Stagione 2026 | Viotti - Teatro alla Scala - 16 febbraio 2026

“Leningrad is my homeland. My hometown, my home. And many thousands of other Leningraders hear what I hear. That Leningrad will forever stand solemnly on the banks of the Neva.” When Hitler besieged his city in 1941, Shostaković asked to be sent to the front. Rejected for his health conditions, he decided to write a symphony that could express all the dignity of his fellow citizens in the face of aggression. Completed within the year, the Seventh became a symbol and engine of the Russian resistance. When it was performed in Leningrad in August 1942, the musicians of the Radio orchestra were recalled from the front and loudspeakers were installed on the outskirts of the city, so that even the Germans could hear it. At the end of its strength, the city did not give up on living.