CD, Shostakovich (composer)

Powerful and beautifully crafted, this recording – the first from the relationship between DG and the Boston Symphony under Nelsons – is a hugely impressive sign of just what this ensemble/maestro... — Gramophone Magazine, August 2015 More…

Nelsons is spry and precisioned and his insistence on super-keen rhythm pays off big-time...The Fifth Symphony is quite marvellous...and like the Tenth should dominate the catalogue for a long... — Gramophone Magazine, August 2016 More…

The playing here, disarmingly gentle yet tonally seductive, has a songful use of vibrato that recalls the expressive manners of Pierre Fournier and du Pré herself…A most rewarding CD then, sure... — Gramophone Magazine, March 2018 More…

Honeck’s Shostakovich sounds magnificent. From intense pianissimos to the shrieking upper register and full bass thwack of a grand peroration – which Honeck takes surprisingly at face value... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Nelsons keeps a firm grip on the unfolding of the drama [in the 11th]. And here, as in the Fourth, his Boston Symphony Orchestra responds with supreme virtuosity from every section. Whether... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2018, 5 out of 5 stars/4 out of 5 stars More…

The Tenth is a symphony into which many have been tempted to read parallels with Shostakovich's life...The refreshing thing is that Petrenko treats it as a great symphony in its own right...All... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2010, 5 out of 5 stars More…

The Leningrad Symphony was composed in haste as the Nazis sieged and bombarded the city (in 1941). It caused an immediate sensation, but posterity has been less enthusiastic. What business has... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…