Politics and the private sphere collide fatally in Verdi's opera Simon Boccanegra: The title character, elected by the people as Doge of Genoa, pays with his life for the bitter game of love and power. Thanks in part to his librettist, Arrigo Boito, Verdi succeeded in creating a predominantly somber yet highly fascinating tableau of light and shadow in his 1881 revision of the work. Boccanegra's desperate cry for peace, echoing the words of the poet Petrarch, becomes a timeless plea – and the shimmering sea captured by the orchestra becomes a symbol of hope.

Visiting Budapest

Müpa Budapest

"I want to nourish the soul," said Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks, whose birthday the Munich Radio Orchestra is celebrating with works as diverse as a mass and the violin concerto "Distant Light." These works shed light on Vasks's thinking—the coexistence of nature and humanity, the sense of beauty, and the impending moral destruction of the world. His themes are rooted in his upbringing, having grown up in a country that was able to cast off its shackles nonviolently in a "Singing Revolution."

Peteris Vasks

Sacred Heart Church Munich

When you hear Sir Simon Rattle speak about Gustav Mahler, it seems as if he knew the composer personally. But it probably feels the same if, like the chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, you have been engaged with the deeply personal and autobiographical music of the late Romantic composer for more than 50 years. Mahler once said that his symphonies contained an entire world – and no one can guide orchestra and audience through these intricate worlds better than Sir Simon Rattle.

EPSG:4326

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Choir / Sir Simon Rattle

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Hungarian maestro Iván Fischer has been a lifelong advocate for Hungarian music. His fascination with Béla Bartók’s connection to both tradition as well as modernity is a heartfelt conviction that can now be fully savoured in his interpretation of Bartók’s Three Village Scenes, which will be performed for the first time by the BRSO. The same applies to Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto, featuring Vilde Frang as soloist. Listening to the Norwegian violinist is a wonderful experience, because she plays every nuance – from the most delicate whisper to the most powerful bow stroke – with absolute conviction. A work that has not been performed by the BRSO for some time is Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony, known as the Scottish: it is the composer’s epic, sublime, and distinctly lyrical declaration of love to the land of the legendary Highlands.

Iván Fischer & Vilde Frang

Munich Residence

With his masterfully composed Vespers Liturgy for choir a cappella, Rachmaninov transports the listener into a musical world of admirable depth and inwardness. Inspired by old modes, he created one of his most beautiful works. The »All-Night Vigil«, composed in 1915 for a benefit concert in Moscow in aid of war victims, takes up the fascinating tradition of Orthodox chants and reflects it profoundly. At the same time, Rachmaninov created a musical monument to his childhood memories and the religious soul of his homeland – a homeland he would soon leave. Rachmaninov himself described listening to his vesper liturgy as »an hour of the happiest satisfaction«.

Bavarian Radio Chorus / Peter Dijkstra

With "Zampa," French composer Ferdinand Hérold landed his greatest operatic success; after its premiere in Paris in 1831, the work also became popular in Germany and Italy. Hérold sets off a musical firework display in the overture, which continues with contrasting solo numbers and large ensembles. The plot's borrowing from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" guarantees mischievous delight: a stone statue drags the pirate and ruthless seducer Zampa into the abyss as punishment.

The Marble Bride

Prinzregententheater

The medieval verses of the Marian sequence Stabat mater seem like a symbol of mourning that has endured for ages. Once sung in unison and humbly, the Stabat mater has inspired generations of composers, including the Pole Karol Szymanowski in 1926, whose oratorio-like Stabat mater incorporated elements of Polish folk and church music. Geographically and thematically close to each other are Pēteris Vasks' political and personal mourning work of the Musica dolorosa , Arvo Pärt's meditation on the Shroud of Turin and Witold Lutosławski's short Lacrimosa from the image-rich death sequence of the Dies irae.

Stabat Mater

Women have shaped the history of opera not only as singers, but also as composers - even when this art form was at its peak. It is high time to pay tribute to their works! The Frenchwoman Clémence de Grandval was trained by Camille Saint-Saëns, among others. In Mazeppa, she describes in brilliant colors the rise and fall of the title hero - a truly dazzling figure in the midst of the Cossack fight for freedom, betrayal and condemnation, who had already inspired Tchaikovsky.

Mazeppa

Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding

French music has always been considered to be particularly vocal. For the artistic director of the BR Choir, Peter Dijkstra, this is a good reason to present a fine selection of choral music by four Frenchmen. The focus is on Gabriel Fauré's musical requiem, which is one of the great requiem settings of the classical-romantic tradition.

Cum Jubilo

Ivan Repušić has shaped the Munich Radio Orchestra as its chief conductor since 2017. Before his departure at the end of the season, the shared successes deserve a fitting celebration – with a concert, of course! The evening will be enriched by musical contributions from important collaborators, including the Bavarian Radio Choir and the artists in residence of recent years. Ivan Repušić will certainly return to the Radio Orchestra at some point in the future.

Bavarian Radio Choir

Jun 10, 2026

Ivan Repušić & Friends

5 - 12 Jul, 2026

Singen mit Sir Simon

May 2, 2026

Visiting Budapest

Apr 17, 2026

Peteris Vasks

Bavarian Radio Choir