Since the beginning of Marek Janowski’s era as artistic director in 2002, the Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester Berlin has built up its position in Berlin’s concert life and in the first rank of German radio orchestras. The oldest radio symphony orchestra in Germany, it first brought music to the airwaves in October 1923. Its principal conductors (Sergiu Celibidache, Eugen Jochum, Hermann Abendroth, Rolf Kleinert, Heinz Rögner, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, among others) shaped an ensemble whose symphonic repertoire covers the stylistic epochs from preclassical to modernism. The best composers of the twentieth century have appeared on the podium before this orchestra or performed as soloists in their own works. They include Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Sergey Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schönberg, Igor Stravinsky, Kurt Weill, and Alexander Zemlinsky and more recently Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Berthold Goldschmidt, Siegfried Matthus, Matthias Pintscher, and Udo Zimmermann.
In collaboration with Deutschlandradio, the main partner of the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin, to which the RSB belongs, in addition to its public concerts the orchestra is available for Deutschlandradio’s studio and for CD recordings. Several of its productions have received international awards for recordings. Most recently, in August 2005 Schnittke’s film music for “The Commissar” and “The Story of an Unknown Actor” (conducted by Frank Strobel) were included in the list of top recordings for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Since 1956 the RSB has performed as guests in more than twenty countries in Asia, Europe, and South America. Upcoming invitations include the Lugano Festival, the Classic Festival Meran in South Tyrol, the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Burghofspiele in Eltville, and the Deutschlandfunk series Grundton D. Tours are planned to Estonia and Spain as are concerts in large German cities, including one in the Philharmonie Essen that is associated with a long-term cooperation.
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