Over 45 years separate the composition of Symphonies Nos 1 and 15 and yet both exude creativity and Shostakovich’s dark wit. The First Symphony owes much to the influence of Shostakovich’s Russian predecessors including Tchaikovsky and Scriabin. However it also reflects contemporary artistic life and the optimism of the early years in the Soviet Union. By contrast the final symphony is a more bitter work, drawing on many of the themes that recur throughout Shostakovich’s career and yet never resorting to melodrama.