The Festival Orchestra

The 7th Symphony by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich is rarely performed, even though the emotional power of the music directly affects every listener: It is simply the enormous size of the orchestra, with over 100 musicians on stage, that often stands in the way of its realisation. It is therefore an extraordinary opportunity for the budding instrumentalists of the festival orchestra to get to grips with this masterpiece, which describes the terrible horrors of war as well as the longing for humanity in intimate chamber music passages. The project is made unique by the fact that Michael Sanderling is conducting a conductor who was practically born with the instruction manual for interpreting Shostakovich's scores: his father Kurt - also a conductor - was in dialogue with the Soviet musician. He learnt to understand the composer, who had to encode what he had to say - after all, his work was subject to constant control by the Stalinist regime. Dmitri Shostakovich, who described "humanity and love for people" as the "only worthy creative basis for art", died on 9 August 1975. On 9 August 2025, musicians from over 30 countries, gathered under the motto "Let's make music as friends", will perform perhaps his most popular work. Can music really connect people?