8. Sinfonie­konzert by Bernstein, Gershwin, Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff, P 21 mai 2023, Alates (2023/2023), Dirigent Stefan Vladar, Musik- und Kongresshalle (MUK), Lübeck, Germany

West Side Story, which premiered in New York in 1957, was the first Broadway musical to show racism and violence by young gangs unvarnished on stage. The explosiveness of the subject moved Leonard Bernstein to music that was incomparable in its vitality and emotionality. In 1961 he compiled an orchestral suite for the concert hall from it, which follows the main lines of the drama. – Similar to Bernstein, George Gershwin also drew his lifelong music from the sources of jazz and intended to make it internationally concertable in connection with symphonic music. He took an important step on this mission in 1925 with his »Concerto in F« for piano and orchestra, with which he rose to become one of the most important American composers almost overnight. In Lübeck, the concert, conducted by Stefan Vladar, will be performed by the American pianist Tzimon Barto, who has delighted fans on both sides of the Atlantic. – The “Symphonic Dances” are the last work that Sergei Rachmaninoff was able to complete: swan song and the sum of his compositional oeuvre. With echoes of the »Dies irae«, the third movement also reflects on death. Rachmaninoff wrote the words below the score: "Thank you, God!"