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Helen Donath is one of the greatly admired lyric sopranos of her age, noted for her pure timbre and interpretive powers, as well as her vocal longevity. She is equally adept on the opera stage, in recital, and in oratorios. Like many singers of her generation, she fell in love with opera through the Mario Lanza movie The Great Caruso. She first studied music at Del Mar College in her hometown of Corpus Christi at the age of 14 and later in New York with Paola Novikova, where she made her concert debut in 1958. After auditioning for an agent who sent her to the Cologne Opera, she made her opera stage debut in 1962 in the comprimario role of Inez in Verdi's Il Trovatore. In 1966, she joined the Munich Staatsoper as a guest artist, beginning a long association with that house. During the 1960s, she also briefly became a protégé of Herbert von Karajan, but her persistent refusal of his offers of roles she thought were too heavy brought that rapport to an end. She was to have made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1968, but canceled because of her later pregnancy; she didn't appear at the Met until 1991. In 1970, she made her Salzburg Festival debut as Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Her United States opera debut was in 1971 as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, the role of her 1974 Chicago debut. In 1979, she first appeared at Covent Garden as Anne in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. Until her return to the United States in the early '90s, the majority of her career took place in Germany and Austria, and she was awarded the title of Kammersaengerin. Her husband, who has also acted as her vocal advisor, is pianist, choir director, and conductor Klaus Donath. Their son, Alexander, is a stage director.

Brigitte Fassbaender is a prominent mezzo-soprano known for her acclaimed performances of the standard opera repertoire. Born in Berlin, in 1939, she had a childhood dream of becoming an actress, just her like mother, the film star Sabine Peters. As she realized how good her singing voice was, Fassbaender auditioned for the Nuremberg Conservatory, where her father, the famous baritone Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender taught. She studied with her father from 1957 until 1961, and in 1961 made her debut at the Bavarian State Opera as a Page in Lohengrin. However, she considers Nicklaus in Les contes d'Hoffmann her debut role; it was her first truly solo part. A 1962 telecast of Eugene Onegin with Fritz Wunderlich, in which she sang Olga, has been preserved. She sang minor roles for several years, and in 1965 got her big break when she was assigned the role of Clarice in Rossini's La pietra del paragone. She also sang at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf-Duisburg, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt am Main. In 1971, she sang Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier for her debut at London's Covent Garden. This role also served for her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, in 1974. Because of her admirable figure she was always in demand for trouser roles such as Octavian, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Sextus in La Clemenza di Tito, and Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus. At the Salzburg Festival she sang Dorabella in Così fan tutte from 1972 until 1978; in 1989, she returned as Klytemnestra in Elektra. She also appeared there as Eboli in Don Carlos and Amneris in Aida, under the direction of Karajan. In 1983 and 1984, she sang Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, at Bayreuth. At Vienna, in 1976, Fassbaender sang in the world premiere of Einem's "Kabale und Liebe." Her career took her to the major opera houses, including Milan, Tokyo, Paris, San Francisco, and Geneva. She made each of her characters a living entity, embellishing them with touches which made them unique. She was a favored singer of many conductors, including Herbert von Karajan and Carlos Kleiber. Fassbaender was also a highly esteemed recitalist and concert performer. She was most successful with narrative songs, particularly when she had the opportunity to tell a complete story and create one or more characters. In her performances, Fassbaender respected the dramatic and musical needs of a composition, without allowing either to overpower her interpretation. She was especially admired for her interpretation of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and Brahms' Alto Rhapsody. Her lieder recitals were always eagerly anticipated, particularly her performances of Schubert and Schumann. In 1987, Fassbaender's Deutsche Grammophon recording of songs by Liszt and Strauss brought her a Grammophone Award. Fassbaender's other critically acclaimed recordings include Schubert's Winterreise, Karl Loewe's Frauenliebe, and Die Schöne Magelone by Brahms. She appeared less often in oratorios, because of her busy opera schedule, however, remained in demand for works of Bach, Rossini, and Mendelssohn. As she cut back singing in opera houses, she began a second career as a stage director, beginning at Coburg with Rossini's La Cenerentola. Since that time, she has staged many operas, including Der Rosenkavalier and Franz Schreker's Der ferne Klang. Having retired as an opera singer, she teaches vocal music at the Musikhochscule in Munich.

Hans Sotin made a powerful impression in several venues in Europe well before he had reached the age of 30. His instrument had both a cutting edge and considerable velvet about the edges. His fluency in the upper register led him to the role of Wotan in Wagner's Ring der Nibelungen. There, he supplied a near ideal balance between declamatory vigor and a long-lined flow of beautiful tone. Only an interpretive shortfall kept him from being definitive in the daunting assignment. Over the years, some diminution in sheer size was noted, but the voice retained most of its handsome quality of sound. After studies at the Dortmund Hochschule für Musik, Sotin made his stage debut at Essen in 1962 as the Police Commissioner in Der Rosenkavalier. Two years later, he was engaged by the Hamburg Staatsoper, where he took part in the premieres of operas by Krzysztof Penderecki, Boris Blacher, and Gottfried von Einem in addition to singing increasingly more important roles in the standard repertory. In 1970, he appeared at the Glyndebourne Festival singing an impressive Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. A year later, he appeared at Bayreuth for the first time as the Landgraf in Tannhäuser. In America, Chicago heard him before he appeared at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1971, making an auspicious debut with Chicago Lyric Opera, he faced down the large-voiced Filippo of Nicolai Ghiaurov with a stentorian Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo and proved a menacing Rheingold Fafner versus the softer-voiced Fasolt of Bengt Rundgren. Not even the mighty Alberich of Gustav Neidlinger outvoiced Sotin in the Lyric production. In 1972, Sotin made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera singing Sarastro, the first of many roles he presented to New York audiences. Debuts followed in other important centers as well: the Wiener Staatsoper (1973), Covent Garden (1974), and La Scala (1976). In addition to his stage appearances, Sotin has been heard in oratorio, particularly in cantatas by Bach, Haydn's The Seasons (a worthy recording of this was made with Dorati), the Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9 of Beethoven, and Mahler's Symphony No. 8. Recordings of Tannhäuser and Lohengrin represent him at close to his best. A live Parsifal from Bayreuth casts his fluent Gurnemanz against the unsteady, leathery Parsifal of Peter Hofmann.

The Bavarian Radio Chorus (German: Chor des bayerischen Rundfunks) is among the most versatile of Europe's major choirs, with a repertory that extends from historical performances of Baroque works, through major oratorios, choral symphonies, and operas, to contemporary music. Long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the chorus also performs independently and collaborates with conductors beyond Bavaria and beyond Germany.

The Bavarian Radio Chorus was founded in 1946, actually predating its orchestral partner; the two groups began working together in 1950. The chorus was one of the first new groups to be constituted in post-World War II Germany. It has shared conductors with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, including Eugen Jochum (1949-1960), Rafael Kubelik (1961-1979), Colin Davis (1983-1992), Lorin Maazel (1993-2002), and Mariss Jansons, from 2003 until his death in 2019. The artistic director has sometimes been a separate figure; as of the early 2020s, the artistic director was Howard Arman. The chorus has also performed with guest conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, and historical-performance specialist Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In addition to major European symphony orchestras, it has collaborated with period instrument groups such as Il Giardino Armonico, Concerto Köln, and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Along with orchestral performances, the BR Chorus has presented a subscription concert series in Munich since 1998. The group offers contemporary music in a special "Musica Viva" series and invites amateurs to sing with the choir in a series called "cOHRwürmer" -- roughly, "choir earworms." Matching the mission of its radio network host, the BR Chorus aims some programming at young listeners and musicians.

The Bavarian Radio Chorus has a catalog of more than 50 recordings, made solo, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, and with other ensembles. They cover a wide range of genres and music from various periods and national traditions. The BR Chorus has recorded for leading labels, including Oehms and Deutsche Grammophon; since the formation of Bavarian Radio's label, BR Klassik, in the late 2000s decade, it has recorded mostly for that label, issuing as many as six albums annually. In 2020, the BR Chorus under Arman released a recording of Mozart's Requiem in D minor, K. 626, with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. ~ James Manheim

Of the three major orchestras based in Munich, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is probably the most prominent and arguably the finest. It has been the most heavily recorded of the three and one of the most often-recorded ensembles in the world, its recordings appearing on a variety of major and minor labels over the years. Moreover, all of its music directors have been internationally acclaimed as among the leading conductors of their time.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was established in 1949, and from that time to the present, has functioned under the financial and organizational auspices of the Bavarian Radio of Munich. Eugen Jochum was appointed the ensemble's first music director, and he immediately proceeded to build the orchestra into one of Germany's finest. Its initial recordings were made under his baton in 1950. The orchestra's reputation in concert developed even more quickly under Jochum. Several critically acclaimed tours of Europe throughout the '50s, reaching from Austria to Great Britain, established its prominence early on. Igor Stravinsky led the ensemble in performances of his own works in 1951, and four years later, Paul Hindemith conducted a program featuring his music. Other prominent artists and conductors also appeared in the '50s, including the orchestra's next music director, Rafael Kubelik, who succeeded Jochum in 1961. Kubelik's notable recordings with Bavarian Radio Symphony include several of the Mahler symphonies and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder. Kubelik was a conservative in matters of repertory, largely focusing on Classical and Romantic works. He also made a number of successful concert tours of Europe and North America with the Bavarian Radio Symphony in both the 1960s and '70s.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony continued to attract major artists and guest conductors, including Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta, and Leonard Bernstein, who made regular appearances with the ensemble beginning in 1976. Kubelik resigned in September 1979, and Kiril Kondrashin, a recent defector from the Soviet Union and one of the world's most respected conductors, was chosen to become his successor. He was never officially named music director, though he functioned in that capacity, and when he suddenly died of a heart attack in 1981, the orchestra was left without a director until 1983, when Sir Colin Davis took the podium. During his tenure, many successful tours were undertaken, including ones to Japan in 1984 and to the United States in 1986. Davis' critically acclaimed recordings with the Bavarian Radio Symphony include releases of the Mendelssohn symphonies and Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. Lorin Maazel succeeded him in 1993 and continued the tradition of conducting and recording many choral and vocal works. The orchestra's releases under Maazel's direction include compelling performances of several Mahler works with Waltraud Meier.

Maazel's tenure with the orchestra ended in 2002, and he was succeeded the following year by Mariss Jansons. In 2006, Jansons and Bavarian Radio Symphony won a Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance for its recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 on the EMI Classics label. Since 2009, the orchestra has also recorded under its own BR Klassik label, where it released recordings of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 as well as Schumann's Symphony No. 1 with Schubert's Symphony No. 3 in 2019. Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony enjoyed a fruitful collaboration, greatly expanding the orchestra's recordings while earning major prizes. Jansons' term as chief conductor ended with his death on December 1, 2019, shortly after leading his final concert with the group in early November. Sir Simon Rattle was named the orchestra's next chief conductor in 2021, with his term set to begin with the 2023-2024 season.

The orchestra, which has regularly broadcast concerts over Bavarian Radio throughout its existence, consists of 115 members and performs in the Philharmonie Munich am Gasteig and the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. Sometimes known outside Germany as the Munich Symphony, in addition to the full orchestra, several smaller ensembles, including the Koeckert-Quartet, the Bach Collegium Munich, and the Munich Brass Ensemble, have been established by members of the larger group. The popularity and critical acclaim given these smaller ensembles reflects the high standard of musicianship present within the full orchestra. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke

One of the most enduringly popular conductors to come out of Eastern Europe during the postwar era, Rafael Kubelik had the good fortune to outlive the communist Czech regime from which he exiled himself, and to return to his homeland a hero late in his career. Throughout his career, Kubelik was a very popular conductor, and a critical favorite as well on two continents, especially where late Romantic and modern works were concerned.

The son of violinist Jan Kubelik (1880-1940), Rafael Kubelik studied at the Prague Conservatory with the intention of becoming a composer. He made his debut before the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at age 19, and in 1939 became the Music Director of the National Opera in Brno, Czechoslovakia. In 1941 he became the Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he held until 1948. In 1948, with the establishment of a communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia, Kubelik left his homeland, and became an exile for the next 40 years.

He became the conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1950, at a difficult time in the orchestra's history. Founded 1891 by Theodore Thomas, who was also the orchestra's conductor until 1905, when Frederick Stock succeeded him. Stock had held the conductor's post until his death in 1942, after which the orchestra had gone through a turbulent period, and three music directors in barely eight years, one of whom--Wilhelm Furtwangler--had resigned before ever taking the appointment because of the controversy over his alleged wartime activities.

Kubelik's three years with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were, at the time, a frustating period. By temperament a persuasive rather than a dictatorial figure, and a diplomat rather than a martinet, he lacked the ability to control the orchestra. Additionally, at age 36, Kubelik's musical sensibilities had been shaped in the early twentieth century rather than the late nineteenth, as had been the case with his immediate predecessors--he programmed far too much modern music for the taste of critics and subscribers. Ultimately the fit just wasn't right between Kubelik and the orchestra, and he gave up the appointment after three years, to be succeeded by Fritz Reiner.

Where Kubelik was fortunate was that his appointment coincided with the orchestra making its first major move into long-playing records, on the Mercury label. Among the most celebrated of his two dozen recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was a riveting performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, and one of several acclaimed performances of Smetana's My Fatherland. Following that appointment, Kubelik served for three years, from 1955 thru 1958, as Music Director of the Covent Garden Opera in London, where he conducted the British premieres of Janacek's Jenufa and Berlioz's Les Troyens. From 1961 until 1979, he held the post of Music Director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony in Munich, with which he also recorded extensively (for Deutsche Grammophon), and became the principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York during the 1973-74 season as well. He also was a most welcomed guest conductor in Chicago on many occasions throughout his later career. During 1973, he moved to Switzerland and became a Swiss citizen.

Kubelik was celebrated as a master of rich orchestral color, which was brought out most vividly in the late Romantic and post-Romantic scores for which he was most popular. This included much of the late nineteenth century Russian repertory, and virtually all of the nationalist music of the era, especially the work of his fellow countrymen Antonin Dvorak, Leos Janacek, and Bedrich Smetana. He recorded the latter's Ma Vlast (My Fatherland) at least four times on as many different labels, from the monaural era into the digital era, the last at a live performance in Prague during 1990 at a concert commemorating the liberation of the country from Communist rule, a recording of which was later released on the Supraphon label. He also appeared as guest conductor with virtually all of the world's major orchestras, and recorded extensively in England, America, and Germany.

With the fall of the Communist dictatorship, Kubelik, who had been ill intermittently for several years, returned to Czechoslovakia for the first time in four decades with the intention of resuming full-time his intended career as a composer. As it was, he had authored five operas, several symphonies, and various works for soloist and orchestra, vocal works, and chamber pieces, although he was far and away best known as a conductor. He died in Lucerne in 1996 after a long illness.

Rafael Kubelik was among the last conductors to have studied and started his career before World War II (Sir Georg Solti is now the sole active survivor of that generation), and embodied a tradition of robust post-Romantic music making that was ideally suited to the recording medium as well as the concert hall--the sheer number of his recordings that remain in print (including four versions of Ma Vlast), and their equal distribution between the "historical" and modern sections of classical music departments, speaks volumes about his enduring popularity and the validity of his performances, recordings, and interpretations. In Czech music, he had few, if any, equals, but he was also well-suited to the general late Romantic European repertory, and his complete Beethoven and Mahler cycles remained in print for many years. Although relatively little of his operatic work was preserved on record, the small number of these are also well regarded, especially his Rigoletto. ~ Bruce Eder

Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Mercury [7]

Dvorak Symphony No. 8 Deutsche Grammophon [7]

Mahler Complete Symphonies Deutsche Grammophon [6]

Mussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition Mercury [8]

Smetana My Fatherland Supraphon [8]

My Fatherland Deutsche Grammophon [7]

My Fatherland London [5]

My Fatherland Mercury [7]

Verdi Rigoletto Deutsche Grammophon [6]