Kurt Weill: Symphony No.2
Kurt Weill: Der neue Orpheus for soprano, violin & orchestra, Op.16
(performed in German)
Interval
Kurt Weill: A Stranger Here Myself: Kurt Weill on Broadway (a concert sequence devised by Kim Kowalke & Keith Lockhart)

Please note that a number of Restricted View tickets are available to purchase at £5 in person or by phone by calling 0844 847 9910. Please be advised prior to purchase that these Restricted View seats offer a limited view of the stage.

Two days after Hitler took up office, Weill packed his bags and turned his back on Germany forever - his music was going to play by a different set of rules.

'Kurt Weill - Berlin to Broadway' explores his life and work, focusing on how voluntary exile led him to create some of the most popular and daring musical theatre of his day.

Under the Schumannesque description of 'Symphonic Fantasy', the Second Symphony was Weill's final purely instrumental work. Written in Berlin and Paris as the Jewish composer fled the Nazis, there are numerous references to 'The Silver Lake', (the last piece Weill composed in Germany) and 'The Seven Deadly Sins'.

Weill's cantata 'Der neue Orpheus' (1927), to a text by Ivan Goll, narrates the tragic story of a singer who sets off for the grey walls of modern cities in order to rescue Euridice and with her, humanity. Seven variations depict the distortion of our musical life and experience of music. Euridice is a prostitute, redemption impossible - and Orpheus shoots himself.

'A Stranger Here Myself - Kurt Weill on Broadway' is a selection of theatre songs devised by Kim H Kowalke.

Performers

BBC Concert Orchestra
Keith Lockhart conductor
Charles Mutter violin
Ilona Domnich soprano