The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) traces its existence back to the first ‘Funk-Stunde Berlin’ on 29 October 1923. Since that day, renowned composers, musicians and conductors such as Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, David Oistrakh, Eugen Jochum, Sergiu Celibidache, Heinz Rögner, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Marek Janowski have formed an orchestra that has experienced the vicissitudes of German history in the 20th century in a unique way. Vladimir Jurowski has been chief conductor and artistic director since 2017, and continues to lead the orchestra’s 100-year tradition into the future.

The RSB has a nationwide and international presence in concert halls and on the radio, appearing regularly in Berlin at the Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie and the Haus des Rundfunks, as well as performing chamber music at numerous venues. In addition to its extensive activities for radio, the orchestra realises numerous studio recordings, often with forgotten repertoire rarities. The RSB’s repertoire covers all stylistic periods from pre-Classical to modern. Recurring guest appearances at renowned music festivals as well as tours to Japan, China and Korea testify to the RSB’s international reputation.

www.rsb-online.de

Photo: Astrid Ackermann

Multiple GRAMMY-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta serves as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) and music director laureate of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. She has guest conducted many of the most prominent orchestras in America, Canada, Europe, Asia and South America. As music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Falletta became the first woman to lead a major American ensemble.

She has a discography of over 125 titles, and is a leading recording artist for Naxos. Her GRAMMY-winning Naxos recordings include Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua (8.559885–86) and John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (8.559331), both with the BPO, and Kenneth Fuchs’ Spiritualist with the London Symphony Orchestra (8.559824).

Falletta is a member of the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has served as a member of the National Council on the Arts, is the recipient of many of the most prestigious conducting awards and was named Performance Today’s Classical Woman of the Year 2019 and one of the 50 great conductors of all time by Gramophone magazine.

www.joannfalletta.com

“Buffalo Phil: Premieres Without Pain” courtesy of American Record Guide

Watch: JoAnn Falletta at Round Top – An Interview with John Clare

Trained as a violinist and as a composer at the Vienna Conservatory, Franz Schreker belongs to that group of composers whose careers were eclipsed by the events of 1933 in Germany. Schreker enjoyed very considerable success as a composer of opera, in a style that couples the late Romantic with an element of musical collage, presenting scenes where different layers of music are juxtaposed or superimposed, all with a mastery of orchestral colour.

Stage Works

Schreker won early success with Der Geburtstag der Infantin (‘The Birthday of the Infanta’), a ballet based on the story by Oscar Wilde. Der ferne Klang (‘The Distant Sound’), an opera staged first at Frankfurt in 1912, has more of Debussy than Wagner about it, dealing with the mystical pursuit by the artist for the distant sound that he has heard. Der ferne Klang influenced Alban Berg, who made a vocal score of the work. Of other operas, Die Gezeichneten (‘Those Marked by the Seal’) and Der Schatzgräber (‘The Treasure-Hunter’) are particularly effective, if more conventional than Der ferne Klang.

Orchestral Music

Schreker wrote a relatively small amount of purely orchestral music, although orchestral excerpts from his operas are sometimes heard in the concert hall.