An impressive Concert overall

The concert on Friday was titled “A Jazz Symphonie”. I saw it at the Philharmonie Essen which is a beautiful concert hall in Essen that really fits into this steel production area.

The concert was played by the philharmonic orchestra of Essen conducted by HK Gruber, solo pianist was Frank Dupree (Frank was the reason for me to go there).

The whole concert consisted of 5 parts. The first part was composed by HK Gruber the conductor himself. It was the first time for me to hear a concert conducted by the composer. The good thing about it was that he also gave an introduction (with the orchestra) into his piece.

I have to admit it was some modern classic and you really have to get used to it. But according to the composer that was exactly what he intended. The piece started like a piece of Johann Strauß and then turned so that it was hard to sit (like HK Gruber used to say).

The concert continued with Darius Milhaud and George Antheil. After the interval we heard Schostakowitsch and Gershwin.

So the concert started very modern and walked back in time. And I would say it got better and better.

The audience was also very delighted there was a partial standing ovation so we were lucky and got an encore. That was a song by Kurt Weill that was played by Frank Dupree and the singer was our conductor.

A very congenial man. That was an impressive concert overall!