Leonard Bernstein combined classical music, jazz, show music and folk music from various communities to create distinctive musicals that were successful around the globe. George Gershwin also combines classical concert and jazz, and his music is at home on Broadway and in Carnegie Hall. Pianist Kirill Gerstein performs Gershwin's world hit „Rhapsody in Blue“ as a soloist with the Konzerthausorchester under Iván Fischer.

From the New World, we travel to old Europe, to France. However, nothing sounds old here: Darius Milhaud's cheerful „Ox on the Roof“, driven by Brazilian rhythms, which of course sounds much more elegant as the French „boeuf sur le toit“, is followed by two of Erik Satie's meditative piano miniatures arranged for orchestra. Finally, eerie undertones pervade Maurice Ravel's „La Valse“. First performed in 1920, this waltz is both a dance of death and an ironic homage to the 19th century.