In 2015 the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its newly appointed Music Director Andris Nelsons teamed up with Deutsche Grammophon (DG) to record the fifteen symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich. Ten years, four GRAMMY Awards®, and scores of rave reviews later, DG is issuing the full cycle as part of a towering anthology of Shostakovich’s major works. These recordings enable listeners to immerse themselves in a dramatic and endlessly fascinating sound-world, thanks to performances that reflect the intimate bond between orchestra and conductor, and the profound insight they have gained into a composer whose music has been central to their first decade together.
The anthology’s release in 2025 coincides with the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death. As well as the symphonies and incidental works already issued, it also includes new recordings of the composer’s complete piano, violin, and cello concertos, featuring pianist Yuja Wang, violinist Baiba Skride, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, as well as the opera Lady MacBeth of the Mtsensk District. Benefiting from the superb audio quality achieved in the exceptional acoustic of Boston’s Symphony Hall—and by a team led by legendary Hollywood producer Shawn Murphy and BSO lead recording engineer Nick Squire—the anthology is now available digitally and as a 19-disc box set.
Presenting Symphony No. 10 and the Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the first album in the DG/BSO/Nelsons Shostakovich project was released in July 2015. It was hailed by Gramophone as “powerful and beautifully crafted” and went on to win a GRAMMY® for Best Orchestral Performance, as did the next two albums in the series, with volume 3 also winning the award for Best Engineered Album, Classical.
The last of the six releases, featuring Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 12, and 13, came out in October 2023 and, like its predecessors, garnered widespread critical acclaim. “The cycle has been a monumental achievement, and this final installment is as shattering and insightful as earlier ones,” concluded The Sunday Times.
Before that last symphony recording was made, plans were already in place to expand the project with readings of the composer’s six concertos. Yuja Wang here gives characteristically dynamic and expressive performances of his two contrasting piano concertos, written 24 years apart, with the BSO’s principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs playing the obbligato trumpet part in the First. Wang’s own DG album features selections from Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues.
Shostakovich wrote his two violin concertos for his friend David Oistrakh, withholding the darker First Concerto from public performance until after Stalin’s death. Baiba Skride makes both works her own, from the pyrotechnics of the First to the more lyrical writing of the Second.
Yo-Yo Ma gives similarly inspired performances of the two cello concertos. The inventive First was written for another friend, Mstislav Rostropovich, while the far more introspective Second was the composer’s 60th-birthday present to himself. Introducing the latter work to the Symphony Hall audience, Ma said, “This piece is as relevant today as it was then. I think Shostakovich’s artistic truth was to represent the voice of the voiceless.”
Summing up his thoughts on exploring the world of Shostakovich with the BSO, Andris Nelsons states, “The music of Shostakovich has been a constant companion on my journey with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His music is a cross-section of what it means to be human and sharing this exploration of his works over the past ten years with an orchestra as extraordinary and versatile as the Boston Symphony Orchestra has been a great privilege and a real joy. We are thrilled to present this box set as a tribute to Shostakovich’s great legacy and to the remarkable artistry and dedication of everyone who brought this project to life.”
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