Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos.3 & 10

For the third release in his Shostakovich symphony cycle, Valery Gergiev again couples two works from different stages in the composer s career. Although Shostakovich s symphonies are usually highly programmatic, the third and tenth symphonies are among his most enigmatic works. The third was first performed in January 1930, its final movement setting a text by Semyon Isaakovich Kirsanov praising May Day and the revolution. Shostakovich stated that the work, expresses the spirit of peaceful reconstruction, yet much of the music is dark and somber in tone. The tenth is one of his most popular and frequently heard works.
First performed in December 1953, the great Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya claimed that the symphony was, a composer s testament of misery, forever damning a tyrant.