NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Kian Soltani / Karina Canellakis

Music can be very political – the Japanese government discovered this when it commissioned works from various composers in 1940 to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary of the Japanese Empire. Benjamin Britten was one of those asked. In the midst of the Second World War though, he was in no mood for glorification. He composed a mass for the dead for orchestra, the »Sinfonia da Requiem«, Op. 20. The lifelong pacifist told the New York Sun: »I’m making it just as anti-war as possible.«

Dmitri Shostakovich, in turn, used his Cello Concerto No. 1 from 1959 as a reckoning with Stalin’s regime of terror. The composition is marked by constantly changing rhythms, with the timpani and horn providing counterparts to the cello. Dedicated to the famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, Kian Soltani has the stage to showcase his skill, especially in the highly virtuosic finale. Gramophone Magazine has described the young Austrian’s playing as »sheer perfection – Soltani has all the qualities needed to win consistent critical acclaim.« The programme ends with Ludwig van Beethoven’s dance-like and exuberant Symphony No. 7, which Richard Wagner went as far as to call »the apotheosis of the dance itself«. If you want to read Beethoven in political terms though, his Seventh can also be interpreted as a declaration of war on the long-admired Napoleon.