Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8
$32.00
Out of Stock6+ weeks add to cart
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8
London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda (cond)
[ LSO Live SACD / Hybrid SACD ]
Release Date: Friday 5 October 2018
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
Composed against a cataclysmic backdrop of Stalinist oppression and the Second World War, Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony is a deeply affecting poem of suffering. The composer described it as "an attempt to reflect the terrible tragedy of war" and it contains some of the most terrifying music he ever wrote.
Here, Gianandrea Noseda conducts the London Symphony Orchestra with intensity and understanding, allowing the music to tell its own story as it travels from darkness into light, yearning more for peace than for victory.
One of the leading conductors of his generation, Gianandrea Noseda holds several high-profile international positions in addition to his role as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, including Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in WashingtonDC. His previous releases on LSO Live include acclaimed interpretations of the Verdi Requiem and Britten War Requiem.
"Noseda's broad, intense unfolding of the opening adagio builds up to a shattering climax, while the lighter succeeding moments drip with the composer's anti-militaristic parody and bitter sarcasm...A graphic, questioning, ultimately despairing performance." - The Sunday Times
"[Noseda] has a firm handle on the depth and breadth of the symphony, chronicling his way through its empty wastes and bone-crushing upheavals of rolling percussion. The first movement's long oration for solo cor anglais - Shostakovich's instrument of choice for the desolate - is typical of the London Symphony Orchestra's intense and deeply felt playing throughout." Gramophone
