The MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
is Germany’s oldest radio orchestra, and it celebrated its centenary in 2024. The orchestra remains committed to the principles that guided its founding; bringing cultural education and musical entertainment to people, live or via the airwaves; it reflects the creative spirit of central Germany, represented by composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Schumann, Liszt, and Weill. It cultivates musical traditions and contemporary music; the latest music and cross-genre concert formats are just as much a part of its program as performances of traditional repertoire.

As the region’s radio orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra also performs outside the musical centers of Central Germany. The production of exceptional repertoire for radio programs, digital formats, and the film score recording are increasingly part of its schedule.

The Chief Conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra – such as Kristjan Järvi, Jun Märkl, Fabio Luisi, Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, Herbert Kegel, and Hermann Abendroth – have shaped the orchestr’s versatility. Dennis Russell Davies has been principal conductor since summer of 2020. As an experienced orchestra educator and accomplished program planner, he shapes the ensemble’s unusual repertoire culture. Davies‘ performance and production of the complete Anton Bruckne’s symphonies (in their first versions) was a thematic focus of the years 2020-2024.

Dennis Russell Davies
activities as an opera and concert conductor, and as a pianist and chamber musician, are characterized by an extensive repertoire stretching from the Baroque to the latest music of our time. Widely considered to be one of the most innovative and adventurous conductors in the classical music world, he has successfully challenged and inspired audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

As a guest Dennis Russell Davies has conducted such renowned orchestras as those in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and the New York Philharmonic. In Europe he has worked with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Accademia di Santa Cecilia di Roma, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala di Milano, the Munich and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam.

Following his début at the Bayreuth Festival 1978-1980, his operatic work has included conducting at Salzburg Festival, Lincoln Center Festival New York, Houston Grand Opera, Hamburg and the Bavarian State Operas as well as Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera New York, Opéra National de Paris and Teatro Real in Madrid.

Dennis Russell Davies has been music director/chief conductor of important orchestras and opera houses in the US and Europe continuosly since 1969. Since 2018 Davies is Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Filharmonie Brno. In Autumn 2020 he assumed the position Chief Conductor of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, where a series of concerts and live broadcasts of the complete Bruckner-symphonies in their original versions culminated in the Gewandhaus 2024 on the composers 200th birthday and is documented with this Genuin release.