Munich Radio Orchestra
Conductor
Ulf Schirmer
Founded in 1952, the Munich Radio Orchestra has developed in the course of its over 50 year history to an aggregation with an enormously wide artistic spectrum, assuming a main position in Munich's orchestral skyline especially on account of its great versatility.
Concert performances of opera with international singing stars during the Sunday concerts and the "Paradisi gloria" series featuring 20th century liturgical music number as much among its assignments as do target-group oriented children's and young people's concerts including educational companion programs, entertaining theme evenings with a culinary upbeat along with presentations of rarely performed one-act operas and exceptional symphonic works.
The Munich Radio Orchestra has additionally proven its position "on the pulse of the times" with its remarkably effortless cross-over competence in the area of light classics and pop. It has a long-standing relationship with vocal acrobat Bobby McFerrin, enjoyed great success on tour with clarinetist Giora Feidman and recorded a CD entitled "Classic Meets Cuba - Symphonic Salsa" along with the Klazz Brothers & Cuba Percussion, released in March of 2005.
Leading on the ranks of the Munich Radio Orchestra's chief conductors is Werner Schmidt-Boelcke (1952-1967), followed by Kurt Eichhorn (1967-1975), Heinz Wallberg (1975-1981), Lamberto Gardelli (1982-1985), Giuseppe Patané (1988-1989) and Roberto Abbado (1992-1998).
From 1998 until 2004 Marcello Viotti was chief conductor of the orchestra. His particular passion was for the French and Italian operatic repertoire, which he tellingly documented, among many other performances, with a recording of Punchinello's La Gioconda with Violeta Urmana and Plácido Domingo in the leading roles. The successful concert series "Paradisi gloria" with 20th century liturgical music is also largely attributable to his initiative; meanwhile other conductors in this series have included Krzysztof Penderecki, Heinz Holliger, Peter Ruzicka and Marc Albrecht.
Amplifying its concerts in Munich, the Radio Orchestra has recently given guest performances in such prestigious venues as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. During the current season guest appearances have also taken the orchestra to the Brucknerhaus in Linz and the Warsaw Philharmonie, with such luminaries on the podium as Jun Märkl and Ulf Schirmer.
The Munich Radio Orchestra's CD productions regularly close meaningful repertoire gaps on the recording market. Worthy of special mention here are blue-ribbon singer portraits (e.g. with Rolando Villazón, the 2004 Echo Classics Award Winner), complete opera recordings and symphonic studio productions (e.g. Hans Rott's Symphony No. 1).
|