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VSJP: Go Go! album cover

Album guide

VSJP: Go Go!

Vienna Symphony Jazz Project

Released
2018
Label
ATS Records
Forces
Big band, Vibraphone, Violin, Piano
Personnel
Vienna Symphony Jazz Project, led by Flip Philipp vibraphone and arrangements, with Hyung-ki Joo piano, Nicolas Geremus violin and Aneel Somary lead trumpet

Flip Philipp formed the Vienna Symphony Jazz Project from musicians whose working lives are spent inside the Vienna Symphony. The band asks classical players to operate against their normal training: instead of disappearing into a homogeneous section sound, individual accents and phrasing matter.

Philipp’s solution is equally unusual. Because only a few members improvise, he writes out even many apparent solos, tailoring them to players he knows much as Ellington did. On VSJP: Go Go!, the boundary between composed and improvised jazz becomes part of the experiment.

Hear both

The classical side contains only the source pieces used on the album, in album order. The jazz side presents the complete album whenever a dependable copy can be embedded.

The originalsRichard Strauss, Schubert, Bizet, Offenbach, Berlioz, Liszt, Verdi, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Bernstein · classical source works

The listening queues above follow the same order. The classical player omits tracks that are not based on a classical original.

Jazzed upVienna Symphony Jazz Project · 2018
Open full album in Spotify

Spotify’s player is here for convenience; the full track listing below remains available to everyone.

Source works

The album’s complete track listing, with each classical source identified and original compositions marked plainly.

  1. Also Sprach Zarathustra (Main Theme)Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30: I. Einleitung (Sonnenaufgang) — the opening fanfare
  2. Ave Maria (feat. Nicolas Geremus)Schubert: Ellens Gesang III, ‘Ave Maria’, Op. 52 No. 6, D. 839
  3. HabaneraBizet: Carmen, Act I: Habanera, ‘L’amour est un oiseau rebelle’
  4. Can-CanOffenbach: Orphée aux enfers: Galop infernal (Cancan)
  5. Caravan to the ScaffoldBerlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14: IV. Marche au supplice, in a medley with Duke Ellington’s ‘Caravan’
  6. LiebestraumLiszt: Liebesträume, S. 541 No. 3 in A-flat major
  7. La Donna È MobileVerdi: Rigoletto, Act III: ‘La donna è mobile’
  8. Nessun DormaPuccini: Turandot, Act III: ‘Nessun dorma’
  9. Another Love ThemeRachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27: III. Adagio
  10. Rhapsody in Blue (feat. Hyung-Ki Joo)Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
  11. BarcarolleOffenbach: Les contes d’Hoffmann: Barcarolle, ‘Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour’
  12. Scenes from West Side StoryBernstein: West Side Story — several numbers, answered by his own Symphonic Dances from West Side Story