Sir Roger Norrington, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and the MDR Radio Choir Leipzig at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London, August 17th, 2003 after a performance of Berlioz´ Benvenuto Cellini (Photo: Henrik Hoffmann / SWR).

In 1945, when the American military government started recruiting musicians to form the radio orchestra of the newly-founded broadcasting station "Radio Stuttgart", nobody could have guessed how swiftly this orchestra would develop and how dramatic its rise to artistic prominence would be in the course of the next few decades. Today the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is one of the state's most important musical ambassadors, giving about 80 concerts a year in Stuttgart, in the area covered by SWR broadcasts, and in musical centers in Germany and abroad. The orchestra is a frequent guest - often within the context of international music festivals - for example, in London, Paris, Ravenna, Strasbourg, Vienna and Zurich, as well as at the "Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele". Since the 1950¡¯s, the RSO has regularly played at the "Schwetzingen Festival", where every year it gives opera performances - including numerous world premi¨¨res and rediscovered rare operas - as well as orchestra master classes in Schwetzingen Castle and gala concerts in Speyer Cathedral.

In addition to these frequent concerts, the orchestra also engages in numerous studio productions for the broadcasting station¡¯s radio and television program and for the recording industry (several of these recordings have received prizes). The RSO documents the results of its work, past and present, on the SWR¡¯s own CD label SWRmusic (former faszinationmusik), released in conjunction with haenssler CLASSIC.

Since its formation the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra has concentrated on two thematic focal points. On the one hand, with its exemplary interpretations it fosters the great classic and romantic repertoire of the symphonic tradition; on the other, the RSO is also a leading promoter of contemporary music. In its early years, the newly-founded broadcasting station started up special series of concerts devoted to the promotion of contemporary music. These later led to the "Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik" ("Days of Contemporary Music"), and to the series "Musik unserer Zeit" ("Music of our Times") and "Tage fuer Neue Musik Stuttgart" ("Stuttgart New Music Days"). Many important composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, Pierre Boulez, Hans-Werner Henze, Krzysztof Penderecki, Luciano Berio, Mauricio Kagel, Johannes Kalitzke and Matthias Pintscher have conducted performances of their own works at concerts given by the Stuttgart RSO. Today, the festival "eclat" and the concept behind the performances of "attacca Geistesgegenwart.Musik", provide a forum for avantgarde music, including the first performances of numerous works commissioned by the SWR. Here young composers find a platform where they can realise their musical experiments and concepts of sound.

The first important conductors to work with the RSO regularly were Hans M¨¹ller-Kray and Carl Schuricht. From the orchestra¡¯s early years on, a large number of internationally renowned guest conductors have given concerts with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, such as Ernest Ansermet, Sir John Barbirolli, Karl Böhm, Ferenc Fricsay, Wilhelm Furtwaengler, Erich Kleiber and Hans Knappertsbusch and Leopold Stokowski; later guest conductors have included Sir George Solti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Herbert Blomstedt, Erich Leinsdorf, Ferdinand Leitner, Gary Bertini and Kurt Sanderling. First-class soloists from all generations have given concerts with the Stuttgart RSO, among them Alfred Brendel, Maria Callas, Wolfgang Windgassen, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Arthur Grumiaux, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gidon Kremer, Mauricio Pollini, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Tabea Zimmermann - to name but a few.

The year 1971 marked an important caesura in the history of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, for in this year Sergiu Celibidache, who had previously been a frequent guest conductor for the orchestra, was appointed Principal Conductor and with his intensive and inspiring rehearsal work developed a new, pioneering ideal of sound which shaped performance style for many years. But he did not only present the results of his fruitful work with the orchestra in Stuttgart; under Celibidache the RSO made its first appearances on the concert platforms of great international musical centres. The "Celibidache Edition", recently released by Deutsche Grammophon, contains a selection of fine recordings of concerts with works by Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Ravel, Respighi, Strauss and Stravinsky. The latest issue in this series is "Der Taschengarten" ("Pocket Garden"), the only composition by Sergiu Celibidache which he authorised and recorded during his lifetime.

Sir Neville Marriner, who took over as Principal Conductor in 1983, widened the orchestra¡¯s radius by undertaking international tours to the Far East and the USA with them. He also stepped up the number of gramophone records produced, resulting in over 80 recordings with works ranging from Beethoven to Bernstein. He was succeeded in 1989 by Gianluigi Gelmetti, who concentrated more on the Italian and French musical repertoire, especially on the works of Gioacchino Rossini and Maurice Ravel. Under his leadership the Stuttgart RSO was invited to be the first orchestra from outside Italy to perform at the "Rossini Festival" in Pesaro. In addition, Gelmetti and the RSO recorded the complete orchestral works of Maurice Ravel for EMI. With Georges Pr¨ºtre, who became the Artistic Director in 1996 and is still Laureate Conductor of the RSO, another charismatic personality presided over the orchestra. Among a series of concerts given in the course of a tour to celebrate the orchestra¡¯s fiftieth anniversary, Pretre and the RSO performed in the Musikvereinssaal in Vienna. The CD of Richard Strauss¡¯s opera "Capriccio" with Dame Felicity Lott in the leading role, released on the Forlane label, is one of the most impressive recordings documenting Pretre¡¯s collaboration with the RSO.

Today the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra¡¯s Permanent Guest Conductors are Andrey Boreyko and Peter Eötvös. Each of them has, by his regular work with the orchestra and his own special focal points in the repertoire help to shape the image of the orchestra. Andrey Boreyko, the orchestra´s Principal Guest Conductor, focuses on 20th century music of Eastern Europe - especially on the works of Dmitri Shostakovich (centenary in 2006) - and on a wide range of styles in contemporary music in general. In June 2004 Boreyko recorded Arvo Paert´s composition "Lamentate" for piano and orchestra with the Stuttgart RSO as a world premiere recording. Peter Eötvös enriches the RSO¡¯s concert programmes with his interpretations of modern music and by his expert skills at communicating music, verbally as well. His recording of Bartok's opera "Duke Bluebirds Castle" with the Stuttgart RSO has been nominated for the "GRAMMY 2004".

The RSO has also worked together with Heinz Holliger for many years; in addition to Holliger¡¯s own compositions, the focus has regularly been on the works of composers dear to Holliger¡¯s heart, such as Olivier Messiaen and Charles Koechlin. His intensive work on Koechlin¡¯s oeuvre culminated in 2002 in a film portrait of Koechlin¡¯s life, for which Holliger recorded exemplary ex-tracts from the composer¡¯s music. Two CDs with orchestral works by Koechlin were released by SWR music, this series will be continued.