Berliner Philharmoniker & Kirill Petrenko - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 (2023)

“It is an amazing psychological drama” – that is how Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, describes Dmitri Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony. The Ninth and Tenth also vividly reflect Shostakovich’s struggle with the Stalinist regime – and his self-assertion. Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings is now releasing the recordings of Symphonies 8–10 as the orchestra’s second major hardcover edition with Kirill Petrenko.

Musically, each of the three symphonies is a world of its own – what unites them is the desire for freedom: once whispered behind closed doors, once ironically distorted, once shouted out. Shostakovich’s Eighth presented a tragedy with a forced smile at authority craving for patriotic anthems. In his Ninth Symphony, the composer made a surprising about-face, so that he had to remain silent as a symphonist until after Stalin’s death – in order to survive.

Following his death, the Tenth immediately erupted from Shostakovich – after an eightyear creative break. Kirill Petrenko describes the work as the “greatest stroke of liberation in Shostakovich’s artistic output after the Fifth”.

Tracklist
01. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 65: I. Adagio – Allegro non troppo
02. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 65: II. Allegretto
03. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 65: III. Allegro non troppo
04. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 65: IV. Largo
05. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 65: V. Allegretto