With the Fifth Symphony (1937) Shostakovich was allowed in from the cold, as it were. It’s certainly a magnificent work by anybody’s standards. The miracle is that the Soviet regime agreed, hailing it ...

Stalin's death in 1953 was the biggest step towards Shostakovich's restoration as a creative artist – finally he could express himself freely! This transition was marked by his 10th Symphony ...

The opening goes off like a cartoon alarm clock, shrill and insistent, the ensuing march more satirical, almost more Prokofiev than Shostakovich in Vasily Petrenko’s hands. This is less the child of ...

Lemn Sissay investigates what it was like writing music under Stalin's oppressive regime. Shostakovich was a 20th Century Russian composer and pianist, who spent most of his career working under ...