Shostakovich told his colleague Boris Tishchenko that he wanted to write a "happy symphony" for his Fifteenth Symphony, despite peppering the score with dark associations.
Composer Biography
Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer, suffered a heart attack in 1966 and a chronic spinal cord inflammation that gradually paralyzed his muscles, forcing him to learn to write with his left hand.
Performer Biography
Bernard Haitink, the conductor on this recording, had a career spanning 65 years and was Music Director or Principal Conductor of several major orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam.
Compositional Technique
The Fifteenth Symphony incorporates musical quotations from other composers, including Rossini and Wagner, and Shostakovich also claimed to have quoted Beethoven.
Recording & Production
This recording features the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, an internationally renowned orchestra that has been ranked among the top ten orchestras in the world by Gramophone and Bachtrack.
Notable Performances
The premiere of Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony was conducted by his son, Maxim Shostakovich, in Moscow on January 8, 1972.
Composition History
Shostakovich composed his Fifteenth Symphony, his last symphony, in the summer of 1971, believing it would be his final statement in the genre.
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