Wolf Kerschek in the press

The greats of show business benefit from Kerschek's musical expertise. On the other hand, Kerschek composes symphonic music, as he is currently doing for the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück. He has written a concerto for two pianos, band and symphony orchestra, no entertainment, nothing commercial, but 'art without compromise'.

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As in earlier compositions, he adeptly embraced the eruptive spectrum of sound between jazz and classical, lightly sprinkling swinging phases into the tricky, tension-generating score, which was full of surprises, stunning with echo effects and rhythmic chess moves.

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For the NDR Bigband, he has coupled out the middle movement, and Wolf Kerschek has made a piece for big band out of it. In general, the arranger and in this case also bandleader is the link between Azmeh and the big band, because he arranged the compositions for this collaboration. To call Kerschek the mastermind of the project is certainly not an exaggeration. His high art is not to impose anything on Azmeh's pieces, but to adapt them for the big band from within, so to speak.

The composer clearly also had fun with the fairy tale characters: Melodious "mermaids" pass by in the violins, as "djinn" the orchestra is allowed to make a good wind, while the solo horn as a dumb "giant" stomps along deep and creaking.

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The Festival Rhapsody, written by Wolf Kerschek for the anniversary, would do highest honor as a soundtrack to any fantasy film. As a concert piece for trumpet, violin and chamber ensemble, it is another fine proof that even today one can compose tonally, colorfully and to the delight of the listener without slipping into triviality.

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The tonal language of the well-traveled artist, schooled in the United States, however, is explicitly rooted in world music and the strongly tonal-color- and effect-oriented U.S. film music. "New classical music" and symphonic jazz support his personal style on the one hand; on the other, Kerschek's confident handling of a contemporary advanced style of writing guarantees an original and original idiom.