Now Hamburg takes on Russian blowhards

No sooner has Munich opened War and Peace than Hamburg today announced Boris Godunov as the lynchpin of its 2023-24 season.

Without in any way advocating a retreat from Russian repertoire for political reasons, are these two (literal) war-horses the best way to address the world crisis and our relation to Russian culture?

Kent Nagano, music director, says: ‘The programme of our 2023/24 season is conscious of the insecurities of our present times, yet represents the ties that bind us to our musical and cultural heritage and its existential importance. It offers compositions that do not attempt to devise alternate realities, such as the classical works by Haydn or Mozart; in addition, it features symphonies that represent extremes, attempts to come to terms with the power of realities’.