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MDR-Kubus - Rundfunkklangkörper / MDR Cube - broadcasting ensembles (Music Trail station 23)

Foto: MDR/Hopf

The gleaming black cube with its audacious, asymmetrical roof construction was conceived especially for rehearsals and audio recordings by the German architect, Peter Kulka. Standing only metres away from the site of the building works on the university complex, its facade reflects the permanently developing campus.

The Cube has been home to the ensembles of the MDR (Middle German Broadcasting Corporation) since 2001, providing them with two halls with broadcasting and CD production facilities of the most exacting standards.

The MDR Rundfunkchor is the most adaptable professional radio choir within the ARD (the union of German state broadcasting corporations), as well as possessing the richest tradition of all its counterparts.

The corporation's orchestra, the MDR Sinfonieorchester, is resident in the Cube alongside the Choir. No other European orchestra played such a significant role in the development of broadcasting as the MDR Sinfonieorchester. Founded in 1924, the Orchestra took full advantage of the new medium of radio, rapidly earning widespread recognition for the quality of its performances under the direction of such high-ranking conductors as Alfred Szendrei, Hermann Scherchen, Carl Schuricht, Ernst Krenek and Richard Strauss.

The post-war reformation of the MDR reinstated the Orchestra's original name and ushered in an era in which, under the musical direction of Hermann Abendroth and, subsequently, Herbert Kegel, the Orchestra succeeded in establishing its modern-day profile.

Today, the MDR Sinfonieorchester gives in excess of sixty concerts per season across the corporation's entire broadcasting zone, as well as recording prolifically for both radio and CD and undertaking domestic and foreign tours.

Since 2007, the musical direction of the Orchestra has been in the hands of Jun Märkl.

In addition to the ensembles' administration, the floors of the tower block behind the Cube occupied by the MDR, house acoustically appointed rehearsal rooms for the MDR Kinderchor (Children's Choir) and smaller ensembles, the music library (complete with rolling shelving) and the musical instrument store.

Of note is also the Cube's physical connection to the Gewandhaus; the orchestral musicians and members of the Choir walk across to the neighbouring hall for their Leipzig concert series by means of a glazed, fully climatised bridge between the two buildings. This symbolises the existence not of two separate music temples on the Augustusplatz, but of one united musical centre in the heart of Leipzig.

Internet: www.mdr.de/klangkoerper