Closing concert: “Frenzy!”

Liberation! Dance is probably the most elementary way to physically experience the intoxicating rush, with music being the driving force that sets the body (and mind) in motion. 

In Maurice Ravel’s “choreographic poem” La Valse, the waltz escalates into intoxicating ecstasy. In the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, the hostile gangs of the Jets and Sharks release their exuberant energy in dance. And in the middle of it all, a pair of star-crossed lovers find each other and forget the world around them in dance.
There is dancing in all parts of the world, from Greece to America, from the Czech Republic to France, and of course in Vienna, too! Give into the frenzy and dance into a blazing summer to the sounds of the Graz Philharmonic under its principal conductor Vassilis Christopoulos on the penultimate day of the season!

Nikos Skalkottas
Greek Dances (selection)

Antonín Dvořák
Slavonic Dances for orchestra, op. 46 (selection)

Maurice Ravel
La Valse, Poème choréographique

Leonard Bernstein
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story for orchestra