On 24 February 2022, the unthinkable happened: Russia invaded Ukraine. Until then it had just been a doom scenario depicted in newspapers and at negotiating tables. It is a war that no one expected and it has shocked the world. More than a year later, the anti-aircraft gun still rattles in Ukrainian cities: the population is being torn apart, men to the front and women to shelter. The safe home, the beautiful heritage and the rich history has been shot to pieces. But a defiant Ukraine is standing firm.

This proud and powerful cultural identity can also be heard in the music that composers have written over the centuries. Dmitri Bortniansky (1751–1825) was one of the ‘Golden Three’ Ukrainian composers of the 18th century, who deliberately incorporated folk music to confirm his own cultural identity.

Throughout history, this identity and freedom has been a fiercely contested good. When Myroslav Skoryk (1938–2020) wrote his then controversial Melody in 1982 – incidentally, for a Russian war film while the Soviet Union ruled the country – he could not have suspected that the work would become the spiritual anthem of Ukraine some 40 years later. Composer Valentin Silvestrov (1937) fled his beloved homeland in March 2022. Since then, he has continued to protest peacefully from Berlin with his gentle music against all the horrors – in the world in general, and in his country in particular.