It isn’t just a strong musical affinity that binds Dmitri Shostakovich and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester together. The very building in which the orchestra now plays – Rudolf Skoda’s Brutalist masterpiece opened in 1981 – has its own fascinating relationship with the regime under which Shostakovich worked. It was this very concert hall that, in the autumn of 1989, hosted the series of open discussions convened by the conductor Kurt Masur which contributed to the success of the Peaceful Revolution – just days before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Shostakovich’s music, thanks to the courage of the people of Leipzig, was already in the orchestra’s blood.

Those days may feel like a distant memory in the vibrant, fashionable and welcoming city that is modern Leipzig. But cultural and political history is everywhere you turn in this place, from its wealth of composer museums to its revealing and awe-inspiring twentieth-century architecture. The Gewandhaus Concert Hall on Augustusplatz remains physically and spiritually at the heart of Leipzig’s conversations and identity. It will certainly feel that way in the summer of 2025, when musicians unite in the city for one of the most wide-ranging, comprehensive and star-studded festivals of Shostakovich’s music ever convened.

Three orchestras – including the Gewandhausorchester, Boston Symphony Orchestra and a specially assembled Festival Orchestra – will perform the composer’s complete symphonies and concertos under Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons and rising star Anna Rakitina in May 2025. Artists including Daniil Trifonov, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Gautier Capuçon and Antoine Tamestit are among those presenting the composer’s chamber and piano music. Oper Leipzig will present its 2024 production of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, with Nelsons conducting his Gewandhausorchester in a staging by Francisco Negrin starring Kristine Opolais and Pavel Černoch. A series of talks, symposiums, films and relaxed foyer performances will help contextualize everything seen and heard.

Leipzig remains the most tantalizing city on earth for those absorbed in the rich heritage of classical music. Shostakovich knew that, and made his own pilgrimage to the city whose musical history so fascinated him. In 1950, the composer visited Leipzig for the annual celebration of perhaps its most famous musical resident, Johann Sebastian Bach – an event that led to the composer’s own celebrated piano work in homage to the great master, his 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano.

From 1976-78, the Gewandhausorchester became the first in the world to perform Shostakovich’s symphonies as a complete cycle under the leadership of Kurt Masur, whose championing of the Soviet-era composer marked a significant moment in the world’s recognition of his work. Current Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons has recently completed what some consider the definitive modern recording of Shostakovich’s symphonies for Deutsche Grammophon with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, its first instalment winning a Gramophone Award in 2016.

In Shostakovich’s lifetime and long before it, musicians across the world took note of events in Leipzig – a barometer of the highest quality and most interesting creativity. These days the Gewandhausorchester still enjoys a privileged position given its unique sound culture and status as the oldest civic symphony orchestra in the world. Its home city, which gave the world Wagner, Eisler and Clara Schumann, and was home to Bach, Mendelssohn, the Schumann couple, Grieg and Mahler, has never enjoyed a more thriving classical music life. 2024 alone will see no fewer than eight music festivals take place – from festivals celebrating Bach, Mendelssohn and the art of dance to the 48th Festival “Leipzig Jazz Days”. 2024 will also see celebrations marking three hundred years since the first performance of Bach’s St John Passion at Easter.

Right now, all this might seem rather closer to home. With a new, direct flight from London’s Stansted Airport to Leipzig, the city can be reached from the UK in under two hours. Three departures a week to Leipzig’s compact and easily navigable airport make the city perfect for a short break. Those with more time might choose to arrive in style by train, alighting at Germany’s grandest and most beautiful rail terminus – a shopping and eating destination in its own right.

Shostakovich’s music has rarely felt more relevant than it does now. The 2025 Shostakovich Festival promises to be a landmark event in our continued understanding of the composer and his music. Whether you drop in on this abundant event, take advantage of Leipzig’s extraordinary year-round calendar of classical music and cultural events, or just walk the Notenspur Music Trail through landmarks and institutions associated with figures from Bach to Wagner, you can be sure of a warm welcome.

This initiative is co-financed from tax revenues on the basis of the budget agreed by the Members of the State Parliament of Saxony.

Shostakovich Festival 2025 runs from 15 May - 1 June: gewandhausorchester.de/en/shostakovich/