Ameri-k.u.k.

Ah, there's no better way to celebrate New Year's Eve! Kalena Bovell and the Musikkollegium present a truly opulent musical bouquet at the end of the year. It includes three different bouquets: Johann (son), Josef (brother), and Richard (completely unrelated); in between, the most beautiful musical blooms from both sides of the Atlantic shine brightly. Yes, America and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy simply go together musically. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel" from 1945 revels in the scent of waltzes... No wonder, really, since it is based on a Hungarian play from the Austro-Hungarian era!

In her orchestral piece "Bal masqué," American composer Amy Beach stylishly disguises herself as a waltz specialist. Erich Wolfgang Korngold traveled in the opposite direction. He had to flee Vienna into exile in America, where he wrote film music for Hollywood, from which he ultimately compiled a truly wonderful violin concerto. New Year's Eve always looks to the future, and Raphael Nussbaumer, born in 2006, who plays the solo part in Korngold's concerto, stands for a bright future. This is followed (and we now definitively abandon the floral imagery in favor of New Year's Eve pyrotechnics) by a veritable fireworks display of sparkling waltzes.

Program:
Richard Strauss - Prelude: Sunrise from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," Op. 30
Leonard Bernstein - Overture to the operetta "Candide"
Frank Bridge - A Christmas Dance "Sir Roger de Coverley"
Aaron Copland - "Hoe Down" from the ballet "Rodeo"
Richard Rodgers - Carousel Waltz
Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

PAUSE

Amy Beach - Bal masqué, Op. 22
Johann Strauss (son) - Entrance March from the operetta "The Gypsy Baron"
Franz Lehár - "Gold and Silver" Concert Waltz, Op. 79
Johann Strauss (son) - Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Op. 214
Johann Strauss (son) - "Roses from the South" Waltz, Op. 388
Johann Strauss (son) - "Light Blood" Fast Polka, Op. 319
Josef Strauss - "Without Worries" Fast Polka, Op. 271