Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 (Live)

Famously begun by the composer in 1941 even as the city now known as St Petersburg was imminently under siege from the Nazi invasion, Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony is one of the most iconic of 20th-century symphonic works. Yet where so often performances project the rugged heroism of the Soviet people from the very beginning, Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony’s characterise the opening theme as broad and nobly serene. And when the music quietens, Payare and his musicians set up a deceptive calm with several well-turned woodwind solos, a high violin solo trailing off into a whisper before we hear the soft rattle of the side drum heralding the first, apparently innocuous hints of the “invasion” theme. What really drives the climax of this increasingly nightmarish crescendo are the bass instruments and the impactful percussion. Their menacing interventions later provide striking contrast to the gracefully phrased yet bittersweet music heard in the “Moderato” and the following “Adagio” movements, Payare inspiring the strings to play with a grace and precision more usually heard in Stravinsky’s neoclassical works. Yet the work’s heroic narrative prevails, with the brass finally recalling the symphony’s very opening theme with a mighty and stoic sense of triumph.