Peter Schaub Dynamics

Written in the summer of 1749, Theodora was premiered in London at Covent Garden Theatre on 16 March 1750. This work, which Handel considered his finest oratorio, was a failure at first - Handel said bitterly that the hall was so empty that "there was room enough to dance there." Part of this failure could be explained by the earthquake that hit London in February of the same year and caused the upper classes to flee the city, but another possibility is that the subject matter of the oratorio - the rebellion of a woman against the power of the state - was a bit ahead of its time.

The 2022 Jazzfest Berlin performance by revered, iconoclastic reedist Peter Brötzmann, Moroccan Gnaoua adept Majid Bekkas playing the two-stringed, camelskin-backed guembre, and Chicago-bred drummer Hamid Drake, documented as Catching Ghosts, is historic.

Peter Erskine and Vienna's JAM Music Lab All-Stars celebrate the music of two iconic Viennese composers who, after moving to Hollywood in 1929 & 1934, transformed the dynamics of film as they set the standards for movie scoring. Through their work on Gone With the Wind, King Kong, and many dozens more, their role in shaping popular culture since is legion. First exposed to the music in the late '70s as he was touring with Weather Report, Erskine heard Joe Zawinul playing a beautiful melody and learned it was by Korngold, a fellow Viennese composer. He was moved to search out transcripts and recordings ever since. With his artist-in-residency at Vienna's cutting-edge JAM Music Lab University, his desire to reimagine this music in an improvised jazz setting finally became a reality. "… Erskine and the Jam Music Lab All-Stars demonstrate virtuosity, versatility and a keen attention to detail… creating a fitting tribute to the most influential figures in 20th-century music." The New York City Jazz Record