Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9 (2023) [Hi-Res]

The 9th Symphony in E-flat Major, Opus 70 by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1944 and 1945. It is a five-movement symphony with an opening movement in classical sonata form.

With his Ninth Symphony, the composer then made a surprising about-face, so that he had to remain silent as a symphonist until after Stalin's death - in order to survive himself. Not only the tradition-heavy numbering of the Ninth, but also the fact that the war had been won led the people and officials of the Soviet Union to hope for a gigantic heroic celebration. Instead of redemption at the end of the war, Shostakovich saw the countless victims - and the approach of the next catastrophe. In the distancing tone of Viennese classicism and with grotesque cheerfulness, his Ninth therefore depicts a circus world that held up a distorting mirror to the regime.

Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko, conductor