Fantaisie symphonique

The famous socialist Broadway composer Kurt Weill only wrote two pure orchestral pieces, both of which are symphonies.  The second was composed after his emigration from Nazi Germany to Paris in 1933.  Having a sense for political developments, Weill depicts the inescapable war in his music where the third movement, for orchestra without strings, is a grotesque march that conjures up images of the preparation for grim battles. The instrumentation reminds us of the bitter-sweet humour of Weill’s earlier works, “The Threepenny Opera” and “The Seven Deadly Sins”.