Dear music-lovers,
An exciting and varied season beckons! And we celebrate several anniversaries: the ‘Sinfonie an der Regnitz’ has been home to the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra for 15 years. It was in September 1993 that the concert hall, built specially for the orchestra, opened with an unforgettable performance of Mahler’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand.’ Since then, well over 500 concerts in the Joseph Keilberth Hall have enthralled many thousands of music-lovers from all over the world.
The Hall immortalises Joseph Keilberth’s name with good reason: it was under his baton that the Bam-berg Symphony Orchestra laid the groundwork for their very special reputation. Keilberth’s 100th birthday falls on 19 April 2008. And on 2 May, Horst Stein, the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor from 1985 to 1996 and subsequently Honorary Conductor for Life, will turn 80. For his birthday the Bambergers will present him with an anniversary CD.
As well as giving concerts in their home city, the Bamberg Symphony / Bavarian State Philharmonic Or-chestra will make prestigious guest appearances in Germany and abroad. The orchestra’s residency at the Philharmonie in Cologne deserves special mention: under their Principal Conductor Jonathan Nott, the Bambergers will devote three concerts to Schubert – already the focus of a series of CDs recorded in co-production between Bavarian Radio and the Swiss label Tudor, which has received great acclaim from the public and the musical press.
This season we also welcome the world-class French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as Artist in Residence with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. His extraordinary talents will be enjoyed both in Bamberg and on tour, in New York, Brussels, Luxemburg and Vienna; the programmes will include Bartók’s three piano concertos as well as a score which the Bambergers have just released on CD, Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring / Le sacre du printemps.
A special anniversary tour this season will take the Orchestra and Jonathan Nott to Switzerland, where the famous ‘Klubhaus’ concert series celebrates its 60th year – a series whose inaugural symphony con-cert was given by none other than the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, another reminder of the State Phil-harmonic’s important role as Bavaria’s cultural ambassador to the world.
And, as the musical world’s continuing vitality is inconceivable without engaging with today’s creativity, the Bamberg Symphony are keeping up their honourable tradition of world and German premieres – the latter including works by Giya Kancheli and Johannes Maria Staud, while at Bonn’s International Beetho-ven Festival, the audiences can look forward to the world premiere of a work commissioned from Wolfgang Rihm.
There is great anticipation of the rebuilding of the Joseph Keilberth Hall, planned for the summer of 2008 and based on recommendations of internationally renowned acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota. Nor must I overlook the coming season’s visiting conductors: Honorary Conductor Herbert Blomstedt will pay his respects to the orchestra, as will Christoph Eschenbach; and for the 75th birthday of Krzysztof Pende-recki the Bambergers will perform his Symphony No.8, under the direction of the Polish composer and conductor himself.
My thanks to Bavarian Radio for sustaining its successful collaboration with the orchestra for so many years. Broadcasts and CDs are a very important part of the Bavarian State Philharmonic’s activities. Its eleventh and latest release on CD is Mahler’s Symphony No.1, a co-production between Bavarian Radio and the Swiss label Tudor.
My thanks, too, to the members of the Orchestra Foundation’s Board and Advisory Committee, as well as to its supporters throughout the region, especially the Association of Friends of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Last but not least, may I thank the Bamberg audience for showing such loyalty, interest and commitment. It is your presence and applause, dear music-lovers, which reward the orchestra for its tremendous efforts.
So, let us enjoy this season, the last to be masterminded by the out-going General Manager, Paul Müller, to whom I offer the fullest tribute and sincerest thanks for all that he has achieved during his tenure. We have found a worthy successor in Wolfgang Fink, who takes up the post in September 2008 and brings to it his international experience combined with expert knowledge of German culture and musical life.
I wish you all a successful and enjoyable season in 2008-09!
