Compositions are created during the most varied stages of life, influenced by inner conflicts and social crises. The Frankfurt Radio Symphony com­bines reflective works from different eras in its concert at the Musikfest Berlin. Gustav Mahler worked on his unfinished 10th Symphony towards the end of his life during a period of intense physical and mental suffering. While Rebecca Saunders explores the limits of individual expression in her work for piano and orchestra “to an utterance”, in which the solo piano part played by the fascinating pianist Tamara Stefanovich is placed firmly in the foreground, the eight French horns in Helmut Lachenmann’s “My Melodies” form a homogeneous solo ensemble whose tonal potential is exploited to the full.