The Bamberg Symphony's collaboration with Bavarian Radio dates back to the 1950s; today they still enjoy a close partnership, the source of countless concert relays, studio recordings and coproductions for CD, which constitute an impressive sound archive documenting the Orchestra's unique, internationally renowned sound.
Hans Zender, the composer, conductor and writer on music, was once asked how best to get more familiar with music, to which he answered: Listen, listen, listen! We couldn't agree more, so here's your chance to experience for yourself the Bamberg Symphony sound.
Sergei Rachmaninoff 5 Études-tableaux (arr. for orchestra by Ottorino Respighi)
Ottorino Respighi Trittico Botticelliano
Giuseppe Martucci Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75
Bamberg Symphony
Riccardo Frizza Conductor
Label: Pentatone
PTC: 5187419
Recording year: 2025
Release Date: 6 February 2026
“The Bamberger and Frizza symphonies offer a meticulous reading, attentive to the nuances and interplay between sections, always emphasizing with expressive intent, culminating in a third movement that is a pure masterpiece of orchestral conducting.”
— Scherzo, March 2026
César Franck Grande Pièce Symphonique, Op. 17 for Orgel & Orchester
César Franck Les Éolides
Charles-Marie Widor La Nuit de Walpurgis, Op. 60
Bamberg Symphony
Fabien Gabel Conductor
Christian Schmitt Organ
Label: CPO
UPC/EAN: 0761203563227
Recording year: 2023
Release date: 11 September 2025
“Under the direction of Fabien Gabel, the Bamberg Symphony once again achieve a major musical triumph. In Franck’s Grande Pièce Symphonique, the moving, dramatic intensity with which the composition is brought to life is truly captivating.”
— Opernratgeber, October 2025
Antonín Dvořák Ein Heldenlied, Op. 111
Aleksandr Glazunov Zur Erinnerung an einen Helden – Symphonische Elegie, Op. 8
Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40
Bamberg Symphony
Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Label: Accentus Music
UPC/EAN: 4260234833416
Recording years: September 2023 & February 2025
Release date: 26 September 2025
“Hrůša lets his Bamberg Symphony play with tension, bounce, and narrative, giving Dvořák’s A Hero’s Song a very special quality. (…) Especially astonishing are the richness of detail and the clarity with which quotations from other Strauss works become apparent.”
Remy Franck, Pizzicato, September 2025
Max Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Erich Wolfgang Korngold Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Erich Wolfgang Korngold Die Tote Stadt, Op. 12
Erich Wolfgang Korngold Suite, Op. 11, arranged by Spindler for Violin and Orchestra
Erich Wolfgang Korngold Die stumme Serenade, Op. 36 (transcribed by Sonnenmoser for Violin & Piano)
Bamberg Symphony
Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Bomsori Kim Violin
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
UPC/EAN: 00028948674527
Recording year: 2025
Release date: 2025
During the three recording days in the Joseph-Keilberth Hall in Bamberg, an inspiring dialogue developed between Bomsori Kim, the Bamberg Symphony, and their chief conductor Jakub Hrůša, clearly audible in the interpretations of the concertos and two shorter works by Korngold. Bomsori Kim also performs, accompanied by pianist Thomas Hoppe, two pieces from Korngold’s musical comedy Die stumme Serenade.
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 2 in C minor
WAB 102
Bamberg Symphony
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Label: Accentus Music
ACC30652
"It is a splendid interpretation, coherent and full of tension, well structured, logical in tempo and well-breathed.“
"Eschenbach concentrates on the fine structures in an often chamber-musically transparent, delicately lively music-making.
The precise and beautiful playing of the Bamberger Symphoniker can only be praised to the skies."
Remy Franck, pizzicato, September 2024
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D minor
WAB 109
Bamberg Symphony
Jakub Hrůša, conductor
Label: Accentus Music
ACC30605
"If there is such a thing as the ideal Bruckner sound, the Bamberg Symphony must come very close to it. Warm, deep-toned, burnished without being pointlessly luxurious, the orchestra’s way with the lyrical second-subject group in the Ninth Symphony’s opening moment perfectly balances both the sensual and intellectual appeal of Bruckner’s music.“
Terry Blain, BBC Music Magazine, June 2024
Igor Stravinsky: Violin Concerto in D
Béla Bartók: Rhapsody No. 1 & No. 2
Bohuslav Martinů: Suite concertante & Méditation
Frank Peter Zimmermann (Violin)
Bamberg Symphony
Conductor: Jakub Hrůša
Label: BIS
"Here (in Stravinsky's Violin Concerto) we can already see how well orchestra and soloist understand each other, how precisely they listen and react to each other, how they capture the humor of Stravinsky's music without putting it on display. In Bartók's music, folk-like simplicity and artistic expression form an ideal alliance. Accents push themselves forward without being bold. The brief climaxes and recesses have an organic effect. The slow movement with Martinů shows how arios Zimmermann and the Bambergers act. An all-round success!"
Chistoph Vratz, concerti
Richard Wagner - Prelude and Liebestod from "Tristan and Isolde"
Gustav Mahler - Totenfeier
Gustav Mahler - Adagietto from Symphony No. 5
Richard Strauss - Tod und Verklärung
Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hrůša
2023 Accentus Music
Order Number: ACC30599
Hans Rott: Symphony No. 1
Gustav Mahler: Blumine
Anton Bruckner: Symphonic Prelude in C minor
Deutsche Grammophon
Item Number: 14305
"Jakub Hrůša, who touchingly describes in a personal preface when and how he came across Rott's work, is audibly intimately involved with it. He savours all the effects and dynamic developments magnificently with his Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. With great attention to detail and clear ideas, conductor and orchestra structure the work."
"The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra are in top form in this recording and spoil us with wonderfully finely differentiated orchestral playing. Even in the greatest culminations, transparency is maintained."
"An important release in a sonically and interpretatively inspiring realisation. Especially in the case of Hans Rott, this new recording should have reference status."
Dirk Schauß, Online Merker - Die internationale Kulturplattform
"After the finely laid out first movement, the Adagio is magnificently accomplished and free of any pathos. Hrusa first conducts the Scherzo as a great folk festival, dance-like and whirling, before allowing the composer to look back on this outburst of folksiness as if in disbelief and almost fear."
Remy Franck, Pizzicato
Vol. 4
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1 and 8 Hungarian Dances
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 6
Tudor 1741
"Powerfully flowing, warm and lyrical: the first movement of Johannes Brahms’ First Symphony is exciting in this also very spontaneous interpretation by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor Jakub Hrůša."
"The Scherzo is a frenetic furioso that the Bamberg Symphony, under Hrůša’s inspiring direction, plays with bouncy verve and colorfulness."
"The orchestra certainly shows itself to be a flexible and high-caliber sounding body throughout."
Remy Franck, Pizzicato
Vol. 3
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 7
Tudor 1742
When we and our principal conductor Jakub Hrůša had the idea of combining symphonies by Antonín Dvořák and Johannes Brahms and releasing our recordings at regular intervals, no one knew anything about the challenges from 2020 onwards. All the more reason, therefore, for us to present to you the last two CDs with which we may crown the complete works. Enjoy!
"With Hrůša the beginning of the first movement is of directly magical sensuality. One has never heard it so tenderly, so sweetly and transcendently."
"Hrůša manages to create a great arc across all four movements; he leads the ravishingly musical Bamberg Symphony Orchestra with verve and brilliance through the work, whose importance, whose grandeur becomes particularly impressing through this interpretation."
Remy Franck, Pizzicato
Anton Bruckner: Symphonie Nr. 4
3 versions + alternative movements and fragments
Bamberg Symphony, Jakub Hrůša
4 CDs // Accentus ACC30533
"What the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra makes of it is indescribable and undoubtedly absolutely fascinating. In the more than 50 years I have been familiar with this symphony, I have never heard it so fresh and spirited, so colorful and rich in detail, so imaginative, indeed so light-hearted and flourishing, so newly layered and illuminated, in its basic mood so positive."
Remy Franck, Pizzicato
"Yet for anyone with the time to invest, anyone with an open, inquisitive mind, and above all anyone who really cares about Bruckner’s music (and the ‘new symphony’ of the late-19th century in general), it will be essential listening. (...) In this respect, as well as in purely artistic terms, Korstvedt, Hrůša and the Bamberg orchestra have done us an immense service."
Review Europadisc
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Symphony no. 3
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) Symphony no. 8
2 CD Album Super Audio CD Hybrid
Tudor 1743
»Die Bamberger Symphoniker meiden jede Übertreibung. Hrůša lässt der Pracht dieser Musik zwar Raum, doch nie ungehemmt oder unkontrolliert. Strömende Eleganz und mitreißende Dynamik sind hier das Ergebnis von klug bemessener Geschwindigkeit und bezeugen ein tiefes Verständnis für Dvoraks Musik. Das macht diese Aufnahme letztlich so reizvoll und lohnend.«
Deutschlandfunk
»Ausgewogene Balance. Ansonsten meidet Hrůša Extreme. Er balanciert die Bamberger Symphoniker bei Brahms zutiefst ausgewogen. Bei Dvořák wiederum lässt er im Schlusssatz der Achten das Entfesselte ebenso zu seinem Recht kommen wie eine gewisse Noblesse. An diesem Finale scheitern Dirigenten sonst reihenweise. Klangtechnisch ist diese Doppel-CD die pure Freude.«
NDR Kultur
»Curiously, Hrůša’s accounts of both Brahm’s Third and Fourth symphonies share a distinctly elegiac, restrained tone, yet in this new recording the restraint feels quintessentially – and quite touchingly – Brahmsian. (…) Indeed, the orchestra’s characterful, rhythmically vital playing is a consistent delight.«
Grammophone
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Symphony no. 4
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) Symphony no. 9 "Aus der Neuen Welt"
2 CD Album Super Audio CD Hybrid
Tudor 1744
»Der weiträumige Klang der Bamberger Symphoniker rollt in mächtigen Wogen den Ohren des Hörers entgegen, eine Brahms-Erfahrung der besonderen Art.«
»Jakub Hrůša ist ein Tüftler, ein begeisterter Experimentator, ein unermüdlicher Grübler in Sachen musikalische Struktur.«
Rondo Magazin
»Geht’s fader? Sinfonisches von Brahms und Dvorák, Vierte versus Neunte. Doch, das vermag ungemein spannend sein! Weil die sich schätzenden Herren Johannes und Antonín nicht nur musikalisch viel verband. Was man in dieser fulminanten, eben sehr anregenden Gegenüberstellung hören kann. Weil es Jakub Hrusa kann. Der 36-jährige Brünner gehört heute schon zu den hörenswerten Dirigenten. Eben hat er einen tollen Einstand bei den Berliner Philharmonikern hingelegt. Die hier feingetunten Bamberger Symphoniker können sich jetzt schon freuen, diesen Klangschatz bis mindestens 2026 zu hüten.«
Welt am Sonntag
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
Má vlast (My Country)
Super Audio CD Hybrid
TUDOR 7196
[Jakub Hrůšas] erste Aufnahme als neuer Chef der Bamberger Symphoniker [...] ist kaum zu überbieten: musikalisch ungemein reif, aufregend oszillierend in den leuchtendsten Farben und nicht zuletzt als SACD in Durchsichtigkeit und Klangqualität überragend. [...] Und wenn nach 80 Minuten alles vorbei ist, geht der mittlerweile süchtig gewordene Hörer gleich wieder zur Starttaste!«
KlassikInfo.de
»An exceptional disc, glowingly recorded. I can't imagine a better introduction to this iconic work.«
theartsdesk.com
»Das erste Aufnahmevorhaben Jakub Hrůšas in Bamberg [...] ist eindrucksvoll gelungen. [...] Eine der besten Darstellungen.«
klassik.com
»...version époustouflante, pleine d'énergie, superbement enregistrée...«
Musique pour tous, Québec
Recordings from 70 years of Bamberg Symphony
(with Joseph Keilberth, Clemens Krauss, Rudolf Kempe, Eugen Jochum, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Sanderling, Horst Stein, Jonathan Nott, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph Eschenbach and others)
17 CDs
Deutsche Grammophon 0289 479 5805 5
»A very good collection, adequatly showcasing an extremely fine orchestra.«
Gramophone, London
»Inattendue et précieuse, cette anthologie permet de parcourir toute l'histoire d'une formation porteuse d'une culture et d'une identité sonores authentiques.«
Diapason, Paris
»Ce coffret révèle l'âme d'une des plus belles phalanges d'Allemagne.«
Classica, Paris
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Symphonies Nos. 1 to 9
12 CDs, SACD Hybrid
Tudor 1670
»Voici l'une des belles aventures mahleriennes de ces dernières années.«
Classica, Paris
»Die im Lauf mehrerer Jahre entstandene Gesamtaufnahme der Symphonien Gustav Mahlers bei dem Schweizer Laber Tudor, das in Sachen Aufnahmetechnik die Nase ganz weit vorne hat, löste weltweit Begeisterung aus.«
Bühne, Wien
The recordings of each of all 9 symphonies are also available as single CDs.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
The 8 Symphonies
4 CDs, SACD Hybrid Surround-Sound 5.1
Original Multichannel Recording
Tudor 1660
The Bamberg Schubert Project:
The Symphonies
4 CDs SACD Hybrid Surround Sound 5.1
Original Multichannel Recording
Dialog & Epilog
Works by Berio, Henze, Mantovani, Reimann, Rihm, Schnebel, Schwertsik, Widmann, Zender
2 CDs SACD
Tudor 1610
»Nott's approach is [...] self-consciously romantic, making clear Schubert's influence on Brahms and Bruckner. The playing is beyond reproach, with rich, transparent strings and world-class woodwind playing. This is a fantastic set – wonderful performances captured in flawless sound. Don't hesitate.«
theartsdesk.com
»L'integrale Tudor ha molti validi motivi per farsi raccomandare, a cominciare dalla magnifica qualità tecnica di registrazioni super audio che sono un modello di equilibrio e chiarezza.«
Musica
»Das Bamberger Projekt hat sich seinen Platz in der der vorderen Reihe der Schubert-Diskographie redlich verdient.«
FonoForum
The recordings of each of all 8 symphonies as well as of »Dialogue« and »Epilogue« are also available as single CDs.
Please find further recordings here.
