“Certain moments in history gave composers the possibility of saying something deeply personal,” says LSO Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda. “And Shostakovich speaks equally to us today.”

As Noseda and the LSO continue their journey through Shostakovich’s symphonies, which span the composer’s lifetime, they take on one of his biggest creations – the Seventh.

Written during the siege of Leningrad in World War II, it is shattering in scale and impact. For Noseda, “you can hear the march of the soldiers, the obsessive repetition, a loop you cannot escape,” in the relentless, pounding rhythms, the struggle towards a fragile victory.

Recorded live in the Barbican Hall, London, December 2019