A Kurt Weill evening

Kurt Weill: Symphony No. 2

Berlin - Paris - New York: Songs & excerpts from the stage works

Kurt Weill is one of the most important German composers of the first decades of the 20th century and had a decisive influence on the musical image of the Weimar Republic. In 1933, he was one of the first to be forced to emigrate after Hitler came to power - due to his Jewish origins, but also because his music was branded "degenerate art" and "cultural Bolshevism". After an interlude in Paris, he settled in New York and was never to set foot on German soil again.

The first part of the concert presents Weill's only major orchestral work, the 2nd Symphony, premiered in 1934 on the eve of his emigration to the New World. In the second part of the evening, Weill's artistic path is traced in a revue-like retrospective: from the cheeky songs of Berlin to the melancholy chansons of the Paris years to the new beginning on Broadway, where Weill became a pioneer of musicals and American opera - and created a wealth of works that are still to be discovered in his homeland.

The concert will be moderated. There will be no introduction beforehand.

Cast

Vocals Antje Bornemeier, Brigitte Oelke
Western Pomerania Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor, piano and moderation Florian Csizmadia