Rhapsody in Blue 100

The concert, packed with anniversaries, will commemorate 100 years since the world premiere of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (February 12, 1924 at New York's Aeolian Hall), 70 years since the first performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Symphony in F (October 17, 1954 in Vienna) and 130 years since the birth of Ervín ( Erwin) Schulhoff.
It is also a contribution to the Year of Czech Music 2024, posing provocative questions: are we willing to accept Schulhoff, a German-Jewish native of Prague, whose mother tongue was German, but who himself was actively involved in Czech musical culture, into the context of Czech music? And what about Korngold, a native of Brno, who, admittedly, left Brno at a young age and developed his work under completely different influences? Where are the boundaries for what we call Czech musical culture?
Last but not least, we are treated to a combination of jazz and symphonic music in two compositions. In this regard, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue became a revolutionary act that shook the city of New York, then the entire country, and finally the entire civilized world, as Leonard Bernstein wrote... One of the proofs of the "jazz earthquake of the earth" even across the ocean is precisely the music of Schulhoff .

ERVÍN SCHULHOFF Symphony No. 2
GEORGE GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue, original version for jazz band
ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD Symphony in F sharp op. 40

Brno Philharmonic
conductor Dennis Russell Davies piano