Copland: Music for the Theatre, Haydn: Symphony No. 90, Offenbach: Selections from 'La Gaîté Parisienne', Weill: Youkali & Lost in the Stars

Barbara Hannigan and the London Symphony Orchestra bombard their audience with the energy of the golden, raucous 1920s in this concert from the Barbican Hall in London. The program centers on extracts from Jacques Offenbach's La Gaîté Parisienne, a one-act ballet, premiered in Monte Carlo – music about a dancing, partying, flirting Parisian society with people from different social milieus. Aaron Copland's orchestral suite Music for the Theatre takes us to the jazz clubs and concert halls of Boston, where people dance and the high society turn up their noses. The Symphony no. 90 in C major features an outrageous general pause. Joseph Haydn managed to sell the work twice at the end of the 1780s: The original went to Comte d´Ogny in Paris, while a copy was sold to the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein – whom he told that due to trouble with his eyes, the original manuscript was so unreadable that he would not dream of forcing it on his excellency. It is all followed by two final songs by Kurt Weill. Barbara Hannigan sings and conducts.