Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No 7 "Leningrad"

In August Protected content wrote: "I don't know the fate of this thing, a leisured critics will probably reproach me for imitating Ravel's Bolero. Let them reproach, but this is how I hear the war."

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 "Leningrad":
I. Allegretto ∙
II. Moderato (poco allegretto) ∙
III. Adagio – Largo – Moderato risoluto – Largo – Adagio ∙
IV. Allegro non troppo – Moderato ∙

hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony ∙
Klaus Mäkelä, Dirigent ∙

This symphony is submitted in honour of the besieged city of Leningrad, where it was first played under dire circumstances on August 9, Protected content , during the siege by Axis and Finnish forces. Leningrad soon became popular in both the Soviet Union and the West as a symbol of resistance to fascism and totalitarianism, thanks in part to the composer’s microfilming of the score in Samara and its clandestine delivery, via Tehran and Cairo, to New York, where Arturo Toscanini led a broadcast performance (July 19, Protected content Time magazine placed Shostakovich on its cover. That popularity faded somewhat after Protected content , but the work is still regarded as a major musical testament to the 27 million Soviet people who lost their lives in World War II, and it is often played at Leningrad Cemetery, where half a million victims of the Protected content Siege of Leningrad are buried.