The fact that pianist Herbert Schuch and the Musicbanda Franui work so well together was evident at the Ausklang Festival in Erl in the fall of 2025: Schubert’s “Original” German Dances, seamlessly followed by Franui’s arrangements. What was briefly touched upon back then is now being expanded into a full evening program. “We had so much fun playing together at Ausklang that we decided to put together an entire evening together. And the premiere of the program will take place in Erl, the place where the project originated,” explains Andreas Schett, mastermind of Musicbanda Franui and curator of the Ausklang Festival. “For us, it’s about the question of how to continue playing with original classical works. ‘Playing on’ is the central element: it’s a great way to bring traditional material into our present by playing on it—in both senses of the word; not just by orthodoxly fulfilling what the history of interpretation dictates must happen for something to be rendered ‘correctly,’ but by taking the liberty to find a different way of playing, to rethink the material, and thus to ‘play on.’ That is the central idea of this program.”