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Gerard McBurney for Building a Library explores recordings of Shostakovich's 11th Symphony in G minor, subtitled "The Year 1905", and makes a personal recommendation.

The Symphony is vividly programmatic and depicts the events of "Bloody Sunday" in St Petersburg, January 1905, when unarmed demonstrators were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II. The composer's father survived the massacre and family discussion and stories of the event had a profound affect on the young Dmitri Dmitriyevich.

The piece was written to a commission from the Soviet authorities and proved an instant success but that in itself was a complicated victory. The four movements are played without a break and each has a subtitle: The Palace Square; The 9th of January; In Memoriam and Tocsin.

Recommended Recording:

Shostakovich: Symphony No.11
Berliner Philharmoniker; Semyon Bychkov (conductor)
Philips 420 935-2 (download)

Other Recommended Recordings:

Shostakovich: Symphony No.11 in G minor, Op.103 ‘The year 1905’
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR; Yakov Kreizberg (conductor)
SWR Digital SWR10224 (download)

Shostakovich: Symphony No.11
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)
BIS BIS-SACD-1583 (SACD)

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