Amitai Kurtz Samba Project · The album
Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin.
But he was born in
Brazil
Out now on every platform. Eight pieces of the classical canon, arranged, produced and orchestrated by Amitai Kurtz, played as samba and bossa nova.
But He Was Born inBrazil
Beethoven's Fifth opens with a rhythm, not a melody: short, short, short, long. The album plays it as what it always was, a percussion figure. Eight tracks, seventeen minutes, recorded in the studio with an orchestra. The catalogue numbers are the composers', the rhythm section is Rio's.
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1
Ludwig van BeethovenSymphony No. 5Op. 67 · 1808
Short, short, short, long. The most famous opening in symphonic music becomes the batucada it was waiting to be.
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2
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartSymphony No. 40K. 550 · 1788
Mozart's restless G minor theme, carried by a samba pulse.
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3
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartRondo Alla TurcaK. 331 · 1783
Mozart wrote it imitating a Turkish military band, percussion music from elsewhere heard through a Viennese ear. Playing it as samba makes the same move again, 240 years later.
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4
Ludwig van BeethovenFür EliseWoO 59 · 1810
The left hand becomes a bass line and the practice piece starts to dance.
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5
Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskySwan LakeOp. 20 · 1876
Tchaikovsky's melancholy and Brazilian saudade turn out to be close relatives.
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6
Frédéric ChopinNocturne No. 2 (Interlude)Op. 9 No. 2 · 1832
A short doorway into the piece the whole project grew from.
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7
Frédéric ChopinNocturne No. 2Op. 9 No. 2 · 1832
The first arrangement and the first video. Chopin's ornamented, rubato line sits naturally over bossa nova, it only needed a different accompaniment.
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8
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartRondo Alla Turca (Reprise)K. 331 · 1783
The march returns to close the record.
Arranged, produced and orchestrated by Amitai Kurtz. Recorded in the studio with an orchestra. Horn parts recorded in Brazil by players who work with some of the country's biggest artists, tracked there and sent to Israel.
Where it started
One backyard, one red keyboard, a camera. These are the videos that sent the project around the world. Every one of them travelled on its own. Tap to play with sound.
Amitai Kurtz hears both traditions from the inside
Amitai Kurtz is an Israeli composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He studied music in Brazil, and the samba feel he brought home has run through everything he has played since.
He was working on a solo album when he started reimagining well-known pieces as samba, filmed with friends in a newly renovated backyard. The first one was a Chopin nocturne. Within weeks the videos were circulating worldwide, and the project took over.
He writes every arrangement down to the last percussion hit, which is how a run of videos turned into a full orchestral record in about two months.
On stage and in the studio withIdan Raichel, Shlomi Shaban, Alon Oleartchik, Guy Mazig & HaDorbanim, Jimbo J, Esther Rada
Classical meets Carnavala concert that ends as a dance floor
A high-energy show built from the album and the sessions: Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin next to film themes and pop and rock anthems, all reworked with samba and Latin rhythm. Available for festivals, venues, corporate evenings and private events, in Israel and abroad.
The set draws onMozart · Beethoven · Chopin · Bach · Tchaikovsky · film themes · Michael Jackson · The Beatles · Metallica
Book the Samba Project
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