A celebration of music the Nazis could not silence

Everyone agreed the weather was perfect. It was cold; not the crisp, drinking hot chocolate type, the unpleasant, damp sort. A stubborn mist framed empty buildings – the city of London sleeps on Sundays. “Enjoy,” the steward smiled at me as I took my place in the bowels of the Barbican. It seemed an odd thing to say to an audience about to watch a , a 1993 documentary by Simon Broughton about compositions and performances made by prisoners at the Czech ghetto, which was used as a holding pen before detainees were murdered at Auschwitz and elsewhere. But, as Broughton said in his introduction to the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s – a day-long programme of events dedicated to art created in camps of Nazi-occupied Europe – as well as reflecting on humanity’s darkest failings we should also celebrate its extraordinary achievements.