Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14, Six Verses of Marina Tsvetayeva

Featuring

John Storgårds
Jess Dandy
Elizabeth Atherton
Peter Rose
BBC Philharmonic
Dmitri Shostakovich

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Recording & Production

This album was recorded using 24-bit / 96 kHz technology, offering a dynamic range up to 48 dB greater and 256 times the resolution of standard 16-bit recordings.

Composition History

Symphony No. 14 is dedicated to Benjamin Britten, an English composer, who conducted its British premiere in Aldeburgh in 1970.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Shostakovich intended his Symphony No. 14, which largely sets poems about death, to make listeners realize life is beautiful and they should lead pure lives.

Composition History

The poets whose texts Shostakovich chose for Symphony No. 14 all died prematurely or in unnatural circumstances, which may connect to his protest against untimely death.

Compositional Technique

The Symphony No. 14 incorporates twelve-note themes, a technique gaining acceptance in the Soviet Union during the 1960s, to symbolize absolute or metaphysical qualities.

Compositional Technique

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 uses an ensemble of nineteen strings and percussion, a variant of chamber symphonies composed for Rudolf Barshai's Moscow Chamber Orchestra.