Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphonies Nos. 12 & 15 (SACD) - Storgårds, John

The BBC Philharmonic and its new chief conductor John Storgårds continue their recording of Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony with this album, which includes Symphonies Nos. 12 and 15. Subtitled "The Year 1917," the Twelfth Symphony was a project that Shostakovich had been planning and discussing for two decades—a symphony about Lenin. The first movement, "Revolutionary Petersburg," depicts Lenin's arrival in St. Petersburg in April 1917 and his meetings with the city's working class. The second movement, "Razliv," recalls Lenin's retreat to the north of the city. The third movement, "Aurora," refers to the Russian battleship whose rebellious crew fired the first shot in the attack on the Winter Palace. Finally, "Dawn of Mankind" celebrates the final victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Musically, the Twelfth Symphony seems to regress to a simpler musical language than the symphony that immediately preceded it – which some commentators attribute to Shostakovich's joining the Communist Party and perhaps his attempts to meet its expectations. The Fifteenth (and final) Symphony was composed entirely in July 1971 at the composer's retirement home in Repino, northwest of Leningrad. It was his first non-programmatic symphony since the Tenth, and Shostakovich was reluctant to discuss its meaning, but eventually commented that it could be understood as representing the journey from life to death.