Heroes and Giants

Venue: Paramount Theatre
Date: Fri February 24, 2012 8:00pm
City: Oakland
Price Range: $20-$70

Oakland East Bay Symphony

February’s concert features works by two of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime. Czech composer and pianist Erwin Schulhoff, who died in the Wülzburg concentration camp, and was one of the first classical composers in Europe to be inspired by jazz, is represented by his Suite for Chamber Orchestra. Mieczyslaw Weinberg had a remarkable life, having lost most of his family in the Holocaust yet surviving the torments of two brutal dictatorships himself. He fled the German occupation of Poland in 1939, only to fall victim to Stalin’s post-war campaign against the Jews. He was released after years of imprisonment, and later created what is considered one of the finest trumpet concertos ever written. OEBS Principal Trumpet William Harvey is the featured soloist in this inspiring work. Beethoven’s colossal Third Symphony completes the evening.