BROOKLYN RUNDFUNK ORKESTRATA

The Hills Are Alive: Songs from Rogers and Hammerstein’s
The Sound of Music

brooklyn-ro.com

The year is young, but Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata may have already clinched the prize for most creative concept of 2011. Initially the idea of fusing sounds minted in rock, jazz, R&B and hip-hop with a dozen of Rogers and Hammerstein’s classic Broadway compositions seems unwieldy. Purists will scoff—yet somehow it works, albeit in quirky fashion. Who would guess the Jackson 5’s classic “ABC” could segue so effortlessly into “Do Re Mi”? Or that “Edelweiss” might be reinvented as a mandolin-plucking country ramble? For that matter, imagine “The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” inspired at once by Queen, Aerosmith, Boston, Yes and Van Halen. The hills aren’t just alive, they’ve been reborn.