Nicolas Altstaedt & Münchener Kammerorchester

They're his partners in crime, with whom he can play and conduct, and with whom he has created an ingeniously interwoven programme. 
 
Sjostakovitsj's music seems to exist in a grey vacuum. Minor, major, angry, happy, sincere, ironic: it all seems to be the same. However, this does not make the music boring - on the contrary, it makes you unsure of the state you are in. The echo of Haydn can still be heard, hundreds of years later, in the form of music, but that is all. Haydn's music is not grey, it is black and white. Schubert was just as clear, but whereas with Haydn, you know where you are going in a few minutes, Schubert can turn left at any moment at full speed. And so, we come full circle back to Shostakovich.