The University of Arizona School of Music devotes its ninth annual fall festival to the works of Weill, Schoenberg, and Hans Winterberg 14-16 October. The festival packs four concerts, a symposium, and a conference into three days of exploration. Featured guest artists include the Amernet String Quartet, Misha Vitenson, Franz Felkl, Michael Klotz and Jason Calloway; visiting scholars Stephen Hinton, Sabine Feisst, and Michael Haas will also be on hand. The festival is directed by Professor Daniel Asia.

Weill is not exactly a frequent visitor in concert halls and theaters in the American Southwest, so fans in and around Tucson will have an opportunity to get a good dose. No stage works are on the program, but several of Weill’s chamber and orchestral works, some rarely performed, are on tap. Favorites like Kleine Dreigroschenmusik rub elbows with the “Suite panaméenne.” Symphony no. 2, the Sonata for Cello and Piano, the String Quartet no. 1, op. 8, and Weill’s setting of the Hebrew prayer of sanctification, Kiddush, also await. The range of works covers nearly all of Weill’s career, from pieces composed during his student years to Kiddush, undertaken as Weill was in the midst of composing one of his greatest works for the stage, Street Scene.

Arnold Schoenberg needs no introduction, but the concerts will likewise feature a wide chronological range of his works. Hans Winterberg’s music is all but unknown; a contemporary of Viktor Ullmann and Erwin Schulhoff, he survived the war despite internment in a Nazi concentration camp. His scores have been rediscovered, and the Music + Festival will give them a full hearing.

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Program and notes from Music + Festival