An American in Paris

Interpreters

Lucienne Renaudin Vary . Trumpet
Susanne von Gutzeit . Direction
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester

Programme

Maurice Ravel
String Quartet in F major, Op. 35 (version for string orchestra)

George Gershwin
An American in Paris (Medley)

Karol Beffa
Intrada for trumpet and strings

Richard Rodgers
My Funny Valentine (arranged for trumpet and strings)

Harold Arlen
Somewhere over the rainbow (arranged for trumpet and strings)

Jean Francaix
Symphonie d'archets (1948)

That warm sound! Those many colours! Can that really be a trumpet? Not since Chet Baker has the instrument been played with such freedom and laid-back style as by Lucienne Renaudin Vary. ‘The trumpet is my voice,’ says the young Frenchwoman. And the secret of her special tone may lie in the fact that she is equally at home in jazz and classical music. She also likes to combine both styles on the concert stage.

In this French-American programme, she whisks the audience away to Paris for an evening – between jazz club and concert hall, between lightness and concentration. Ravel's string quartet, colourful and rhythmically precise, meets Karol Beffa's Intrada – a piece written especially for Lucienne Renaudin Vary. It combines improvisational freedom with classical form. Beffa's own versatility – he is a composer, pianist and intellectual – also resonates in the music.

Well-known songs such as My Funny Valentine and Somewhere over the Rainbow take on fresh colours in new arrangements for trumpet and strings. Gershwin's An American in Paris brings the pulse of the city to the concert. And Jean Françaix's Symphonie d'archets shows how light and precise music can be at the same time.

The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Susanne von Gutzeit, creates space for a programme that opens up the classical framework without becoming arbitrary. Music that not only describes Paris, but makes it tangible.