Search - London Philharmonic Orchestra :: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 6 & 14

Shostakovichs Sixth Symphony is often overlooked between the famous heroic Fifth and the overwhelming wartime statements of the Seventh and Eighth. This profoundly personal work juxtaposes deeply felt sorrow in the slow first movement with hollow cheer in the latter two an ironic response to official demands for lightness, cheerfulness and optimism. The Fourteenth, even less traditional in conception, is a haunting and affecting song-cycle for two voices and chamber orchestra on poems unified by the theme of mortality. Vladimir Jurowski led the LPO in these 2013 and 2006 live recordings.