Melba Recordings

To celebrate the centenary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s birth, Melba Recordings is proud to present a stunning live recording of his Tenth Symphony by the Australian Youth Orchestra conducted by Alexander Anissimov.

"These days there is always debate about the meaning of a Shostakovich symphony. Ever since Western listeners realised they might have been wrong to take Shostakovich at his word when the Fifth Symphony was described as ‘a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism’, we have pondered the real meaning of his works, and tried to find clues in the various writings that have come out since his death...

Symphony No. 10, completed on 27 October 1953 and premiered under the conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky in Leningrad in December of that year, is supposed to be about the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin – the composer was finally free to broadcast his views, eight months after the great dictator’s death."

(reprinted from the liner notes by G.K. Williams)

Presented in stunning SACD surround sound with astonishing artwork by Ken Cato, this new release is now available wherever all good classical CDs are sold.

September 2006