Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
In the 2023/24 season the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra welcomes Simon Rattle as its new chief conductor. He is the sixth in a series of prestigious orchestral directors, following Eugen Jochum, Rafael Kubelík, Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel and Mariss Jansons.
Soon after its founding in 1949, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra developed into an internationally renowned orchestra. In addition to cultivating Classical and Romantic repertory and Classical modernist works, the orchestra explores contemporary music through the series musica viva, which was initiated in 1945 by Karl Amadeus Hartmann and is central to the ensemble’s work. Well-known guest conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini and Wolfgang Sawallisch have helped develop the orchestra. Today, its important partners include Herbert Blomstedt, Ivan Fischer, Daniel Harding, Jakub Hrůša, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Franz Welser-Möst.
Tours have taken the orchestra throughout Europe, and to Asia and America.
Since 2009 the orchestra has released outstanding concert recordings, along with selected historical recordings, on its own label BR-KLASSIK. These CD recordings are regularly honoured with national and international awards such as the Grammy Award and the Diapason d’Or. Even before he took up his current position, Simon Rattle had expanded the ensemble’s discography, including with internationally celebrated recordings of works by Mahler and Wagner.
An important park of the orchestra’s work is the promotion of young musicians, including through the ARD International Music Competition. Since October 2001 the Academy of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has prepared aspiring orchestral musicians for their future careers, building an important bridge between training and the professional music world.
In 2023 the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra came third in a ranking of the world’s best orchestras made by internationally renowned music critics in the online magazine Bachtrack.