For some time now, Weill’s Symphony No. 2 has been gaining in popularity, with performances all over the globe in recent years. A growing group of conductors have championed the piece, including Jeffrey Kahane, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, HK Gruber, Michael Sanderling, and others. Recently a new champion has entered the lists in the person of young Israeli conductor Lahav Shani (photo at left), who led the Pittsburgh Symphony in the work last February and will conduct it on three separate occasions this summer: 7 July with the Dresden Staatskapelle, and 16 and 22 August with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, of which he was recently appointed music director.

He is not the only one. Already this summer, the Second Symphony has been given in Cologne (Gürzenich-Orchester Köln under François-Xavier Roth, 25 June), Salford (BBC Philharmonic under Martyn Brabbins, 28 June), and Berlin (Musici Medici under Jürgen Bruns, 1-2 July). Next season, look forward to performances in Houston (River Oaks Symphony under Victor Yampolsky, 23 September), Bolzano (Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento under John Axelrod, 30 January), Zwickau (Philharmonisches Orchester Plauen-Zwickau under Lutz de Veer, 15 March), Raleigh (Raleigh Symphony Orchestra under Jim Waddelow, 6 May), and Linz (Bruckner Orchester Linz under Dirk Kaftan, 30 May). Such a varied group of ensembles and young and established conductors bodes well for the future of Weill’s Symphony no. 2.

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Lahav Shani on Symphony No. 2 (Youtube)

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