiography was translated into German by Goethe. Three years after the premiere of his opera, Franz Lachner became General Music Director in Munich.

Photo credit: Archive Bavarian State Opera

For three performances of Gustav Mahler’s brilliant Symphony No. 8, former General Music Director Kirill Petrenko returns to Munich on 8, 9 and 11 October. In 1910, the work was premiered in Munich at the Neue Musik Festival Hall, now Hall 1 of the Deutsches Museum Transport Centre. Because of the immense personnel required by the score, including a huge choir and eight vocal soloists, the organiser of the premiere at the time advertised the work with the title “Symphony of a Thousand”. A Pentecost hymn by Hrabanus Maurus in the first part of the symphony meets the setting of the last verses of Goethe’s Faust II.

On 22 September 1869, the first part of Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen was premiered at the National Theatre in Munich. Contrary to Wagner’s wish not to show the entire Ring until after its completion, Ludwig II pushed through the premiere of Das Rheingold in Munich ahead of schedule. Countless letters document the dispute between the composer and his patron; in the end Wagner stayed away from the premiere by Franz Wüllner and concentrated on founding his own festival at which the entire Ring cycle was to be shown. This did not happen until August 1876, when the first Bayreuth Festival opened.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

The opera in one act Friedenstag was written to a libretto by Joseph Gregor with the collaboration of Stefan Zweig and the composer, based on the comedy El sitio de Bredá by the Spanish poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig exchanged plans about an opera project when the composer was in Salzburg in August 1934 during the festival season. After initial sketches, Zweig insisted that the libretto should be written by a third person, since as a Jew he considered the work impossible under the National Socialist regime. Joseph Gregor was suggested by Zweig, and a first meeting between the latter and Richard Strauss took place in Berchtesgaden in July 1935. Strauss repeatedly sought Stefan Zweig’s advice while working on the libretto and reworded verses himself, sometimes even replacing them with his own text passages. Strauss finally completed the score on 16 June 1936, and Friedenstag was premiered at the Munich National Theatre on 24 July 1938. Clemens Strauss conducted, Rudolf Hartmann directed, and the stage design was by Ludwig Sievert.

Photo credit: Friedenstag score. Vienna 1938.

The 4th Festival Chamber Concert on 27 July in the Cuvilliés Theatre featured Richard Strauss’ Andante for horn and piano in an arrangement by Pascal Deuber, as well as the Quintet in C minor by the English composer York Bowen, Jan Koetsier’s Skurrile Elegie auf Richard Wagner and Daniel Schnyder’s Concertino for horn, percussion and string quintet. In addition to Pascal Deuber on horn, Matjaž Bogataj and Felix Key Weber (violin), Adrian Mustea (viola), Emanuel Graf (violoncello), Blai Gumí Roca (double bass) and Claudio Estay (percussion) performed.

On 24 July, General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski conducted a special concert at the Alte Pinakothek, featuring Renaissance and early Baroque composers who are rarely heard in the context of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Orlando di Lasso and Ludwig Senfl are two central figures in the 500-year history of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and have already found their way to the National Theatre this year. Vincenzo Galilei, father of the natural scientist Galileo Galilei, worked in Munich at the court of Albrecht V as court musician. Johann Christoph Pez was not only born in Munich, but was court musician under Elector Max Emanuel from 1688. Rupert Ignaz Mayr was also part of the electoral court chapel, namely under Maximilian II. Emanuel.

Two special concerts celebrating the anniversary of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester celebrate the Munich “household gods” Richard Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the first of the two concerts, instrumental late works and an early song cycle by Strauss are on the programme; in the second, the orchestra’s woodwind section presents two wind serenades, in addition to Mozart’s work in C minor, Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade in D minor.

The second anniversary concert (in Munich’s Prinzregentenheater) will feature the woodwind section of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester performing two of the serenade genre’s pinnacle works. In 1782, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had just begun to build up an existence as a freelance composer and musician in Vienna, after the personnel manager of his Salzburg employer had kicked him out of his employment. The commission to provide a work for the “imperial harmony” (brass band) just founded by Joseph II came welcome but at short notice (“I quickly had to make a night of musique, but only on harmonie”), and as so often, Mozart’s contribution far outstripped the usual: with the nocturnally sombre Serenade in C minor, he basically created a veritable symphony for winds. Antonín Dvořák had this model in mind when he, in turn, wrote a serenade in a minor key for woodwind instruments almost a hundred years later – two works that exhaust the wealth of expressive possibilities of oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, in the case of the Bohemian composer further enriched by violoncello and double bass.

Photo credit: Nikolaj Lund 

At the annual Festival Service, which takes place in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, Franz Schubert’s Mass No. 4 in C major op. 48 D 452 was performed on 25 June. Two works by the contemporary Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa were also performed: Kuroda-bushi (from Japanese Folk Songs) for alto flute and Lullaby of Itsuki (No. 2 from Two Japanese Folk Songs and Gesine) for harp. The Bayerisches Staatsorchester and the Bayerischer Staatsopernchor were joined by vocal soloists Emily Pogorelc, Emily Sierra, Jonas Hacker and Jacques Imbrailo, and Frank Höndgen on the organ. Sergej Bolkhovets was the musical director.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On 19 July, the third Festival Chamber Concert took place in the Cuvilliés Theatre. Four works by Mozart were performed: namely his Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola and Violoncello in F major KV 370, the concert arias “Ma, che vi fece” – “Sperai vicino il lido” as well as “Misera, dove son” – “Ah, non son’ io che parlo” together with the soprano Jasmin DelfsTalia Or and the String Quartet in G major KV 387. The concert opened, however, with Johann Christian Cannabich’s Quintet for two flutes, violin, viola and violoncello in F major, op. 7 No. 1. Cannabich became a member of the Mannheim Court Orchestra at the age of twelve, where he advanced to concertmaster. From 1757 he led the Mannheim court orchestra as Kapellmeister. After the Elector Karl Theodor was appointed Elector of Bavaria and took his court orchestra to Munich, Cannabich took over the direction of instrumental music in Munich. In 1777 Mozart stayed at Cannabich’s house and wrote about him to his father Leopold: “I cannot describe what a good friend Cannabich is to me”.

On 17 July, OperBrass gave a concert at the Prinzregententheater: Brass players are always good for a surprise. Mostly unexpected. Sometimes delicate, often exquisite, always fine and tactful.
OperaBrass therefore with one sound – but many variations:
Brass variations from original compositions and arrangements for ten brass players.
Unheard. Creative. Original.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On 13 July, the cellists of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester Yves Savary, Jakob Spahn, Benedikt Don Strohmeier, Oliver Göske, Rupert Buchner, Roswitha Timm, Anja Fabricius and Clemens Müllner played the second Festival Chamber Concert in the Cuvilliés Theatre. The musical range of the programme covered the last five centuries: from an arrangement of a madrigal by Orlando di Lasso to the Concerto per 2 Violoncelli e basso continuo in G minor RV 531 by Antonio Vivaldi and Gioachino Rossini’s Wilhelm Tell fragment for 6 violoncellos as well as Antonín Dvořák’s Rondo in G minor for violoncello and orchestra op. 94 to Krzysztof Penderecki’s Agnus Dei and a composition by the contemporary composer Anne Wilson.

Two special concerts celebrating the anniversary of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester celebrate the Munich “household gods” Richard Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the first of the two concerts, instrumental late works and an early song cycle by Strauss are on the programme; in the second, the orchestra's woodwind section presents two wind serenades, in addition to Mozart's work in C minor, Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade in D minor.

In the first anniversary concert (at the National Theatre in Munich), GMD Vladimir Jurowski conducts a programme that ranges from the music of the young Strauss to two examples of his late instrumental works. The Metamorphoses were composed under the impression of the destruction of the Munich opera house, an epitaph to a vanished epoch and a swan song to an era whose entanglements reverberate in the polyphonically intertwined web of the 23 solo strings. With the Sonatina for 16 winds, Strauss takes up the instrumentation of a youthful work. Self-ironically described as a “wrist exercise”, as it were a postscript to what was actually the end of his creative work, this opus “from the workshop of an invalid” is at the same time an example of Strauss’s contrapuntal mastery of emotional compression. Marlis Petersen has been a welcome guest at the National Theatre since the beginning of her opera career, celebrated as the Queen of the Night as well as Marietta or Lulu and recently also in Strauss roles such as Salome and Marschallin. As a good friend of the Bayerisches Staatsorchesters, she enriches the programme with a rarity: she sings the song cycle Mädchenblumen in an arrangement for chamber ensemble by Eberhard Kloke, in whose arrangement of Der Rosenkavalier the orchestra accompanied her in her role debut as Marschallin.

Photo credit: Nikolaj Lund

Photo credit: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie

The most beautiful opera moment for Marcus Schön was Suor Angelica’s transfigured death in Giacomo Puccini’s opera of the same name, embodied by Ermonela Jaho under the musical direction of Kirill Petrenko. His favorite conductor is the sadly departed Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On July 9, 1978, Aribert Reimann’s opera Lear was premiered at the National Theatre. Claus H. Henneberg wrote the libretto based on Shakespeare’s drama of the same name, Gerd Albrecht was the musical director, and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle directed. See photos from the production at the time, which featured Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role.

Photo credit: Sabine Toepffer

Casey Rippon würde sehr gerne irgendwo am Meer leben. In ihrem Kühlschrank dürfen Lao Gan Ma Erdnüsse in Chiliöl, Parmesan und Tiefkühl-Erbsen nie fehlen. Ihr Lieblingswort ist Vokuhila.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

For Thomas Klotz, the best things about his job are the musical variety and the great colleagues. The last time he laughed tears was while reading Heinz Strunk’s Das Teemännchen. His favorite word is hammer!

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

The most beautiful opera moment for Andreas Öttl was Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca under Zubin Mehta immediately after his winning audition. Maestro Mehta said at the time, “If he does well, I would like to hear him play Mahler’s 9th Symphony.” Thus, in his first two appearances with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, he got to play two of his favorite composers. In his spare time, he loves to be with his two daughters in their garden.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Pascal Deuber likes to go on vacation somewhere secluded in the mountains. His favorite food is Puschlaver Pizzoccheri and the best book he has read so far is Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

In his spare time, Jürgen Key spent most of his first 20 professional years doing things related to music, including a lot of chamber music and teaching students. But now he uses much more of his time for extended bicycle tours in Germany or even Austria, mostly along rivers. That gives him a lot. To experience these beautiful things, he believes you don’t have to travel far …

In his now 32 years with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, he will always have special memories of the three concerts he was able to experience with Carlos Kleiber in Ingolstadt, Munich and Italy in 1996. These are among the most brilliant and intense musical experiences he has ever had. The hall in which, in his opinion, everything sounds good is the Berlin Philharmonie. But there are many good halls, it’s just that one hall is not always equally perfect for every instrumentation or musical orientation.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

For Andreas Riepl, the best part of his job is that, as a double bass player, you can listen to and watch the audience from the pit. The best hall he has ever played in is Carnegie Hall. There, even a less than perfectly produced note sounds beautiful. One thing that is better for him in his home country than in Munich is that in the Upper Palatinate it is not frowned upon to eat something on the road.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Apart from his own, Johannes Moritz’s favorite instrument is the cello. He loves to spend his vacations on the farm.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Alexandra Hengstebeck would love to visit the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus (Brazil). After visiting the opera house, she would also like to take a tour through the Amazon rainforest. The book that has touched her the most is Identity: A Novelby Milan Kundera. The best hall she has ever played in is the Musikverein in Vienna. The basses sound fantastic there and she has the feeling that the whole history of music resonates with every note. Also, playing the very low C in the orchestra at the right moment is an indescribable feeling for her. What’s more, this note sounds especially beautiful on her service bass.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Andreas Schablas’ main residence is in a small town about 30 kilometers north of Salzburg in Flachgau. Of course, due to his employment, he is much in Salzburg city and in Munich, where he also has a residence. He rides his bike a lot and knows the surrounding area very well by now. He has seen a lot of the world, but ultimately he lives and works in what he considers the most beautiful place in the world and is always amazed at the varied and beautiful landscapes he discovers on his rides. For him, there is nothing more beautiful. His favorite place in the opera outside the orchestra pit is the Bruno Walter Hall. His favorite place to be is there after a performance, when he is still full of adrenaline and then has the hall to himself to prepare and practice. The last time he laughed tears with his wife and two children (17 and 20) was when they played table tennis again after two years. Not because they were particularly bad, it was just a very special time.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

The Bayerisches Staatsorchester has two symphonies with the No. 4 in its luggage on its European Tour: namely those of the two composers Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner, each of whom shaped late romantic symphonic music with quite different musical means. On September 22, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester will play the one by Gustav Mahler in the Brucknerhaus in the Bruckner city of Linz, where Anton Bruckner worked as an organist and where, for example, his E minor Mass was first performed.

Image credit: By Josef Löwy - Yahoo et al, Location: Vienna, Austria, Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5487947

On September 23, the last concert of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester’s 2023 European Tour will take place in Vienna. Here, among other pieces, the prelude to Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde will be heard. Before this succeeded in being premiered in Munich, other attempts at premiere failed. For example in Vienna, where the planned premiere in 1863 was abandoned after 77 rehearsals. Only the unconditional support of Ludwig II made it possible for Wagner’s “unperformable” opera to be premiered in Munich by the court orchestra there – today’s Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Now, then, the Tristan prelude is heard in Vienna by its premiere orchestra, in which the ambivalent harmonic course that has become proverbial with the “Tristan chord” is already apparent.

Photo credit: Detail from the score to Tristan und Isolde. Breitkopf and Härtel 1860

The Bayerisches Staatsorchester has had regular appearances with the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in recent years. For example, the orchestra has already performed the two Strauss operas Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier here, as well as Umberto Giordano’s verismo opera Andrea Chénier. Paris is a constant in the touring activities of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. It returns here Sept. 21 to perform Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor with Yefim Bronfman, as well as the prelude to Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, with Elsa Dreisig taking the vocal part.

Photo credit: By Coldcreation - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33037925

September 1953 saw the first guest performance of the Bavarian State Opera after World War II: Arabella, staged by Rudolf Hartmann, was performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden on September 15, together with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, the Bayerischer Staatsopernchor and the Bayerisches Staatsballett under the musical direction of Rudolf Kempe. Also part of the guest appearance were performances of Strauss’ operas Die Liebe der Danaeand Capriccio.

As part of the 2023 European tour, two concerts – on September 18 and 19 – will take place at the Barbican Centre in London. The first of the two concerts will feature music by Richard Strauss again, 70 years after the aforementioned guest performance: namely, his Alpine Symphony, the composer’s last symphonic poem, which programmatically refers to the Bavarian foothills of the Alps in its impressive depiction of the ascent and descent of a mountain hike through a gigantic orchestral apparatus.

Photo credit: Bavarian State Opera Archive

On September 11, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester will perform in Berlin and, among other compositions, will let Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto be heard. This composer has a special relationship with today’s German capital. In 1923, his Three Orchestral Pieces were premiered here, and the world premiere of his opera Wozzeck followed in 1925 under Erich Kleiber, then general music director of the Berlin State Opera. The extreme challenges of this score necessitated 137 rehearsals leading up to the premiere. But the city also represents a crucial setting in the biography of Richard Strauss, whose Alpine Symphony will be heard at the Berlin concert: After Strauss saw no possibility of being hired as a general music director in his hometown of Munich, he went to the Berlin Hofoper in 1898. The composer later recalled that he “never had any reason to regret this relationship with Berlin; actually experienced only joy, found much sympathy and hospitality.” He remained in the city for more than two decades, and it was under his direction that the premiere of the Alpine Symphony took place here in 1915 – the Dresden Royal Court Orchestra (today’s Staatskapelle) played.

Photo credit: F. E. C. Leuckart Verlag 1915

On September 13, the European Tour will take the Bayerisches Staatsorchester to Bucharest for the George Enescu Festival. Artistic director of this festival, once founded in honor of probably the most important Romanian composer, was Vladimir Jurowski until he took up his post in Munich. The Munich General Music Director has thus already conducted numerous concerts in this huge concert hall with over 4,000 seats before he now returns here as a guest with his Bayerisches Staatsorchester.

Photo credit: https://www.festivalenescu.ro, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71850005

This is not the first visit of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Back in 2018, then General Music Director Kirill Petrenko conducted a program of music by Johannes Brahms and Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky. The city of Hamburg has repeatedly been a point of reference for former heads of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in the past: for example, Kent Nagano, who had previously been General Music Director at the Bavarian State Opera until 2013, moved to the Hamburg State Opera in 2015 in the same position. Wolfgang Sawallisch, on the other hand, came from Hamburg to Munich in the opposite direction – before he was to leave his mark on the Bayerisches Staatsorchester for two decades from 1971, he was chief conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra for ten years. And Bruno Walter was also engaged as Gustav Mahler’s assistant in Hamburg – namely at the opera there – before moving to Vienna and finally becoming General Music Director of the Royal Court Opera in Munich in 1913.

Photo credit: Bruno Walter. Photograph by W(enzel) Weis (1858-1930), Vienna, Landstraßer Hauptstraße 67 - Andrea1903, Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4503614

Photo credit: By Josef Lehmkuhl – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3599177

The Culture and Congress Center in Lucerne is the second stop of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester on its European Tour. On September 8, the orchestra will perform Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 and Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, as well as the prelude to Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. It takes about half an hour to walk from the KKL to the Tribschen country house, which Wagner lived in between 1866 and 1872. After the premiere of Tristan and Isolde in Munich, Wagner and his wife Cosima finally moved here, to the shores of Lake Lucerne, where the composer completed his operas Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Siegfried.

https://www.richard-wagner-museum.ch/geschichte/landhaus-tribschen/

Photo credit: By Josef Lehmkuhl – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3599177

On September 7, the first concert of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester’s 2023 European Tour will take place in Merano. The Munich composer, house god of the Bavarian State Opera and former Munich Court Kapellmeister Richard Strauss had a great affinity for this place, and so he described the area in a letter to his biographer Willi Schuh as a “blessed realm”. As a lover of Italy, Strauss visited Merano repeatedly and worked during his stays there, among other things, on his opera Die Liebe der Danae – a draft text included for the opera Capriccio, which premiered in Munich, is also dated “Merano 13 May 40”. Incidentally, on its European Tour, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester is spending the night in Innsbruck, where it already made a guest appearance in 1931 together with Richard Strauss at the Strauss Festival.

Photo credit: Archiv Musikalische Akademie

Wolfram Sirotek’s favorite composers are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner. His favorite conductor is Carlos Kleiber, and if he were an opera character, he would choose his namesake Wolfram from Tannhäuser. For him, the worst opera he has had to play was Lear. He likes to spend his vacations in Tuscany.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Thomas März already had the wish to become a musician at the age of 4. His favorite conductor is Zubin Mehta, under whose direction a concert took place in the Suntory Hall Tokyo, which was very special for Thomas März. The 3rd symphony of Gustav Mahler was played. Together with Verdi, Strauss and Puccini, Mahler is one of his favorites among the composers. He likes to spend his free time with his family and in the garden.

Photo credit: Thomas März

Photo credit: Karolina Wojtas

In this interview, dramaturge Christopher Warmuth and director Claus Guth talk about the new production of George Frideric Handel’s opera Semele.

Photo credit: Karolina Wojtas

On July 6, 1991, Krzysztof Penderecki’s satirical opera Ubu Rex received its world premiere at the Nationaltheater, opening the Opera Festival of that year. The libretto in German was written by the composer together with Jerzy Jarocki, based on the play Ubu roi by the French writer Alfred Jarry from 1896. In the two acts with five scenes each, the captain Ubu plans a conspiracy against the Polish king Wenceslas, who is murdered in the process. Subsequently, Ubu must wage war against Russia and finally flee across the Baltic Sea after a defeat. August Everding, then artistic director of the Bavarian State Opera, directed the production, and Michael Boder was the musical director.

Picture credits: Sabine Toepffer

On July 3, the Festival Baroque Concert will take place in the Alte Pinakothek. Thomas Dunford conducts an ensemble of six musicians and the soprano Ana Maria Labin. The composer Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco, who lends his name to this concert, was engaged as a chamber musician at the Munich court for a year beginning in 1704. However, the War of the Spanish Succession made regular employment of musicians difficult here as well, and Dall’Abaco had to look for work in other cities. Later, Dall’Abaco returned to Munich and even took the role of concertmaster. After Pietro Torri’s death in 1737, Dall’Abaco was not appointed court kapellmeister as he had hoped, but filled his posts for a few more years, finally dying in Munich in 1742. The Festival Baroque Concert will feature his Sonata in G major, op. 6, No. 5, and compositions by contemporaries who are better known today, namely Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel.

Photo credit: https://pqpbach.ars.blog.br/category/dallabaco/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119231902

On July 2, ATTACCA, the youth orchestra of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, will perform at the Prinzregententheater, supported by the horn players of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester Johannes Dengler, Franz Draxinger, Maximilian Hochwimmer and Rainer Schmitz. Allan Bergius leads this concert with Robert Schumann’s Concerto for Four Horns and Orchestra, Richard Strauss’ Symphony No. 1, and a world premiere by composer Oriol Cruixent: Penta Infinitum, a Concerto for Five Percussions and Symphonic Orchestra.

Even though the composer had intended otherwise and wanted his monumental Ring tetralogy to be premiered in his own festival theatre in Bayreuth, this second part was already heard on June 26, 1870, at the Munich Hof- und Nationaltheater. King Ludwig II did not want to wait until the Bayreuth Festival Theatre was completed and therefore arranged for the premature premiere of Die Walküre against the composer’s will. To this day, this opera about the love of the twin couple Siegmund and Sieglinde, which breaks all social norms, and the banishment of his favorite daughter Brünnhilde by Wotan, the father of the gods, enjoys enormous popularity.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On June 28, the Festival Chamber Concerts will kick off at the Cuvilliés Theatre. After OPERcussion – the percussion ensemble of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester – already released their CD recording “Original Grooves” on the in-house record label Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings this year, they are now thrilling audiences with a program of contemporary compositions. In addition to an original composition by Claudio Estay González – a percussionist from this ensemble – and an older commissioned composition for the ensemble by the composer Oriol Cruixent, the program also includes the world premiere of a commissioned composition: Moritz Eggert’s Die Geschichte des Schlagwerks in der Oper: 1700-2023 for 5 percussionists.

A very special concert for Gaël Gandino was the 2nd Symphony of Gustav Mahler conducted by Claudio Abbado in Lisbon. She was an intern with the Berlin Philharmonic at the time. At the end of the piece, when the chorus began, Abbado put down his baton and just held his hands together. He sang along quietly; it was a magical atmosphere. She was moved to tears and will never forget that moment. Her favorite musician is her immediate neighbor in the orchestra pit, principal double bass Florian Gmelin. The harp and double bass very often share the same motifs or single notes, but they don’t need to look at each other. The two feel the music in the same way and are always in sync. After so many years of making music together, it is still overwhelming for her to experience it. Being half Italian, she would love to be fluent in Italian. She would also have a great chance of winning a gold medal for cooking.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

For Éva Lilla Fröschl, the best part of her job are the performances. From her seat in the orchestra pit, you can see a bit of the stage, and for most performances she would also pay to be there. Instead, she gets paid to play – what could be better? She would have loved to perform the opera Eugene Onegin with singer Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who died in 2017. If she could compete in any Olympic discipline, she would have the best chance of winning a gold medal in cleaning up.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Bildnachweis: Wilfried Hösl

In the following text, learn more about director of the Hamlet production Neil Armfield’s take on his staging of Brett Dean’s composition, as well as Armfield’s fundamental engagement with the Hamlet material, which dates back to his school days.

Bildnachweis: Wilfried Hösl

Susanne von Hayn already knew at the age of 6 that she wanted to become a musician. However, at that time she did not know how she could get into the orchestra with the recorder. If she hadn’t chosen music, she probably would have studied medicine, but she can’t say what would have become of her then. A concert in the Olympic Stadium or a concert in BMW’s wind tunnel were very special to her.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

If you should ever look for Paolo Taballione at the opera, you are most likely to find him in the rehearsal room. His favorite instrument, apart from his own in the orchestra, is the guitar, and his favorite month is August. He prefers to spend his free time with his children.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On June 10, 1865, Richard Wagner’s “plot in three acts” Tristan und Isolde was premiered at the National Theatre in Munich. After previous attempts to stage the work failed at several opera houses – including the Vienna Court Opera after nearly 80 rehearsals – the unconditional support of Ludwig II in Munich finally made the project possible. The myth about the unperformability of this opera was nevertheless perpetuated after the premiere Tristan Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld died at the age of 29 only a few weeks after the first performances. Conductors Felix Mottl and Josef Keilberth also suffered breakdowns while conducting Tristan in Munich, leading to the deaths of both. To this day, Tristan und Isolde is a risk for every theatre – because of the immense musical demands on the performers (especially in the title roles), but also because of the outward lack of action with all the more existential themes that are dealt with in the opera. The longing for death of the two lovers pervades all three acts, until the ambivalent harmonic course of the music is resolved with Isolde’s transfiguration at the end. The “Tristan chord” with which the musical prelude begins advanced in music history to become a tonal cipher for a modern tonal language that would culminate in the atonality of the 20th century.

Photo credit: Joseph Albert: Ludwig and Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfeld as “Tristan und Isolde” in the Munich premiere, 1865, Munich, State Administration of Palaces. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Albert_-_Ludwig_und_Malwine_Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_-_Tristan_und_Isolde,_1865e.jpg#/media/Datei:Joseph_Albert_-_Ludwig_und_Malwine_Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_-_Tristan_und_Isolde,_1865e.jpg

Trumpet player Frank Bloedhorn introduces himself and talks about the 2017 Asia Tour.

The Hermann Levi Academy supports talented young musicians by giving them the opportunity to practice with the orchestra under professional conditions, discovering  opera literature with its specific requirements as well as symphonic music.

The Bayerisches Staatsorchester’s Hermann Levi Academy was originally founded in 2002 under the name “Orchestra Academy of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester”. Its task was to pass on the traditions of one of the oldest German orchestras to young musicians and consequently keep this particularly special sound and performance culture alive for subsequent generations. Since July 2021, the Orchestra Academy has included the “Hermann Levi Academy” title in its name to honour Hermann Levi’s importance in the world of music and in particular his forward-looking creativity at the National Theatre in Munich.

On June 12, the Hermann Levi Academy will perform a diverse program at the Alte Pinakothek. A Sonata da chiesa by the Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli and the Piano Quintet in B minor by Johannes Brahms will be heard, as will the Variations on the Song Greensleeves for double bass solo by Knut Guettler, who died ten years ago, and excerpts from the Sonata for Violoncello solo by György Sándor Ligeti.

Photo credit: Frank Bloedhorn

When Heike Steinbrecher is not making music, she is busy with her young dog and enjoys the walks through forest and nature together. She would like to live in northern Greece and learn the local language to get to know the country and its people even better.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

One opera was also premiered in Munich by the pioneer of German-language opera Carl Maria von Weber, whose Freischütz still enjoys particular popularity today. The libretto for the Singspiel in one act Abu Hassan was written by Franz Karl Hiemer and is based on a story from One Thousand and One Nights. Weber was private secretary to Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg, who was in debt and considered corrupt, when he planned the adaptation of a debt story together with Hiemer, a theater poet from Stuttgart. The premiere, however, took place during Weber’s stay in Munich, or more precisely: on June 4, 1811, the first performance of the opera went over the stage at the then Munich Court Theater. In the years that followed, the work enjoyed great popularity and found its way onto the stages of Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Copenhagen and London, among others. However, as the common combination of shorter plays with opera acts slowly disappeared, performances of Abu Hassan also became more sparse. Nevertheless, in the 20th century there were performances conducted by Bruno Walter in Berlin, Felix Mottl in Munich, and Richard Strauss in Vienna, for example.

Image credit: By Caroline Bardua - 1. umnofil.ru2. GalleriX, Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22630453

On May 22 and 23, Vladimir Jurowski conducted the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in the 6th Academy Concert, featuring music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler. Gerhard Oppitz was the soloist in Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, and Louise Alder took the vocal part in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On May 15, the new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida premiered. Daniele Rustioni conducted the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, and Damiano Michieletto directed. Elena Stikhina was featured in the title role.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On May 7, the production Il ritorno / Das Jahr des magischen Denkens premiered as part of the Ja, Mai festival. Christopher Moulds conducted the opera by Claudio Monteverdi, which was combined with a play by Joan Didion. The production was directed by Christopher Rüping.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On April 17 and 18, Robert Jindra conducted the Bayerisches Staatsorchester at the 5th Academy Concert. During the Mozart program, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller also took the stage for the concert aria “Bella mia fiamma” – “Resta, o cara”.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Moritz Winker would have become a pilot if he had taken a different career path. Now his favorite place at the opera is outside the orchestra pit with the stage manager: “What they do every night is just brilliant!”. The movie that always makes him laugh out loud is Welcome to the Sticks.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

The Bayerisches Staatsorchester, together with its General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski, was a guest at the Isarphilharmonie on March 25. Renaud Capuçon joined the orchestra on stage for Alban Berg’s violin concerto Dem Andenken eines Engels, before Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 was heard.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

“To be modern means to admit that in a short time one will no longer be modern.” – This saying comes from the text Modernity, published in 1918, whose author Felix Weingartner spoke out against a linear development of music history that was constantly outdone by new forms and modes of expression. Thus, in his notes on his life, he sometimes self-deprecatingly referred to himself as a “Wagnerian” and a “Lisztian” and at another point proclaimed the paradoxical thrust “forward to Mozart!”. Weingartner, whose death anniversary was on May 7, 2022, the 80th time, completed 10 operas, 7 symphonies, several songs and chamber music and participated with numerous books and essays in the music-aesthetic as well as theoretical and performance-practical discourse of his time. His success was based on his activity as a conductor. In his letters to his “dearest friend,” as he usually addressed Weingartner, Gustav Mahler did not hold back with praise: “I know of no one to whom I would hand over my work with such confidence and joyful courage as to you.” Weingartner succeeded Mahler as opera director of the Vienna Court Opera, having previously been Kapellmeister of several opera houses as well as chief conductor of the Munich Kaim Orchestra – today’s Munich Philharmonic. During his 19-year association with the Vienna Philharmonic, Weingartner made a decisive contribution to its worldwide fame. As a subscription conductor, he led all concerts, including the first Beethoven cycle in 1918 and the first South American tour in the orchestra’s history in 1922. His opera Malawika, a “Comedy in Three Acts,” premiered at the Munich National Theatre on June 3, 1886, when the composer was just 23 years old. He wrote the libretto himself, based on a drama by the Indian poet Kalidasa.

Photo Credit: Archiv Bayerische Staatsoper

On May 14, the Munich Opera Horns will perform an eclectic program of music for horn from the last five centuries. Ludwig Senfl, with whose permanent appointment in 1523 by Duke Wilhelm IV in Munich the history of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester can be traced, is represented as well as his successor Orlando di Lasso. Original compositions for horn by Anton Reicha and perhaps the most famous horn player in the long tradition of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Franz Strauss, are performed alongside arrangements for the instrument – for example, the ballet music from Mozart’s opera Idomeneo.

The program of the 6th Academy Concert, conducted by the General Music Director of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester Vladimir Jurowski, will open with an English rarity rarely heard on the continent, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis: a precious piece that blends memory and the present in an enchanting way – presented by the strings of the Staatsorchester. Later on, two soloists can be expected: Gerhard Oppitz takes the solo part in Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which Schumann originally composed for his wife Clara, who also played the piano part at the premiere. For Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, soprano Louise Alder joins the orchestra.

Photo creddit: Franz von Lenbach: Clara Schumann. https://androom.home.xs4all.nl/biography/a002056.htm

In her free time Anna-Maija Hirvonen is interested in philosophy, psychology, mysticism and spirituality. She especially enjoys vacationing in the Peruvian Amazon. There she has been able to make many discoveries concerning the greatest questions of humanity.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

On April 29th Stefan Ambrosius, Steffen Schmid and Simon Unseld played at the event “Tube-Trio: A tuba rarely comes alone” at KulturBunt Neuperlach as part of the event series “Celebrate!”

After the performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on April 1 at the National Theatre, the fifth event of the series “Encounters” took place. The audience met musicians of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in the Rheingoldbar.

On March 12, the 4th chamber concert of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester took place in the Allerheiligen Hofkirche. Markus Wolf, So-Young Kim, Adrian Mustea, Emanuel Graf, Carlos Vera Larrucea and Julian Riem played music by Richard Strauss, Karl Amadeus Hartmann as well as Hans Pfitzner. The photos show impressions from the rehearsals.

Frank Bloedhorn, trumpeter of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, about the Aida trumpets, which are used in our new production Aida. Here you can find out why this instrument has such a special and long history.

for 3rd and 4th grade students

MUSICAL ACADEMY – DACAPO

DACAPO is the music education project of the Musikalische Akademie des Bayerischen Staatsorchesters e. V. It was developed by musicians of the orchestra for a 3rd and a 4th grade class at elementary schools in the Munich area. Within a few weeks, musicians visit the selected classes of the school. In workshops they present their instruments and their profession. The final event is a concert for all students at the school, if possible. DACAPO combines the encounter with artists as well as getting to know and trying out orchestral instruments in the workshops with the experience of a concert situation.

Applications for the DACAPO project are sent through the Bavarian State Opera’s school program to jugend@staatsoper.de.
With the kind support of the Friends and Sponsors of the
Musical Academy of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Munich e.V.

for 3rd and 4th grade students

In her free time, Verena Kurz likes to go running or ride her road bike towards the mountains. For Verena Kurz, the best part of her job is experiencing everything live. The variety and spontaneity in the evening and the unbridled emotions on stage and in the pit are simply fun for her.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Hans Werner Henze’s opera in three acts Elegie für junge Liebende was premiered on May 20, 1961, at the Schlosstheater in Schwetzingen by the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera. The opera was commissioned by the Süddeutscher Rundfunk for the Schwetzingen Festival, and Henze approached librettists Wystan Hugh Auden and Chester Simon Kallman with the idea of “a psychologically highly nuanced chamber opera”. A German translation of the libretto was prepared by Ludwig Landgraf with the collaboration of Werner Schachteli and the composer. The action is set in the Austrian Alps in 1910, more precisely in the mountain inn “Schwarzer Adler”. At the center are the two young lovers Toni Reischmann and Elisabeth Zimmer, whose tragic death together in a snowstorm serves as material for the jealous poet Gregor Mittenhofer’s poem “Elegy for Young Lovers”. The music is characterized by a transparent and differentiated sound as well as by reminiscences of Italian opera and Schoenbergian Sprechgesang. The premiere, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Mittenhofer and Heinrich Bender as conductor, in a set by Helmut Jürgens, was praised as Henze’s “breakthrough to a musical language of his own”.

Photo credit: Archive Bavarian State Opera

Markus Kern likes boating in his spare time and his favorite musician is Jessy Norman. If he hadn’t become a musician, Markus Kern would be working for the criminal police today.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

for 3rd and 4th grade students

MUSICAL ACADEMY – DACAPO

DACAPO is the music education project of the Musikalische Akademie des Bayerischen Staatsorchesters e. V. It was developed by musicians of the orchestra for a 3rd and a 4th grade class at elementary schools in the Munich area. Within a few weeks, musicians visit the selected classes of the school. In workshops they present their instruments and their profession. The final event is a concert for all students at the school, if possible. DACAPO combines the encounter with artists as well as getting to know and trying out orchestral instruments in the workshops with the experience of a concert situation.

Applications for the DACAPO project are sent through the Bavarian State Opera’s school program to jugend@staatsoper.de.
With the kind support of the Friends and Sponsors of the
Musical Academy of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Munich e.V.

for 3rd and 4th grade students

After the performance of Die Teufel von Loudun on March 11 at the National Theatre, the fourth event of the series “Encounters” took place. The audience met musicians of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in the Rheingoldbar.

After the performance of Manon Lescaut on February 25 at the National Theatre, the third event of the series “Encounters” took place. The audience met musicians of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in the Rheingoldbar.

The Bayerisches Staatsorchester is celebrating its five-hundredth birthday this year, and Munich is joining in – not only with numerous concerts and events at the National Theatre, but also with festivals throughout the city. A very special instrument is coming to KulturBunt Neuperlach, namely the tuba: it is the deepest of all brass instruments. In the orchestra pit, it is usually found hidden next to the timpani, and tuba players are used to playing their part all alone in the orchestra. The three tuba players of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester – Stefan Ambrosius, Steffen Schmid and Simon Unseld – now want to change this fact. They are stepping out of the orchestra pit and want to play together. To this end, they have joined forces and will present a colorful program with music of all kinds – from baroque to jazz. Look forward to varied music with coffee and cake in the context of a guest café special of Kulturraum München e.V. and get to know the tuba better.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

The 5th Chamber Concert focuses on Heinrich Joseph Baermann, extraordinary clarinet virtuoso of his time, who inspired composers such as Giacomo Meyerbeer, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Carl Maria von Weber to write compositions for the clarinet. Baermann was born in Potsdam in 1784 and was educated there and in Berlin before serving as a military musician during the fighting between Napoleon and Prussia. In 1807, Baermann was accepted as first clarinetist in the Munich court orchestra, where he served until 1834. Baermann was in demand internationally and gave concerts in many European cities before his death in Munich in 1847.

All of the works on the program are related to Baermann: Meyerbeer’s 2nd Clarinet Quintet, for example, was considered lost since World War II until a score copy of it was discovered in Baermann’s estate. During a visit of Heinrich Baermann together with his son Carl to Mendelssohn during a concert tour in Berlin, Mendelssohn composed the Concert Piece No. 1 while Baermann was cooking. And Baermann was also friends with Carl Maria von Weber – the two performed concerts together, and Weber dedicated his clarinet compositions to Baermann.

Photo credit: Print, author unknown, 1829, Munich City Museum, Portrait Collection; Inv: G M IV/873, Public Domain Mark.01

After the performance of Dido and Aeneas … Erwartung on February 4 at the National Theatre, the second event of the series “Encounters” took place. The audience met musicians of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in the Rheingoldbar.

On March 20, the young talents of the Hermann Levi Academy presented themselves at a concert in the Alte Pinakothek.

The 5th Academy Concert is dedicated to one of the so-called house gods of the Bavarian State Opera: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He probably composed his Concerto for Flute and Harp in April 1778 in Paris as a commission for the flute-playing Comte de Guines and his daughter, who played the harp. The work has not been performed at the Musikalische Akademie since 1906; at that time with Leonore Kennerknecht-Buff on the harp (see tile “Women in the Orchestra”). In the same month, Mozart wrote to his father about the composition of a “sinfonie concertante”, the original score of which is said to have been lost. The Sinfonia Concertante for winds has long been thought to be an arrangement of the lost piece, but some scholars now doubt that Mozart was the author of this work.

In Prague, Mozart composed the aria “Bella mia fiamma” for the singer Josepha Duschek while he was there in November 1787 to prepare for the premiere of Don Giovanni. Just two months later, the composer himself conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 38, nicknamed the “Prague Symphony”, on January 19, 1787 in Prague. The conductor of the 5th Academy Concert Robert Jindra himself comes from Prague, where he studied opera singing and conducting at the conservatory, and now holds the position of music director of the National Theater.

Photo credit: Prague around 1800 (anonymous etching)

Martina Beck-Stegemann, clarinetist of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, talks about the bass clarinet in A. It was built around 170 years ago by Mr Johann Simon Stengel, a clarinet maker from Bayreuth, and was probably played for the premiere of Tristan und Isolde in the National Theatre Munich. It is on loan from the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf.

In this video, Andreas Öttl, solo trumpeter of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, and Martin Lechner, instrument maker from Bischofshofen, show the wooden trumpet that was developed exclusively for the opera Tristan und Isolde in 1890.

For Anja Fabricius, the best thing about her job is the fact that she is allowed to create, and a special concert moment for her was the last Academy concert with Zubin Mehta. Everything about it was urgent. Anja Fabricius’ book recommendation is The German Lesson by Siegfried Lenz. Her childhood heroine is also from a book: Momo.

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

The second Theme Concert concert took place on March 30, with members of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and the mezzo-soprano Salome Kammer under the musical direction of Armando Merino playing music by Toshio Hosokawa and Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. multi. Marie-Claire Foblets gave a lecture on: Is diversity a threat to our democracy?

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

The world premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s two one-act plays Der Ring des Polykrates and Violanta took place on March 28, 1916 in Munich’s Hoftheater. The composer was 18 at the time and had already appeared as a child prodigy at the age of 13 with the world premiere of his ballet pantomime Der Schneemann at the Vienna Hofoper. Korngold had already completed his cheerful opera Der Ring des Polykrates in 1914, which was followed immediately by the composition of the tragic opera Violanta. The sensational success of Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt finally followed in 1920, which last premiered at the Bavarian State Opera in 2019 and caused a sensation under the musical direction of Kirill Petrenko in a production by Simon Stone and with Jonas Kaufmann and Marlis Petersen in the leading roles. This spectacle was documented on DVD and Blu-ray on the in-house label Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings. Max Reinhardt brought Korngold to Hollywood in 1934, where the composer provided the music for 19 films and thus had a lasting influence on film music.

Photo credit: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress) https://www.loc.gov/item/2005689510/