WKO x Pascal Schumacher - Minimal vibes for large orchestra

The WKO is dedicating its 10th subscription concert to the "underdog" of instruments and, together with the award-winning Luxembourgish vibraphonist Pascal Schumacher, is presenting a concert featuring a German premiere. Vibrating metal bars with a spooky effect: The vibraphone, designed in the 1920s, features a pedal that produces a long, warm tone, as well as a small motor—an acoustic trick—that causes it to vibrate, giving the instrument its name. As a result, the vibraphone can sound lyrical, avant-garde, or even eerie. Film composers recognized this early on and often used it for suspenseful scenes. The WKO is now dedicating its 10th subscription concert to this “underdog” of instruments, and more than that: together with the award-winning Luxembourgish vibraphonist and musical boundary-crosser Pascal Schumacher, it is presenting a concert featuring the German premiere of a work written specifically for the soloist by the American composer Judd Greenstein. Greenstein’s musical language reaches its audience as a story in which the contrast between the frantic, competing rhythms of the New York streets of his childhood and the tranquility of his current rural home plays a decisive role. His work has been described as “beautiful and thought-provoking at the same time.” This newly composed music is framed by a concert overture by the completely unjustly forgotten French composer, pianist, and musicologist Louise Farrenc, and the sonically powerful Symphony No. 2 by Johannes Brahms—the second part of Johannes Brahms’s symphony cycle. A fantastic season finale with summery, ethereal sounds!