Bayerische Staatsoper Founds Own Label – Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings

At the end of May 2021, the Bayerische Staatsoper will present its very own in-house label, which will document the versatility of the institution and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester with releases of recent and past highlights of the repertoire in exclusive audio and video recordings. Gustav Mahler's 7th Symphony conducted by the General Music Director of the day, Kirill Petrenko, a recording of the 6th Academy Concert in the 2017/2018 season, will set the label off to a spectacular start on 28 May. Shortly thereafter follows an audio-visual recording of Die tote Stadt with Marlis Petersen and Jonas Kaufmann, also under Kirill Petrenko's baton.

Along with opera productions and concert recordings of major symphonic works, productions from the CAMPUS programme for children and young people and selected releases from the house's archive are also planned. Chamber music editions, which will provide a platform for the Bayerisches Staatsorchester Ensemble, complete the label's offering. "The founding of an in-house label is the consistent further development of our long-standing strategy of independence from record labels or TV channels and a further building block alongside our STAATSOPER.TV," explains General Manager Nikolaus Bachler. "The house is then free, in harmony with the performers and artists, to very specifically present the unrivalled, broadly diversified programme to even more classical music lovers all over the world."

Kirill Petrenko is the centre of focus with the label's first two releases: In the 2017/2018 season he conducted the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in a highly acclaimed interpretation of Gustav Mahler's 7th Symphony. Following a guest performance in London, Britain's Guardian newspaper described the concert as, "truly dazzling". The Arts Desk was brief and concise: "absolutely superlative on every level." The audio recording from Munich's Nationaltheater will be available from 28 May in specialist shops, online and via staatsoper.de/recordings.
Pre-orders can be made as of now.

The premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die tote Stadt, also under Kirill Petrenko's baton, was similarly celebrated by the press and audiences in autumn 2019. Marlis Petersen (Marie / Marietta) and Jonas Kaufmann (Paul) sang the main roles in the staging by Simon Stone. After the premiere, Joshua Barone wrote in the New York Times: "[The] work's comeback may have reached its peak at the Bavarian State Opera. It's difficult to imagine a better case for Die tote Stadt than was made in Munich." Available in July 2021 on DVD and Blu-ray.

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