These two hugely contrasting symphonies come from the opposite ends
of Shostakovich’s life and career. The Second Symphony was written to
commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik October Revolution. Its
advanced idiom of experimental textures and abstract effects can perhaps be
best described as organised musical chaos. The Fifteenth was Shostakovich’s
last symphony and is filled with remarkable contrasts, from the rollicking
quotes from Rossini’s William Tell Overture and eerie references to Wagner’s
Götterdämmerung and Tristan und Isolde, to the last and perhaps most
imaginative of the composer’s symphonic passacaglias.

Widely admired as having ‘superlative standards’ (BBC Music Magazine)
and going ‘from strength to strength’ (Gramophone), Vasily Petrenko’s Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic Shostakovich symphonic cycle has gained critical acclaim
from every quarter, and each new release generates its own not inconsiderable
gravitational field. Volume 7 cleverly pairs the ‘difficult’ but remarkably dramatic
Second Symphony with the simultaneously rousing, enigmatic and emotionally
draining Fifteenth in performances which once again set new standards.

Vasily Petrenko became Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra in September 2009, and in 2013 will become Chief Conductor of the
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the Classical BRIT Awards Male Artist of
the Year 2010 and the Classic FM/Gramophone Young Artist of the Year 2007.
In 2009 he was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of Liverpool and
Liverpool Hope University.