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The Kammersymphonie Berlin was founded by musicians from the Berliner Symphoniker (Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester) and members from the three orchestras of the opera houses in Berlin. They made their debut in January 1991 and since then have established themselves - together with their artistic director Jürgen Bruns - as the leading specialist orchestra in Berlin and Germany for high-class, but rarely played orchestral music.
Their repertoire is focussed on music of the classical modernist era. In the early 20th century, the so-called Golden Twenties, Berlin was home to a fascinating, very varied music scene in Berlin, whose important impulses have left their mark even in today’s musical developments. The Kammersymphonie Berlin is a Berlin ensemble that symbolises this tradition. As most of these composers were later outlawed by Nazi Germany, many of their works are still virtually and quite unjustly unknown - a matter of concern for Jürgen Bruns as conductor and the main reason for the ensemble’s existence. For their work, the conductor and his orchestra received the Siemens Support Award offered by the prestigious Siemens Music Foundation in 2001 and in 2005.
One characteristic feature in the orchestra’s programmes is their integration of other art forms and combination of different kinds of music. In addition to their core repertoire, the orchestra not only plays the classical orchestral repertoire, but also promotes contemporary music by composers such as Detlef Glanert, Victor Bruns, Anatol Vieru and Carlo Domeniconi. Special highlights for the orchestra were the joint concerts with Alfred Schnittke and Jean Francaix.
Famous for its interesting programming and conceptual concerts, the Kammersymphonie Berlin attracts renowned soloists and - in addition to the regular Berlin concerts at the Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie - the orchestra performs at venues throughout Germany and has received invitations from international festivals such as Ravello (Italy), Dresden Music Festival, the Kurt-Weill-Fest Dessau and the Festival International de Musique de Sion-Valais (Switzerland).
The Kammersymphonie Berlin regularly produces CD's as well as radio and film music recordings. For the EDA label, the ensemble released orchestral works by Franz Schreker, Ernst Toch (1998) and works by Berthold Goldschmidt, Roberto Gerhard and Kurt Weill (2002). In 2006, EDA published “Poland Abroad”, featuring works by exiled Polish composers Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Szymon Laks, Jerzy Fitelberg and Alexandre Tansman. In autumn 2006, Deutsche Gramomophon released a recording of German 20th century composer Gerhard Frommel by the Kammersymphonie Berlin and early in 2007 the label Capriccio released a CD with music to fairy tales by Andersen with the orchestra and actress Corinna Harfouch as speaker. All CD's include world premiere recordings.
Together with Jürgen Bruns, the orchestra received the "Förderpreis Musik 2002" (Sponsorship Prize 2002) of the Musikakademie (Music Academy) Rheinsberg and the federal state of Brandenburg.
Guests and Soloists: Tatjana Blome, Peter Bruns, Eberhard Esche, Jean Françaix, Hakan Hardenberger, Christian Lindberg, Frank Lunte, Dieter Mann, Victoria Postnikowa, Irina Schnittke, Gregor Seyffert, Vladimir Stoupel, Roman Trekel, Iris Vermillion, Jörg Waschinsky, Scot Weir, Endrik Wottrich, Lothar Zagrosek |
