Composed to acknowledge an honorary degree despite not attending university, a mischievous Brahms penned the tongue-in-cheek Academic Festival Overture, featuring boisterous student drinking songs. Del Águila's Concierto en Tango for Cell and Orchestra is a modern take on the traditional form, light-hearted and rhythmic. The forced optimism of Symphony No. 5, glorifying Stalin's regime, proved both career- and lifesaving for Shostakovich.