Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio
Artistic Director
Radoslaw Szulc
Top musicians don’t like to rest on their laurels. On the contrary, due to their talent and their skill, they are curious and constantly searching for new challenges. These were the reasons that led concert master Radoslaw Szulc and double bassist Karl Wagner to form a new chamber orchestra with 13 string playing colleagues from the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio on the occasion of the orchestra’s 50th anniversary.
The ensemble concentrates on works for string orchestra, although for certain symphonies and solo concertos, winds from the Symphony Orchestra join them. This versatile group considers itself a collection of soloists, committed to the spirit of chamber music. The musicians realize this high standard without a conductor and play standing, with Radoslaw Szulc – primus inter pares – as artistic director.
The first season of the Chamber Orchestra in 1999-2000 at the Munich Prinzregententheater was highly acclaimed by the audience and the press. Television productions and CD recordings followed. The ensemble, praised for its characteristic homogeneous and warm tone, is in its ninth season and is considered an important pillar of the Munich musical scene. Recently, this “Munich elite ensemble” was selected as one of the most brilliant ensembles in the German-speaking area.
The Chamber Orchestra collaborates with renowned artists such as Rudolf Buchbinder, Janine Jansen, Lang Lang, Mischa Maisky, Sabine Meyer, Shlomo Mintz, Daniel Müller-Schott, Julian Rachlin, Maxim Vengerov and Lars Vogt. In their Mozart Series during the season 2005-06, the ensemble performed the five Mozart violin concertos with Frank Peter Zimmermann, receiving enthusiastic reviews. The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “Zimmermann and his exemplary attentive and refined accompanying colleagues succeeded in illustrating the variety and character of the works”. The concerts were considered as absolute highlights of the concert season.
The Chamber Orchestra has been highly in demand in European music centres and at international festivals. In 2003, the ensemble gave its successful debut concert at the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein and in summer 2005, played a programme in honour of the composer, Arvo Pärt, on the occasion of his 70th birthday at the Rheingau Music Festival. His words of thanks were, “It cannot be played better.”
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