The aptness of this concert’s title is underscored by the largest, most expressively rich and varied work of the program, Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony. It was originally intended to be a celebration of the Russian victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Yet, it owes more to the spirit of the “German” part of the program represented in the 19th century works of Beethoven, Schumann and Wagner than it does to any repudiation of the German people.
It is undoubtedly true that the true inheritors of the great German Romantic tradition were not those of the West, but the celebrated Russian composers of the Soviet era.