BAMBERG SYMPHONY
Jakub Hrůša, Chief Conductor
AT THE VATICAN, ELBPHILHARMONIE HAMBURG, AND IN SPAIN,
ORCHESTRA’S 2022/23 SEASON – CREATION – TO EXPLORE THEMES OF
RENEWAL AND NEW BEGINNINGS
Season to Open at the Rheingau Music Festival September 3, at the
Lucerne Festival September 10, and in Bamberg September 30
ORCHESTRA IS DEVELOPING GREENER TOURING PRACTICES
Bamberg, Germany, August 19, 2022 – The Bamberg Symphony, Europe’s touring orchestra, will
visit destinations both familiar and fresh in the 2022-23 season, entitled Creation, as it develops
greener touring practices in support of environmental health and in acknowledgment of a changed
post-COVID musical world. Beyond its beloved Bamberg home audience, the new season will take
audiences at the Vatican, in residency at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and in Spain, on a musical
journey that tells of new beginnings, origins and renewal, led by Chief conductor Jakub Hrůša.
Repertoire around these themes will include works by Brahms, Ligeti, Stravinsky, Arvo Pärt,
Dvořák, and Bruckner.
The 2022-23 Bamberg Symphony season will open at the Rheingau Music Festival on September 3,
with Honorary Conductor Christoph Eschenbach, and at the Lucerne Festival on September 10,
with Jakub Hrůša on the podium, before returning to Bamberg for its opening at home on
September 30.
For the Bamberg Symphony, as a traveling orchestra, the topic of the earth and environment is a
matter close to the heart. As CEO and Artistic Director Marcus Rudolf Axt elaborates, in the
context of Creation, “We would like to rethink our responsibility for culture – culture also as a
mandate to preserve creation, and in this way to provide musical food for thought that at the same
time promises artistic listening pleasure. We will also take a new look at our travels as a world
orchestra, which will literally pick up speed again after the pandemic, from the point of view of
environmental compatibility. There are a number of ideas for this that we will be working on in the
coming months and years.”
Axt emphasizes, “Touring is our core business, but we want to play more residencies in the future
and no longer hop from city to city, especially not fly from city to city. For trips in Central Europe,
we have decided to travel exclusively by train. If we have to fly, it should be direct flights. We want
to offset the emissions with projects that make a difference in the destination country instead of
simply transferring money to companies for climate compensation. At the beginning of January, for
example, we had a concert at the Philharmonie in Paris, where we had to switch to a plane at short
notice to get there because of a rail line closure. One of our employees then found a project in the
south of France in which a burnt forest is being reforested. We then made sure that the money
would not be wasted on administrative costs, but would actually go to the project one-to-one.”
“We realized through the pandemic that we as an orchestra are being heard publicly, even on nonmusical topics. Politicians suddenly paid more attention to what classical music actually does, what
the tax money is used for, what ‘society’ gets out of it. On a tour with eight to ten concerts, we
reach 20,000 people, including decision-makers from politics and business. That already has a
multiplier effect.”
The touring itinerary of the Bamberg Symphony, through January 2023, including repertoire and
guest artists, is below.

Jakub Hrůša
Jakub Hrůša has been principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony since September 2016. He is
the fifth Chief conductor in the orchestra’s history. “Even before I had the chance to conduct this
jewel among European orchestras, I had been a huge admirer,” says Jakub Hrůša. “They embody
orchestral culture in the fullest sense of the word. Since the orchestra’s roots are in Prague, we
breathe the same musical air, so to speak, share the same cultural background, and are very close
artistically and historically. With the Bamberg Symphony, every phrase can turn to be a little
miracle, and every concert is a transfiguration.”

Bamberg Symphony
The Bamberg Symphony is the only orchestra of world renown that is not based in a vibrant
metropolis. The “magnetic effect” of the orchestra goes outwards: as a touring orchestra, the
symphony orchestra carries the rhythm and musical echo of its hometown, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site, all over the world. Since its founding, Bamberg’s sound image has been shaped by
almost 7,500 concerts in over 500 cities and 63 countries around the world, helping to put the town
on the musical map, and becoming a cultural ambassador for Bavaria and the whole of Germany.
They regularly tour, for example, the USA, South America, Japan and China. The orchestra, whose
roots reach back to Prague, sees itself as a cross-border, cosmopolitan ambassador of sound. With
its principal conductor Jakub Hrůša, who hails from the Czech Republic, these roots have been
given new impetus since 2016.
The Bamberg Symphony describes its mission in short words: resonating worldwide. They create
resonance with their playing. Artistically and humanly, as an orchestra and as a beacon of cultural
society. In all of this, the focus is doubly on sustainability. Because the traces the orchestra leaves
behind want to make a difference musically as well as ecologically and contribute to actively shaping
the future.
The orchestra’s characteristic sound is much praised and has often won awards, most recently the
International Classical Music Award (ICMA) for Symphonic Music for their recording of Anton
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 – The 3 Versions, conducted by Jakub Hrůša, and released by Accentus Music in a
co-production with BR-KLASSIK. In 2020, the Bamberg Symphony received the Bavarian State
Prize for Music. The typical sound of the “Bambergers” is described as dark, warm, and radiant. It
is worth discovering for all new listeners.
www.bamberger-symphoniker.de
www.bambergsymphony.com

November 12-13, 2022
FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE DI MUSICA E ARTE SACRA
Rome, Basilica Papale San Paolo fuori le Mura, Vatican
Jakub Hrůša, Conductor
Christina Landshamer, Soprano
Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone
Brahms A German Requiem op. 45
Bruckner Symphony No 9 in D minor
January 16-17, 2023
RESIDENCY AT THE ELBPHILHARMONIE
Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie
Jakub Hrůša Conductor
January 16
Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F major op. 90
Ligeti Lontano
Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G major op. 88
January 17
Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World,” Op. 95
Ligeti Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes
Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor op. 98
January 19-26, 2023
SPAIN
January 19 Barcelona, L`Auditori
January 21 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín
January 22 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Auditorio Alfredo Kraus
January 24 Madrid, Auditorio Nacional de Música
January 25 Alicante, Auditorio de Alicante
January 26 Zaragoza, Auditorio de Zaragoza
Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Patricia Kopatchinskaja Violin
Orfeó Català Chorus
Works
Arvo Pärt Berliner Messe (Berlin Mass) for mixed choir (SATB) and string orchestra
Beethoven Leonora Overture No.3, Op.72b
Stravinski Violin Concerto in D
Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G major op. 88
Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World,” Op. 95