Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko conductor
 
Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 in C minor
 
A third of a century after his death the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich have moved to the absolute centre of the repertoire. Written during the Second World War, the unusually constructed Eighth Symphony is a powerful work built on striking contrasts between music which is at times unremittingly bleak and at others brutally intense.