★★★★☆ Caetani’s no-nonsense authenticity rehabilitates Soviet musical propaganda.

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
May 4, 2016

Given the composer’s enduring popularity, Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony has had a surprisingly chequered history. At first it was a huge hit, smuggled out of Russia on microfilm and seen as a key part of the Allied war effort at worldwide performances (the Sydney Symphony gave the Australian premiere in 1943 as part of a War Funds concert). Then the thaw: Isn’t it just propaganda? Did we really cosy up to Stalin? Isn’t it a bit bombastic? Finally, Perestroika and Glasnost. Recent years have seen major new recordings and the publication of the composer’s Testimony gave a musical voice to his own (supposed) doubts about the regime. “It is the continuing reassessment of the layers of meaning that has given this work a comparatively secure place on the concert platform,” writes Carl Rosman in his astute programme notes for the SSO. “We can never know what Shostakovich specifically had in mind when he composed this symphony, and this is emphatically not something to be regretted. Indeed it is a large part of why we still listen today.”