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On 27 June, Philippe Manoury's 'Thinkspiel' Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, based on Karl Kraus' monumental drama The Last Days of Mankind, premiered at the Cologne Opera under the direction of Peter Rundel.
Congratulations to Peter Rundel: the recording of Hèctor Parra's opera Les Bienveillantes, premiered under his direction at Opera Vlaanderen in 2019 and released on three CDs in 2024, has been awarded the prestigious Grand Prix international du disque by the Académie Charles Cros.
There are good reasons to celebrate in Porto: the Remix Ensemble is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. The ensemble's artistic director Peter Rundel looks back at its beginnings.
Philippe Manoury, Die letzten Tage der Menschheit
Philippe Manoury, composition
Peter Rundel, conductor
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
Johannes Maria Staud, Franz Schubert, Die schöne Müllerin/These Fevered Days
Christoph Prégardien, tenor
Remix Ensemble Casa da Música, Porto
Johannes Maria Staud, composition
Peter Rundel is one of the most sought-after partners for leading European orchestras, owing to the depth of his approach to complex music of various styles and epochs as well as to his interpretive creativity.
He is regularly invited to conduct the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and the NDR, WDR, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and SWR Radio Symphony Orchestras. Recent international guest appearances have included the Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera Roma, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic, as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan and Taipei Symphony Orchestras.
Peter Rundel has conducted the world premieres of opera productions at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, Wiener Festwochen, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opera Vlaanderen, Teatro Argentino La Plata, Ruhrtriennale, and Bregenz Festival, while also collaborating with respected stage directors such as Peter Konwitschny, Calixto Bieito, Philippe Arlaud, Peter Mussbach, Heiner Goebbels, Carlus Padrissa (La Fura dels Baus), and Willy Decker. His work in opera includes traditional repertoire (Die Zauberflöte at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and König Kandaules, Hansel and Gretel and The Marriage of Figaro at the Volksoper Vienna), as well as ground-breaking contemporary music theatre productions such as Stockhausen’s Donnerstag from LICHT, Massacre by Wolfgang Mitterer, the world premieres of Georg Friedrich Haas‘ Nacht and Bluthaus, Isabel Mundry’s Ein Atemzug – die Odyssee, and Emmanuel Nunes’ Das Märchen and La Douce. The spectacular production of Prometheus, which he led at the Ruhrtriennale, was awarded the Carl-Orff-Preis in 2013. He celebrated his most recent successes at the Zurich Opera House with Stefan Wirth's Girl with a Pearl Earring (named premiere of the year by Opernwelt magazine) and at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden with Massenet's Werther.
Born in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Peter Rundel studied violin with Igor Ozim and Ramy Shevelov, as well as conducting with Michael Gielen and Peter Eötvös. From 1984 until 1996 he was a violinist in Ensemble Modern, to which he has enjoyed long associations also as a conductor. He also maintains regular guest appearances with Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble intercontemporain, and the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble. Peter Rundel has been artistic director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders and was the founding artistic director of the Kammerakademie Potsdam. In January 2005, he was appointed artistic director of the Remix Ensemble Casa da Música in Porto and has since enjoyed great success with the contemporary music ensemble at important festivals throughout Europe; in the current season, guest performances under his direction will be held at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Kölner Philharmonie, featuring Matthias Goerne in the premiere of a new arrangement of Schubert’s Dichterliebe by Jörg Widmann.
Peter Rundel is also deeply committed to the education and development of young musical talent. In Porto, he founded the Remix Academy for ensemble musicians and conductors. As musical director of the Taschenopernfestival (since 2019), he also installed an academy in Salzburg to promote young conductors in the field of contemporary music theatre. In addition, he regularly teaches at international ensemble academies including the London Sinfonietta, the Ulysseus Ensemble at Manifeste Academy in Paris, the Lucerne Festival Acadamy and at Teatro alla Scala MilanPeter Rundel has been awarded many prizes for his recordings of 20th-century music, including the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (Nono, Prometeo; Kyburz, Ensemble- und Orchesterwerke; Reich, City Life; Furrer, Piano Concerto; Bertrand, Vertigo), the Grand Prix du Disque (Barraqué, complete work), the Echo Klassik (Sprechgesänge with the Ensemble Musikfabrik) and a Grammy Award nomination (Heiner Goebbels, Surrogate Cities).
“The Münchner Rundfunkorchester [...] is conducted by an excellent specialist in the contemporary repertoire, Peter Rundel: not only does he know how to exploit all the richness of Benjamin's orchestra, but he seems to have succeeded in giving the singers absolute security, allowing them to present themselves at their best.”
Res Musica, Dominique Adrian, 28/03/2025
“Thanks to the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under the direction of Peter Rundel, not a second of the one and a half hours lacks suspense.”Written on Skin, Georges Benjamin, Prinzregententheater, March 2025
“Thanks to the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under the direction of Peter Rundel, not a second of the one and a half hours lacks suspense.”
Written on Skin, Georges Benjamin, Prinzregententheater, March 2025
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Klaus Kalschmid, 23/03/2025
"Peter Rundel's infallible ear and radiant gesture work wonders [...]"
Res Musica, Michèle Tosi, 22/10/2022
“What Klangforum Wien, the twelve singers from Chorwerk Ruhr, conductor Peter Rundel and sound designer Thomas Wegner have achieved can hardly be described in words. This highly complex music seems to have found ideal interpreters in an ideal place, having almost been reinvented.”
Die Deutsche Bühne, Andreas Falentin, 12/08/2022
about the music theater "Ich geh unter lauter Schatten", Opening concert of the RuhrTriennale
“Peter Rundel successfully delivered a transparent and exciting performance on the evening of the premiere with the well-disposed Hessisches Staatsorchester. (...) Rundel by no means only basked in Massenet's richly coloured score, but repeatedly ensured clear contours and contrasts, which in no small measure benefited the musical climaxes in the third act.”
Das Opernglas, L.-E.Gerth, February 2022
"Thanks to conductor Peter Rundel, the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden returned to its tried-and-tested level of quality and, under his prudent baton, the excellently disposed ensemble was animated to a characteristically French "sound". Rundel united filigree chords, bitter-sweet tones of the saxophone with dominant dramatic timbres and gave the score particularly realistic dimensions. Thanks to subtle combinations of the fateful instrumental interjections, the prudent conductor underlined the tragic stage action excellently."
Der Opernfreund, Gerhard Hoffmann, 15/01/2022
"Under the direction of guest conductor Peter Rundel, the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden often played dramatically condensed, with compressed tempi and tonal colours shaped into the abrupt."
FAZ, 14/12/2021
“Both precise and energetic, Peter Rundel never loses his remarkable flexibility. He guarantees the flow and comprehensibility of the musical statement.”
Diapason, Pierre Rigaudière, January 2020
“With [Xenakis], the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Peter Rundel opened its enchanting guest performance in the Elbphilharmonie.”
Die Welt, Lutz Lesle, December 2019
“The Yekaterinburg violinist Leonid Orlov sang the praises of conductor Peter Rundel, whom he compared to a general who motivates his army with encouragement and kindness. The result of this became clear in the performance of Johannes Brahms’ majestically dynamic Third Symphony, which has rarely been heard with such a chamber-music-like quality of breath, transparent and at the same time radiant. From a multitude of free individuals, guided by a strong will with gentle reins, so, too, the andante seems to meekly ask for affection and a simple song in the allegretto develops into a tragic rhapsody.”
FAZ, Kerstin Holm, July 2019
“A highly expressive, masterfully orchestrated work, which at the premiere under the excellent direction of Peter Rundel exerted an inexorable pull – a tour de force performance from the choir and orchestra of the Flemish Opera.”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Marco Frei, 29/04/2019
“The music is full of contracting and expanding gestures. Turbulent eddies encounter black holes, leaving the audience dizzy. The conductor Peter Rundel and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra always kept the elemental forces of the work firmly in their grip.”
Rondo Classic, Harri Kuusisaari, February 2019
“With the performance of in vain, Remix and their outstanding chief conductor Peter Rundel shared a moment that will go down in the annals of the ensemble and the Casa da Música, one that will remain absolutely unforgettable for many present. It was utterly, unequivocally extraordinary!”
Público, Augusto M. Seabra, January 2018
“A masterpiece to finish: Béla Bartók’s Music for string instruments, percussion and celesta. Finely woven fugues in the strings, intricate rhythms and swift tempi provided another challenge for the orchestra. Thanks to the emotionally inspiring and precise direction of conductor Peter Rundel, the musicians took great delight in a superb performance.”
Saarbrücker Zeitung, Helmut Fackler, May 2017
“Never, in the history of criticism, has there been an opening concert of Ars Musica that has generated so much enthusiasm, pleasure and amazement. [...] A stunning experience, receiving a standing ovation from a jubilatory hall; the result of an excellent job by the Brussels Philharmonic under German conductor Peter Rundel.”
La Libre, Martine D. Mergeay, November 2016
“Flexible, dynamic and conscious of the colours, Rundel honoured the impressionistic persuasiveness [of Ravel’s Daphne et Chloé] with a celebration of beautiful sounds, in which the wind section played a special role.”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Klaus Albrecht, November 2015
“The performance by Ensemble musikFabrik, a brilliant contemporary-music group from Germany, conducted by Peter Rundel, in a dazzling staging conceived and directed by Carlus Padrissa, is a triumphant realisation of a challenging work.”
The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini, July 2013
“Under the emphatic, level-headed direction of Peter Rundel, Xenakis’s score is brought to hundreds of urban listeners, all drawn into the tale in a way they would not have been in a conventional opera house.”
Financial Times, Shirley Apthorp, May 2011
“Peter Rundel, this magician of new sounds, conducts with swing, verve, energy.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reinhard J. Brembeck, May 2011
P. Manoury: État d'alerte | Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
J. Brahms: Symphony Nr. 3 | Tchaikovsky Youth Orchestra
Interview Tchaikovsky Summer Music Academy in Sverdlovsk
R. Wagner: Das Rheingold | Remix Ensemble
Peter Rundel | Remix Ensemble | Music after the confinement