For the past 20 years, the QAH has been investing Johann Strauss’ work through numerous transcriptions that regularly mark its programs. But musicians are not the only ones to admire the composer: Brahms, Verdi as well as Richard Strauss, Berg or Webern also had a fascination for this immense melodist. The QAH is working on a program evoking Strauss’ influence in all its facets.
How does he shimmer in the repertoire and still today? How did the waltz and polka, originally popular, spread through music (or perhaps dance) to the courts of Europe and beyond, making Strauss a superstar? How do the shifts from the street (popular/traditional/urban) to the concert hall (the scholar) take place? The QAH surrounds itself with its arrangers to unearth and transcribe for its formation the nuggets of a repertoire marked by the Strauss dynasty.
The young composer Charles-David Wajnberg joins them for a creation that will raise this question of influences and will serve as a thread for the program. The writing, in contrast to the rich melodic writing of Strauss, will allow each of the aesthetics to be highlighted.
On the program: Johann Strauss, Franz Lehar, Charles-David Wajnberg, Johannes Brahms…