The Missa Cellensis in honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae in C major by Joseph Haydn, Hob. XXII:5, Novello 3, was originally written in 1766, after Haydn was promoted to Kapellmeister at Eszterháza following the death of Gregor Joseph Werner. The original title as it appears on the only surviving fragment of Haydn's autograph score, that has been discovered around 1970 in Budapest, clearly assigns the mass to the pilgrimage cult of Mariazell, Styria. Until that discovery, the work was known as Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, or in German Cäcilienmesse, a title probably attributed to the mass in the 19th century. Whether the alternative title refers to a performance of the piece by the St. Cecilia's Congregation, a Viennese musician's fraternity, on some St. Cecilia's day (22 November), as has been suggested, remains speculation.

What do we actually know about Johann Sebastian Bach? Rather little, one must admit. Nevertheless, the few documents provide a fragmentary but very vivid picture of life. The new BR-KLASSIK audio biography shows Bach against the background of a distant time that is rather foreign to us, which is brought to life in many voices together with his music. Udo Wachtveitl tells the unique life and work of the Thomaskantor and most important composer of classical music. Albrecht Schuch gives Bach his voice.

The BR-KLASSIK label is now taking the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024 as an opportunity to make previously unreleased recordings of concerts that are worth listening to available on CD and as a stream for the first time. Hector Berlioz's passionate "Symphonie fantastique", the almost revolutionary symphonic masterpiece by the great French composer, was performed by Colin Davis with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Munich’s Philharmonie im Gasteig on January 15 and 16, 1987.

PentaTone’s fourth release from Rafael Kubelik’s acclaimed Beethoven cycle of symphonies in its Remastered Classics series is his commanding reading of the ninth symphony performed by the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, joined by the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks and a quartet of outstanding soloists in the famous choral finale with the “Ode to Joy”.

An Ostdeutsche Rundschau report, dated the 19th of January, 1901, stated: "A new work by local composer Mathilde v. Kralik received great and, as we are pleased to note, well-deserved applause at its first performance. Miss Kralik has worked diligently and with great success on her artistic perfection since her last appearance. In this new work, the highly talented composer, a pupil of Bruckner and Krenn no less, demonstrates complete formal confidence and thorough familiarity with both technique relating to the individual instruments and their use and the skill of blending them in order to achieve attractive and characteristic sound effects. We were particularly pleased with the clear structure, the beautiful, elegant lines in the main voicing, as well as the straightforward, dignified counterpoint and the graceful, fresh melody, the latter of which is the expression of a fine musical sensibility.”

Jan Lisiecki, the Canadian prodigy, makes his Deutsche Grammophon debut with a masterful interpretation of Mozart Concertos. Lisiecki performs with technical assurance in this collaboration with Christian Zacharias, who leads the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Mozart’s Piano Concertos nos. 20 & 21 are technically challenging pieces and are well-respected in the classical repertoire. Lisiecki displays unworldly virtuosity, far beyond his years. The performances are glowing and compelling. Absolutely essential.

Milica Djordjevic's extended orchestral work Quicksilver was commissioned by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk and premiered on December 16, 2016 by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Rundel in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. It is precisely the strict limitation of the melodic movement to very few, narrow interval steps that makes it "all the richer and more colourful on the inside". Cvor (Knot) for winds, piano and percussion, a work commissioned for the Donaueschingen Music Festival, briefly but very intensively describes a knot that squeezes and twists and finally bursts.

In its history as a concert orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks has also devoted itself on numerous occasions to opera, under such eminent conductors as Rafael Kubelik and Leonard Bernstein. Chief conductor Mariss Jansons also maintains the tradition, for example with concert performances of Russian operas such as "Eugene Onegin". BR-KLASSIK now presents the 2014 live recording in Munich's Philharmonie im Gasteig of the semi-staged performance of Tchaikovsky's late masterpiece "The Queen of Spades". With great connoisseurship, Mariss Jansons has brought together a group of singers for this performance in original Russian who are all native speakers of the language, and very familiar with the work. They include Misha Didyk as Hermann, Tatiana Serjan as Lisa, and Alexey Markov as Prince Yeletsky.

A concert by Martha Argerich is always sensational, sometimes grandiose, and occasionally the audience experiences a truly stellar event. Going through the archives of Bavarian Broadcasting, the feeling was unanimous, and many “ear witnesses” themselves remembered the concerts: on these evenings Argerich was in top form, collaborated with two congenial conductors, inspired the orchestra and drew inspiration from it. In short: these live recordings should, indeed must be heard! Especially with this artist, the medium of live recording is especially valuable. Before an audience in the sold-out hall, there developed a knack for communication and spontaneous music-making with a downright personal appeal to the listener.

A concert by Martha Argerich is always sensational, sometimes grandiose, and occasionally the audience experiences a truly stellar event. Going through the archives of Bavarian Broadcasting, the feeling was unanimous, and many “ear witnesses” themselves remembered the concerts: on these evenings Argerich was in top form, collaborated with two congenial conductors, inspired the orchestra and drew inspiration from it. In short: these live recordings should, indeed must be heard! Especially with this artist, the medium of live recording is especially valuable. Before an audience in the sold-out hall, there developed a knack for communication and spontaneous music-making with a downright personal appeal to the listener.

After Berg, Schoenberg, Bartók and Stravinsky, Isabelle Faust now tackles Britten with Jakub Hrůša and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, revealing a little-known facet of the British composer. This concerto, highly personal in its language, combines drama with humour, seriousness with satire, in music of overwhelming emotional depth. The programme is completed by early chamber works.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024, the BR-KLASSIK label is now making previously unreleased recordings of concerts worth listening to available for the first time on CD and as a stream. Excerpts from Richard Strauss's comic opera "Die schweigsame Frau" (“The Silent Woman”) were pre-produced as studio recordings for a television programme in November 1960. The impressive cast was almost identical to that of the opera production at the Salzburg Festival in 1959 under the premiere conductor Karl Böhm: Hans Hotter (Sir Morosus), Hermann Prey (Barber), Fritz Wunderlich (Henry) as well as Ingeborg Hallstein (Aminta) and many others sang.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024, the BR-KLASSIK label is now making previously unreleased recordings of concerts worth listening to available on CD and as a stream. The six-part composition My Melodies for eight horns and orchestra was composed between 2016 and 2018, revised for the first time in 2019, and then again in 2023 as the musica viva Munich version. It was commissioned by Bavarian Radio’s musica viva with the support of the Friends of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra e.V.

"Among Simon Rattle's first concert programmes as the new chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony. The performances marked the beginning of a new chapter in Mahler interpretation, for Rattle, like his predecessors Jansons, Maazel and Kubelík, is an ardent admirer of the composer. BR-KLASSIK has now released the live recording of the concerts. Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony is perhaps the darkest work he ever wrote – its nickname is “The Tragic”."

Superlatives should be used sparingly. Nevertheless, there is probably no work in the centuries-old genre of programme music that is easier for listeners to understand than An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss. Moreover, no composition in the long series of sonorous descriptions of nature, including bird calls, pastoral sounds and storm effects was probably ever scored for as many instruments as this highly eventful hike through the Werdenfelser Land in Bavaria. No orchestra in the world can, with its salaried musicians alone, present this piece the way Strauss ideally envisioned it and as he proposes in the score: the composer calls for some 130 instrumentalists, including at least 12 horn players and, ideally, even more.