A brilliant finale with the Weimar State Orchestra

For the fourth time, Manfred Bründl, SWR Jazz Prize winner and professor of jazz at the Weimar University of Music, presents an extraordinary project as part of the Arts Festival. With Bernstein and Brubeck, Bründl draws on the giants of modern American music, performing key works from the oeuvres of these two composers together with the Staatskapelle Weimar, the DNT Opera Chorus, and his jazz quartet. The evening opens with a special world premiere: Several of Bründl's award-winning compositions for jazz quartet have been specially arranged for the closing concert of the Arts Festival and expanded for classical orchestra by Florian Ross.

Bernstein's musical "West Side Story," a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's tragic love story "Romeo and Juliet," is widely regarded as Broadway's most outstanding contribution to music history. The work combines a wide variety of musical elements: different jazz styles, classical opera, and Latin American dance music.

Bernstein condenses the highlights of his world-famous musical into the "Symphonic Dances," thus instrumentally reflecting the full poetry of this tragic love story. 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 draws on the tradition of classical masses and reinterprets them in his own unique way. With jazzy grooves, choir, orchestra, soloists, and jazz quartet, Brubeck celebrates life and hope in his work.