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The Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy is a bridge between the form-conscious style of classical music and the individual expressive world of romanticism. Flowing melodies and a refined form have made it one of the most popular works in the repertoire. The fact that Mendelssohn spent six years tirelessly working on it is not noticeable at any point in the music. The virtuoso solo part is in the best hands with Hilary Hahn, who is valued worldwide for her perfect technique and musicality. Peter Tchaikovsky struggled with his fate. His "Fifth" with the omnipresent "fate motif" is the musical blueprint of his inner soul drama. During the composition, he was often overcome by doubts, he questioned his work as a composer and was of the opinion until the end that his Symphony No. 5 was a failure. Audiences, orchestras and conductors like Lahav Shani are convinced of the opposite.

Hope and resistance in the midst of darkness. With this joint concert, members of the Munich Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra commemorate all artists who found refuge in their art in the threatening presence of oppression and persecution or who were not allowed to perform for ideological reasons. For example, the renowned pianist Ilse Fromm-Michaels, who performed with conductors such as Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arthur Nikisch, was banned from performing because her husband was of Jewish descent. The National Socialists took a similar approach with the works of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, which were removed from all concert programs. The Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942. There he wrote his one-movement third string quartet, a work that is deeply moving in its desperate beauty. The G minor piano quintet by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1940 and reflects the oppressive atmosphere of that time. It is a broken music full of suppressed emotions that leads through the depths of human nature. An intense and captivating listening experience.

Lithuania's vibrant musical life provides the classical world with outstanding artists - and above all female artists. Giedrė Šlekytė and Raminta Šerkšnytė not only share the same country of origin, whose eventful history and archaic nature are impressively reflected in Šerkšnytė's music, both are considered musical ambassadors of Lithuania in their respective fields and attract international attention. Inspired by the "rich and sweet soprano" of his wife Pauline, Richard Strauss developed a preference for the song, both in the intimate form with piano accompaniment and for the sonically enlarged orchestral song. Franz Schreker dispensed with such genre designations when he simply called his last two songs "Vom ewigen Leben". The two songs based on texts by Walt Whitman mark a high point in Schreker's rich vocal work with their ingenious interweaving of voice and accompaniment. The Israeli soprano Chen Reiss is not only an admired Strauss interpreter but also a committed pioneer in bringing Schreker's works back to the concert stage. Scotland, with its legendary landscape and history, was popular among the artists of the Romantic era. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy found inspiration in Scotland for his Symphony No. 3, in which "Scottish moods" can actually be heard, from fog, storm and rain to a clarinet that performs like a bagpipe.