Mahler's Unfinished by Mahler, Shostakovich, Ab (2025/2025), Dirigat Vasily Petrenko, Kulturpalast, Dresden, Deutschland

For many, thirteen is an unlucky number. For composers, it's more like ten, because starting with Beethoven, many were able to complete a ninth symphony, but died over their tenth or didn't even dare to start it. Like Mahler, who sketched his Tenth but had to leave it unfinished. But even if he didn't finish it, the grief, pain and deeply felt anguish in this music is still one of the most moving things you can hear in concert today. Shostakovich, on the other hand, managed fifteen symphonies, but his Fourth was not heard for decades. It was Stalin's fault, who put so much pressure on the composer that he withdrew his work. The drastic way in which the composer expressed the horrors of the Second World War was too dangerous for the communist regime.