NZSO Shed Series | Kabarett

Hamish McKeich | conductor

Eisler | Kleine Sinfonie
Simon Eastwood | Quanta
Weill (arr. Bruckner-Ruggerberg) | Suite from Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Satie (arr. Debussy) | Gymnopédies Nos. 1 & 3
Schreker | Kammersymphonie

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The final Shed Series concert of 2020 celebrates some of the weird and wonderful music linked to the flourishing cabaret scene of the 1920s and 30s and which continues to inspire composers and delight audiences today.

Austrian composer Hanns Eisler also worked with Weill, and the concert features his sweeping and engrossing Kleine Sinfonie before New Zealand composer Simon Eastwood’s Quanta.

Kurt Weill is best known for his cabaret-era songs with librettist Bertolt Brecht. His Suite from Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) is a stunning arrangement by Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg. Rarely performed in New Zealand, it features banjo, bass guitar, saxophone and more, alongside orchestral instruments, to capture the essence of Weill and Brecht’s hit 1930 opera.

Shed Series 2020 concludes with Claude Debussy’s orchestral arrangement of fellow Frenchman Eric Satie’s timeless and hugely influential Gymnopédies Nos. 1 & 3 and Austrian Franz Schreker‘s Kammersymphonie. Written in 1916 Kammersymphonie was ahead of its time and remains a heartfelt and emotive work, anticipating orchestral music’s wide use in film.