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25 April 2026 Saalfeld (Germany)
Symphony Concert: Let it swing!
Thüringer Symphoniker conducted by Oliver Weder - Meininger Hof
Program Info: Thuringian Symphony Orchestra Oliver Weder, conductor Oleg Weinstein, piano
Is this still classical music or already jazz? Or perhaps even both? It was an experiment when Paul Whiteman attempted to combine popular melodies with the sound of a classical orchestra in a concert in 1924. Big names like Fritz Kreisler and Sergei Rachmaninoff attended the event and were quite bored. Until the 25-year-old George Gershwin took the stage. From that moment on, everything changed. The opening clarinet glissando made it clear: This is unheard of! Since its premiere, Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" has enchanted every audience - regardless of whether they are fans of classical music or jazz. This was the starting signal for many other composers beyond America to enter this area between genres. Shostakovich surprised his listeners with jazz suites, and his compatriot Alexander Tsfasman was the first pianist to play Gershwin's masterpiece on Soviet soil in 1945. In the same year, he also emulated the piece compositionally – with his own jazz suite for piano and orchestra. The German film composer Ernst Fischer also achieved a symbiosis of both sound worlds in his suite "South of the Alps." The Englishman Richard Addinsell took a different approach when he contributed a rhapsody for piano and orchestra to the film "Dangerous Moonlight." He did not attempt to transpose modernism into classical music, but created a work for the popular medium of film that draws on the romantic style of Rachmaninoff.
George Gershwin : Overture to the musical "Funny Face" (1927) / Rhapsody in Blue (1924) / An American in Paris (1928) Richard Addinsell : Warsaw Concerto for Piano and Orchestra from the film »Dangerous Moonlight« (1941) Ernst Fischer : »In a Harbour Town« from the suite »South of the Alps« (1936) Alexander Tsfasman : Jazz Suite for Piano and Orchestra (1945)
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