Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko conductor
 
Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 in C major, ‘Leningrad’
 
Three weeks after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Shostakovich volunteered with the Home Guard in Leningrad. As the siege of the city intensified, he worked on his Seventh Symphony, completing three movements before being forced to leave Leningrad and travel east by train.