Staatskapelle Berlin / Daniel Barenboim

Motion pictures were an important means of strengthening Soviet identity from the 1920s onwards. Director and film pioneer Sergei Eisenstein in particular inspired the people and political leaders with opulent and psychologically refined productions on a massive scale such as »Battleship Potemkin« (1925) and »Alexander Nevsky« (1938), in which the Russians always won in the end. In the latter, the courageous hero Nevsky beats an army of nasty Teutonic Knights, whose armour is suspiciously reminiscent of the German Wehrmacht’s steel helmets. Sergei Prokofiev wrote the film score, and as a result of its great success he later arranged it as a cantata. Daniel Barenboim, an avid campaigner for peace between cultures and nations, now brings the work to the Elbphilharmonie stage. He also takes to the piano himself to perform Mozart’s piano concerto.