At the 3rd chamber concert on January 15th, 2023, the OperaBrass ensemble will present a program in the Allerheiligen Hofkirche that is reminiscent of the beginnings of the Bavarian State Orchestra in the 16th century, when the Munich court orchestra at that time was used especially to represent the Bavarian dukes. A chronicler’s report is dated December 10th, 1565 and refers to the heyday of the Munich court orchestra at the time of Albrecht V: “they had three kinds of music during supper: [...] first played on cornetts and trombones, the other sung by several singers, accompanied by fifes and trombones. The third of 5 flutes and a trombone”. The composer Orlando di Lasso, who was already highly regarded internationally at the time, had been engaged to conduct the court orchestra two years earlier, and his pupil Giovanni Gabrieli also worked in Munich a few years later. A polychoral composition by Gabrieli was already heard at the 3rd Academy Concert in 2023 – also performed by brass players from the Byerische Staatsorchester.

Photo credit: Magdalena König

Photo creddit: Wilfried Hösl

The anniversary year of the Bayerische Staatsorchester is ushered in with a ceremony. General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski conducts music by composers whose selections offer a glimpse of the orchestra’s formidable history: Four of Richard Wagner’s operas were premiered in Munich by the Bayerische Staatsorchester, among which one boasts particularly festive sounds: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

500 years ago, Ludwig Senfl, as musicus intonator or musicus primarius, and a few year-round musicians were engaged by the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV to collect sheet music, build up a repertoire and perform both ecclesiastical and secular music: this is the birth of an orchestra that was later also presided over by Orlando di Lasso. The popularity of Lasso’s music among Renaissance contemporaries and the composer’s historical significance for music history can hardly be overestimated. Lasso’s last work Lagrime di San Pietro bears impressive witness to this.

But Richard Strauss also conducted the Bayerische Staatsorchester for two years, and the scores of two of his operas were breathed life into for the first time by the Bayerische Staatsorchester. An Alpine Symphony represents the composer’s last symphonic poem and, in its impressive depiction of the ascent and descent of a mountain hike through a gigantic orchestral apparatus, makes programmatic reference to the Bavarian foothills of the Alps.

Photo creddits: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie

Photo Credit: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie

Photo Credits: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie

Photo creddit: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie

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Als „Akademien“ wurden schon im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (oft privat organisierte) Konzerte bezeichnet. Der Münchner Verein Musikalische Akademie e. V. wurde 1811 aus der Mitte des damaligen Hofopernorchesters gegründet. Damit etablierten die Musiker die erste symphonische Konzertreihe Münchens.

Anders als beim Festakt enthält das Programm des 3. Akademiekonzertes ein zweichörig komponiertes Instrumentalwerk des venezianischen Komponisten Giovanni Gabrieli, der in München bei Orlando di Lasso studierte und als Schlüsselfigur an der Schwelle von Renaissance- zu Barockmusik später selbst Komponistengrößen wie Heinrich Schütz unterrichten sollte.

Das Bayerische Staatsorchester erhält nicht nur die großen Werke der letzten Jahrhunderte am Leben, sondern fühlt sich auch der Neuen Musik verpflichtet: Nachdem es unter seinem Generalmusikdirektor Vladimir Jurowski 2020 bereits sehr erfolgreich Brett Deans Testament aufgeführt und im hauseigenen CD-Label Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings veröffentlicht hatte, folgt jetzt die Uraufführung einer Auftragskomposition bei dem australischen Komponisten: Nocturnes and Night Rides. Mit den diesjährigen Münchner Opernfestspielen kommt außerdem seine Oper Hamlet auf die Bühne des Nationaltheaters. 

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