Bundesjugendorchester / Alexander Shelley

Borrowing from film music, African music and ragtime, William Walton’s spirited »Johannesburg Festival Overture« is a rousing start to this concert. Walton composed the work in 1956 for the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the South African city of Johannesburg.

George Gershwin’s »Porgy and Bess« then takes the audience to 1870s Charleston, South Carolina. Gershwin wrote the opera depicting the lives of African-Americans in 1935, and a few years later Robert Russell Bennett prepared a symphonic version – complete with »Summertime«.

The composer Johannes Brahms lived in Vienna but spent the summer of 1877 on the shores of Lake Wörth, where he began his Second Symphony. »Brahms’ new symphony is radiant with a healthy freshness and clarity, readily intelligible, although it offers plenty to listen to and think about,« wrote the critic Eduard Hanslick after a performance in January 1878.

With this serene and cheerful symphony, inspired by the sounds of nature in summer, Alexander Shelley and the Bundesjugendorchester send the audience out into what will hopefully be a balmy summer’s evening.