Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

About Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Since the beginning of Marek Janowski’s era as Artistic Director in 2002, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) has confirmed its position in the first rank of German orchestras and made a name for itself performing the great works of the symphonic literature: Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms, and Strauss. Janowski’s innovative programming, featuring cycles devoted to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, and Richard Wagner, for example, brought new energy to this oldest of German radio orchestras and attracted the attention of internationally prominent conductors. The orchestra works regularly with such old masters as Kurt Masur and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, as well as younger conductors such as Vasily Petrenko, Jakub Hrusa, Juraj Valcuha, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The orchestra was founded in the early days of radio in October 1923. Its principal conductors (Hermann Abendroth, Heinz Rögner, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, among others) shaped an ensemble whose repertoire ranges from preclassic to modern symphonic literature. Many of the most significant composers of the twentieth century have conducted the orchestra or performed as soloists in their own works. The RSB performs around the world and has toured China, Japan, Korea, and numerous European countries, and has appeared at such international festivals as the Rheingau Music Festival, the Septembre Musical in Montreux, and the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw. The orchestra has long-standing partnerships with many European concert halls, the Berlin Musikfest, the Ultraschall Festival, and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, as well as the Paris Salle Pleyel. In collaboration with Deutschlandradio – the principal partner of the roc berlin, the RSB also belongs to – the orchestra has made numerous radio and CD recordings, many of which have received international awards. In recent years, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin has released CDs with the complete symphonies of Hans Werner Henze as well as ten live recordings of the cycle of Wagner concerts the orchestra presented from 2010 to 2013.
www.rsb-online.de