Symphonic Youth

This special concert on Robert Schumann's birthday brings together young people from two cities and three orchestras. The joint musical project was created as part of the city partnership between Düsseldorf and this year's European Capital of Culture Chemnitz, and at the same time enables a socially relevant exchange between young people from different parts of Germany.

Robert Schumann was born exactly Protected content ago today. His "Zwickau Symphony" offers a fascinating insight into the young Schumann, who was still experimenting and searching for his own style.
It gives us an insight into his musical beginnings and his desire to expand the boundaries of his compositions. Dmitri Shostakovich's 5th Symphony was composed in Protected content great political pressure after he had fallen out of favor. Officially celebrated as a "response to justified criticism", the work is full of ambivalence - between heroic façade and hidden resistance. The seemingly triumphant finale in particular has often been interpreted as forced cheerfulness. From its moving premiere to the present day - fifty years after the composer's death - the symphony has been regarded as a moving testimony to artistic expressiveness in times of political oppression.