Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra / Christian Tetzlaff / Omer Meir Wellber

Grief at the loss of a loved one can hardly be put into words. But it can be expressed in music, as Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto »To the Memory of an Angel« so powerfully demonstrates. Berg had already received the commission for a violin concerto, but set it aside and only began work after learning of the death of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, the daughter of Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler-Werfel. In looking back on her life and depicting her death, Berg draws on musical languages from different eras, culminating in a quotation from Bach’s cantata »O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort«. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 is similarly expressive and wide-ranging. Written under the pressure of the Soviet regime, the symphony moves between conformity and veiled resistance. Its seemingly triumphant finale unfolds into a musical drama that continues to raise questions about truth, freedom and artistic integrity. Shostakovich gives voice to the tensions of his time while transforming timeless human experiences into music of extraordinary intensity, emotional power and unsettling relevance.