Until the cultural breach in the era of fascism, classical and jazz music were not strictly separated. Composers such as Stravinsky, Bartók and Stokowski drew inspiration from jazz; Art Tatum, in turn, also improvised on Chopin. The rifts that then opened up in the 1930s are only closing today: many young classical musicians are also excellent improvisers, and ever more jazz musicians are importing classical forms and motives into their music – at a completely different level, both technically and conceptually, than earlier crossover efforts.

Three outstanding duos will prove that jointly for the first time at Jazz meets Classic: the tuba virtuoso Andreas Martin Hofmeir has released award-winning classical recordings and has performed with the pop band La Brass Banda. In his current tandem with violinist Benjamin Schmid, he cheerfully juggles with classical, South American and modern jazz. The two Viennese musicians Matthias Bartolomey (cello) and Klemens Bittmann (violin and mandola) completely redefine the string duo with a unique vigour and rock-like power.

Scandinavians play the role of trailblazers in recent European jazz in many developments, and two Norwegians present themselves in that tradition: Bugge Wesseltoft, a pioneer of the fusion of classical jazz with electronic music, and with his label Jazzland an integrative figure for genre-crossing projects, will encounter Henning Kraggerud, who strangely enough performs only rarely in Germany: he’s one of the outstanding violinists, violists and composers on the classical music scene who has also been playing free cadenzas and writing arrangements for a long time.