Bavarian Symphony Orchestra - Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7

It was in the war year of 1941 that Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 7 in C major. It comes in the approximate middle of his oeuvre and was named the �Leningrad� symphony because Shostakovich dedicated it to his native city (today�s St. Petersburg). It was there on March 5, 1942 that the symphony received its world premiere, performed by the similarly evacuated orchestra of Moscow�s Bolshoi Theatre under the direction of Samuil Samossud. The Moscow premiere on March 27 took place in perilous conditions, but even an air raid alert could not convince the audience to go to the shelters, so captivated were they by the music.