“This was a performance, played with the Concertgebouw’s phenomenal spectrum of coloring, phrasing & dynamic subtlety that asserted the symphony’s organic structural credentials & spoke of deep-seated, human feelings throughout its ample 80-minute span. It was wonderful to have past reservations about the symphony swept aside with such authority. “ -The Telegraph (UK); BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Award Winner.

It is impossible to deny the overwhelming impact Shostakovich’s Symphony #7 had on its listeners in 1942. Written by Shostakovich after he had been transported out of his besieged hometown of Leningrad, the 7th is a patriotic hymn to his city & country & a rallying cry to the foes of fascism. Its premiere in the USSR. was world news, & securing its 1st performance rights in the West was contested by Toscanini, Stokowski, & Koussevitzky. Toscanini won, & the work was rapturously received & repeatedly performed. But even before the war had ended, the exalted position of the “Leningrad” Symphony had slipped, & commentators in the West derided it as pompous & prosaic. The symphony, rehabilitated from being a patriotic piece to being a subversive piece based on the purported testimony of Shostakovich, only later received regular performances in the West. The truth is that Shostakovich’s 7th is an enormous piece for a gargantuan orchestra set in 4 vast movements lasting more than 70 minutes in performances. Its opening Allegretto, nearly 30mins in length, has proud & determined C major themes at its start & close & a central section that takes a theme from Offenbach & turns it into a massive ostinato that overwhelms the C major themes with its brutal banality. This is followed by a haunted Moderato of plucked strings & screeching woodwinds & by a vast Adagio with stirring strings & bold brass. The closing Allegro non troppo returns to the monumental style of the opening movement with grand & glorious themes culminating in an interminable C major climax. The truth is that the 7th is a work of banal themes & bombastic climaxes, but Shostakovich’s imagination & discipline have fused the banal & bombastic into an overwhelming musical work.