WEST SIDE & BEYOND

BERNSTEIN, BRUBECK & BRÜNDL:

Rousing finale with Staatskapelle Weimar

Manfred Bründl (*1959): Suite VII for Jazz Quartet and Orchestra, world premiere | Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990): Symphonic Dances from ‘West Side Story’ for Orchestra | Dave Brubeck (1920-2012): To Hope! A Celebration, a jazz mass for orchestra, mixed choir, vocal soloists and jazz quartet

For the fourth time, Manfred Bründl, winner of the SWR Jazz Prize and Professor of Jazz at Weimar Academy of Music, appears at Kunstfest with a re- markable project. In Bernstein and Brubeck, Bründl draws on two of the greats of modern American mu- sic, performing seminal works from both composers together with Staatskapelle Weimar, the opera chorus and his jazz quartet. The evening opens with a world premiere: several of Bründl's award-winning composi- tions for jazz quartet have been specially arranged by Florian Ross to be performed by a classical orchestra at Kunstfest's closing concert. Bernstein's musical ‘West Side Story’, freely adapted from Shakespeare's love tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet’, is seen by many as Broadway's outstanding contribution to the history of music. The work is a combination of highly disparate musical elements: various approaches to jazz, clas- sical opera and Latin American dance music. In the ‘Symphonic Dances’, Bernstein condenses the high- lights of his world-famous musical to reflect all the poetic power of this tragic love story in instrumental form. The second part of the evening features a rarely performed masterpiece by jazz great Dave Brubeck: in his jazz mass ‘To Hope! A Celebration’ he adopts the traditional classical mass but transforms it in his own way: featuring jazzy grooves, a chorus, an orchestra, soloists and a jazz quartet, Brubeck’s work is a celebration of life and hope.