Symphony No. 7 in C Major

Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony elevated him to war-hero status, not just in the Soviet Union but across the world. It was begun shortly after the Nazi invasion of Russia in 1941, and soon Shostakovich was writing under dire conditions as the German troops laid siege to his home city, Leningrad. Eventually Shostakovich was evacuated to safety, and the new symphony, now titled Leningrad, was performed in Kuybyshev, to the east of Moscow, then flown on microfilm to the West, where it was widely performed and broadcast behind the enemy lines. Most remarkable of all, though, was the performance in the still-besieged Leningrad, an act requiring unimaginable determination, heroism and sheer ingenuity. Much of the music shows Shostakovich at his most cinematic, but although the huge structure is looser than in other symphonies, the Seventh’s narrative vividness and drive are so compelling that in good performances that hardly matters. The first movement depicts the destruction of something noble and peaceful with terrifying force, and at the end we hear the original theme on massed brass, assaulted by dissonance but magnificently defiant. Remarks attributed to Shostakovich have suggested to some that the symphony was as much about Stalin’s destructive legacy as that of Hitler, but according to the testimony of those who experienced the siege performance, this music was above all about survival, a message it still proclaims powerfully to many today.