On May 17, PRIF collaborated with Alte Oper as part of the “Musik plus” series. The institute opened its doors to around 70 guests, who also attended a performance by the Gewandhaus Orchestra at Alte Oper afterwards. Both parts of the event focused on the two Russian composers Sergei Rachmaninoff and Dmitri Shostakovich.
At PRIF, guests were able to enjoy not only the talented Kalliope Quartet — an ensemble of four students from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main — but also two short speeches on the topic of “Music, Conflict, and Peace”: In his talk, Christopher Daase explored the various roles that music can play in the context of war and peace. Both Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich grappled with the Stalinist dictatorship. As Daase emphasized, music can be “a place of resistance, a space for ambivalence, for the unspeakable.” Guests were able to experience this for themselves following his lecture, as the Kalliope Quartet performed Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp minor, Op. 108.
Irene Weipert-Fenner continued the afternoon’s program with her speech “Rulership and Resistance in Authoritarian Regimes”. She described how revolutions have changed over time, noting that social media has played a major role in this evolution, as it is used by protesters to mobilize and by autocratic rulers to monitor and defame those very same people. Irene Weipert-Fenner concluded her lecture with current research findings on the social and emotional dynamics of protest movements. The Kalliope Quartet provided a musical accompaniment to her words with the 4th movement, “Presto agitato,” from Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 4 in E-minor.
Before the guests made their way to Alte Oper, they had the opportunity to exchange impressions with the speakers. Everyone seemed to agree: music is more than entertainment. It can be an expression of revolution and social change—and bring people together in conversation across disciplines.
Click here for the event announcement in the FAZ from April 26, 2026: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/kultur/alte-oper-frankfurt-hoehepunkte-im-programm-2026-accg-200757445.html (in German)
