A long-cherished wish has been granted: the Berlin Philharmonic make their first visit to Grafenegg. Under the baton of Chief Conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, the first of the orchestra’s two concerts brings two key works of the 20th century to the Wolkenturm.

With his variations on a theme by his teacher Frank Bridge, premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 1937, the then only 23-year old Benjamin Britten became world-famous overnight. At around the same time, his elder contemporary Dmitri Shostakovich was writing his Fourth Symphony, whose creation and premiere were accompanied by a politically-motivated witch-hunt against the composer.