Walpurgis night with obstacles

An orchestra receives a mysterious invitation to perform on Walpurgis Night. Only the witch - who is also the concertmaster - knows how to get there - after all, it is her family members who have sent the invitation. The bewitched concertmaster tries to use her magical abilities to the orchestra's advantage. She organizes witches' brooms, one for each instrument and a luxury broom with a leather armchair and minibar for the maestro. However, as she initially fails to cast the right spells, the departure is delayed. The third attempt is successful, but the bad-tempered gnome Knürsch, who rules the underworld of the concert hall, does nothing to get rid of the orchestra he hates. He manipulates the witches' brooms so that the flying orchestra and its maestro end up in earlier centuries for the time being. There they meet Tchaikovsky, Bach, Mozart, Rossini and Beethoven, who play the masterpieces they have just composed for them in person. Even Knürsch is finally softened by the beautiful music and lends Beethoven's Ode to joy his rattling voice.

After The witch and the maestro and The orchestra mice Howard Griffiths presents another entertaining musical and educational children's book. The listener is invited on a fantastic journey through time to the highlights of classical music in a pleasantly relaxed manner and without a preachy tone. Martina Gedeck narrates vividly and characterizes aptly (the maestro is given a funny English accent). Fabian Künzli's music is enchanting and illustrative in both the symphonic and melodramatic sections. The lavish illustrations by Karin Hellert-Knappe and the soundtrack with the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt conducted by Howard Griffiths complete this successful multimedia package.

The flying orchestra. A musical fairy tale by Howard Griffiths, book with CD, 60 p., Fr. 29.80, Hug Musikverlage, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-03807-076-4