Symphonie of the city

The Kurt Weill Society and the Münchner Symphoniker are working together to create a scenic concert based on "the city". A wide variety of scenes from urban life will be portrayed through music and modern video projection technology. As a renowned orchestra for film music, the Münchner Symphoniker were predestined to participate in this project. Weill's music strongly influenced the entire American music scene, from Broadway musicals to the leading composers of contemporary music. "The city" was a central theme in numerous works by Weill, who emigrated to the United States in the 1930s. For this reason, the project's initiators came up with the idea to contrast Kurt Weill's original version of "Mahagonny Songspiel" and Steve Reich's "City Life" from 1995. At the premiere of "Mahagonny Songspiel" in 1927, Kurt Weill actually incorporated visual projections into his piece. Steve Reich's modern orchestral piece features computer-controlled samplers and sequencers which are used to distort sounds and voices of New York City and integrate them into his symphony.

Applicant: Münchner Symphoniker e.V. (Bavaria)
Project partner: Kurt Weill Society Dessau e.V., (Saxony-Anhalt)
Venues: Dessau (Marienkirche) 5 March 2004,
Munich (Philharmonie im Gasteig) 15 April 2005