Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 9 & 10

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Release date: 5 February 2021
LSO0828 | 0822231182825

1 disc in jewel case
Booklet in English, French & German
SACD incl.stereo | multi-channel 5.1

Producer: Nicholas Parker
Engineers: Classic Sound
Recorded Barbican Hall, London
June 2018 and January & February 2020
★★★★★
‘Noseda’s march through the Shostakovich symphonies with the LSO continues apace with a boisterous coupling of the Ninth and Tenth.’
— The Scotsman (UK)

★★★★
‘In terms of sheer wealth of experience, few conductors can compare to Gianandrea Noseda… this release gives us what we most crave right now – an experience of live orchestral music in all its colours and frailties. You won’t be disappointed.’
— TheCritic.co.uk

‘Noseda’s cycle of Shostakovich symphonies is shaping up well… he tackles the contrasting Ninth and Tenth . . . played with terrifying incisiveness by the LSO.’
— The Sunday Times

‘Sparkling playing from the LSO . . . And the winds in the third movement are outstanding. The melancholy bassoon before the finale is memorable as well.’
— BBC Radio 3, Record Review with Andrew McGregor (UK)

‘If you like your Shostakovich, if you like your symphonies exciting and wild, this release by the London Symphony Orchestra is for you.’
— ABC Classic Radio, Classic Drive with Vanessa Hughes (Australia)

Sélectionné par la rédaction
'This is a particularly accomplished version... the effects are carefully balanced, without adding distress or irony, without letting the decibels take over, and with neither expression nor emotion curtailed.'
— ConcertoNet

£10.99

Gianandrea Noseda
London Symphony Orchestra

For Gianandrea Noseda, the Ninth is Shostakovich at his most 'classical’, but a modern statement nonetheless. ‘Stalin wanted a celebration of the victory of Russia, and Shostakovich came out with a sort of opera buffa symphony,’ the LSO's Principal Guest Conductor says. ‘Short, witty, lots of sarcasm. I can really feel his wish to go against what was expected of him.’

The Tenth Symphony was written after Stalin's death and allegedly portrays the tragedy, despair, terror and violence of his tenure. The second movement is a musical portrait of Stalin, a march of unremitting terror and frenzied violence, while the finale contains some of the slowest music of the whole symphony, a reminder of the desolation of the Gulag prisoners.