Meet the Musicians
Julia Pfister, 2nd violin

Her childhood heroes are The Three Investigators: She heard Paganini for the first time in these radio plays and then absolutely wanted to play it. A special concert for Julia Pfister was the concert with Kirill Petrenko as part of the 2016 European tour at La Scala in Milan. Everyone was in the flow and the atmosphere was unforgettable!


Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl


Meet the Musicians
Florian Gmelin, double bass (solo)

His favorite book is Trials and Tribulations by Theodor Fontane and Carlos Kleiber is his favorite conductor. Florian Gmelin would have loved to work with him one day.


Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl


Programm
4th Akademiekonzert 2022/23

The long-standing collaboration between the Greek composer Minas Borboudakis and the Bavarian State Orchestra has borne fruit, such as the “Musical Theatre for Young People in Eight Scenes” premiered in 2007 entitled liebe.nurliebe, but also Synaptic Arpeggiator for piccolo, English horn, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet and contrabassoon and most recently the German and German-language premiere of the chamber opera Z in the 2018/19 season. In the composition commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera for the 500th anniversary of the Bavarian State Orchestra entitled Apollon et Dionysos. Patterns, Colors and Dances for Orchestra Borboudakis is dedicated to the musical fusion of Apollonian and Dionysian opposites. Friedrich Nietzsche already stated in his fundamental writing The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Musicthat “the further development of art is bound to the duality of the Apollonian and the Dionysian”: light, clarity, harmony and self-knowledge on the one hand and dissolution of boundaries, ecstasy, madness and loss of control on the other side. The ancient god Apollo adorns the gable of the National Theatre Munich to this day.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s popular Violin Concerto in E minor was written by the composer for his friend, the violinist Ferdinand David: “I
I would also like to make you a violin concerto for next winter, one
in E minor stands in my head, the beginning of which gives me no rest.” After this announcement, seven winters should elapse before the world premiere in Leipzig. The result is a visionary work that comes up with some compositional innovations: namely the direct introduction of the main theme by the violin without an orchestral prelude, the position of the solo cadenza in the middle of the first movement and the special feature that all three movements musically merge into one another.

Two formative events in Anton Bruckner’s life flowed into his work on the sprawling Symphony No. 7 in E major: the tragic fire in the Vienna Ringtheater in 1881, in which several hundred people lost their lives, occurred at the time of its composition. Bruckner’s apartment was in the immediate vicinity of the Ringtheater, and the composer is said to have owned tickets for the fateful performance of Les contes d’Hoffmann, but spontaneously decided against going there. Bruckner and his manuscripts were spared from the fire. The slow Adagio as the center of the symphony can be understood as a requiem for the death of Richard Wagner in February 1883, which is given special colors by the use of so-called Wagner tubas (these were originally conceived for the Ring des Nibelungen). After Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony had already sparked a storm of jubilation at its premiere in Leipzig in 1884 – such positive reactions from the audience were a new experience for the hitherto rather ridiculed Bruckner – Hermann Levi, from 1872 to 1896 General Music Director and Court Kapellmeister at the Royal Court and National Theatre in Munich, conducted just one year later the Munich premiere of the work as part of the Musikalische Akademie. Levi also helped spread the work internationally by raising money for its publication, which the publisher was asking for. In Levi’s report on Bruckner’s works, the conductor finally ennobles the composer: “In my opinion, Bruckner is by far the most important symphonist of the post-Beethoven period.”


Photo credit: The Ringtheater fire in Vienna 1881. 19th century, Colored lithograph. Theatermuseum © KHM-Museumsverband


Meet the Musicians
Johannes Dengler, horn (solo)

Johannes Dengler decided at the age of 10 that he wanted to be a musician after realizing that he couldn’t become an astronaut due to travel sickness. His best medicine for stage fright is practice, practice, practice …


Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl


Eindrücke
Applause after the premiere of Dido and Aeneas … Expectation

On January 29th, the Munich audience celebrated the new production Dido and Aeneas … Expectation and its protagonists: the conductor Andrew Manze, the production team around the director Krzysztof Warlikowski and the singer ensemble (Ausrine Stundyte, Günter Papendell, Victoria Randem, Rinat Shaham, Key’mon W. Murrah, Elmira Karakhanova).


Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl


Zeitzeugnisse
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Idomeneo
https://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/briefe/doclist.php


Photo credit: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Signatur Slg.Her 811


 

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On January 29, 1781, Mozart’s “Dramma per musica in tre atti” premiered in Munich’s Hoftheater, today’s Cuvilliéstheater. The libretto is based on the tragédie lyrique of the same name by Antoine Danchet with music by André Campra and was written by the Salzburg chaplain Giambattista Varesco. Five years later, a version revised by Mozart was performed in Vienna.

In 1775 Mozart’s La finta giardiniera was premiered in Munich, and in 1780 the composer was commissioned by Karl Theodor, the Elector of Bavaria, to create an opera for Munich as the highlight of the carnival season. Mozart attended the rehearsals of both operas. Idomeneo was not finished until he was there, and so Mozart was able to take special account of the vocal possibilities of the singers. A correspondence between Mozart and his father Leopold provides information about the background to the creation of Idomeneo, in which the function of scenes and arias is also discussed.

Mozart Letters and Documents – Online Edition:
https://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/briefe/doclist.php


Photo credit: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Signatur Slg.Her 811


 

Programm
Director Krzysztof Warlikowski about DIDO AND AENEAS ... ERWARTUNG

Director Krzysztof Warlikowski gives first insights into his production of Dido and Aeneas ... Erwartung: The combination of Henry Purcell’s baroque opera and Arnold Schönberg’s monodrama composed more than 200 years later has its premiere on January 29th at the Nationaltheater.

Zeitzeugnisse
Engelbert Humperdinck: Königskinder

The first version of Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy tale opera was premiered on January 23, 1897 in Munich’s Hoftheater under the musical direction of Hugo Röhr. After the success of Hänsel und Gretel four years earlier, the composer was looking for a text for a comic opera with a popular touch, which was ultimately provided by Elsa Agnes Bernstein, daughter of Humperdinck’s Munich friend Heinrich Porges.

In the years that followed, this melodrama version found its way onto the opera stages of Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Riga, London, Dublin and New York, but disappeared from the repertoire after 1902. The composer revised his melodrama into the through-composed version of the opera known today, for which the text was thoroughly reduced and simplified. Finally, in 1910, this second version was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.


Photo credit: Archiv Bayerische Staatsoper / Hof-Atelier Elvira München


Meet the Musicians
Verena-Maria Fitz, 1st Violin

Verena-Maria Fitz likes to take a vacation in South Africa because her husband was born and raised there, and in South Tyrol. May is her favorite month because it is fresh and colorful and summer is still ahead.


Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl


Eindrücke
OPERcussion: Original Grooves

On January 20, 2023, OPERcussion performed in the Muffathalle and presented their new CD “Original Grooves”.

Zeitzeugnisse
Fire in the National Theater on January 14th, 1823

On January 14th, 1823, the National Theater burned. Although the accident happened during a packed evening performance, nobody was hurt. Warm brewing water from the surrounding breweries was used to extinguish the fire, since the water used by the fire brigade froze in the syringes. The building could not be saved from the flames, but was reopened two years later.


Photo credit: Münchner Stadtmuseum, collection of graphics / paintings P-1134
Artist: unknown; Wolfgang Pulfer (repro)


Programm
Concert program of the 3rd chamber concert 2022/23: Brass band music from the old days

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


Eindrücke
Festakt: 500 Jahre Bayerisches Staatsorchester

Photo creddit: Wilfried Hösl


Meet the Musicians
Franz-Strauss-Horn

Franz Strauss (1822-1905) was not only the father of the composer Richard Strauss, but also one of the most renowned horn players of his time, who worked in the Royal Bavarian Court Orchestra, today’s Bavarian State Orchestra, and had a significant influence on its sound. The two horn players Milena Viotti and Johannes Dengler provide insights into the special features of the instrument once played by Franz Strauss.

Programm
Ceremony 500 years Bayerisches Staatsorchester

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.

Zeitzeugnisse
Bruno Walters Neujahrswünsche

 


Photo creddits: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie


Zeitzeugnisse
Bruno Walter about the Musical Academy

Photo Credit: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie


 

Zeitzeugnisse
Service list for the annual court concert on January 1, 1863, with soloist Franz Strauss

Photo Credits: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie


 

Neujahrswünsche von Hans Knappertsbusch

Photo creddit: Archiv der Musikalischen Akademie


 

Termine
So 08.01.23
Vladimir Jurowski
3. Akademiekonzert 2022/23
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. 

Zum Termin

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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. 

Zum Termin

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