Shostakovich Symphony edition completed to mark 50th anniversary
This month brings the final publications in the newly revised and corrected edition of all 15 Shostakovich symphonies, bearing fruit from the merging of publishers Boosey & Hawkes and Sikorski. The four scores, released to complete the set, range from experimental early Soviet symphonies to Shostakovich’s late, great song-symphony exploring themes of mortality.
Boosey & Hawkes and Sikorski announced in 2023 a revised and corrected new edition of Dmitri Shostakovich’s 15 symphonies, and this major publishing project is now completed in the 50th year since the death of the composer in 1975. The final batch of publications includes Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 12 and 14, all released as large format study scores for optimal legibility. The scores and related orchestral parts have been newly computer typeset, and the parts are also compatible for performance use with scores in ‘The New Collected Works of Dmitri Shostakovich’.
Dr. Helmuth Kreysing (General Manager, Concord Classical, GSA) commented: "In time to mark the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death, we are completing our new edition of all 15 symphonies by the great Russian composer. This special joint project between our London and Berlin offices now comes to a provisional close. New editions of further works by Shostakovich are already in preparation."
Sikorski became a sister company of Boosey & Hawkes in 2019 when it joined the Concord group, seeing its operation combining with Boosey & Hawkes’s German office in Berlin. Both publishers have a long history of specialising in Russian and Soviet era music and have joined their expertise together to produce the new Shostakovich edition. This publishing project sits alongside new resources jointly produced for promoters and performers preparing for the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death which falls on 9 August 2025.
> Visit our Shostakovich 2025 website
> Explore our detailed Shostakovich work list (PDF)
Symphony No.2 ‘To October’ (1927)
Study score 979-0-003-04369-2
Shostakovich’s Symphony No.2 was written in 1927 to fulfil a state commission to mark the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. The composer opens the compact 20-minute work with a purely instrumental first section followed by a musical setting of Alexander Bezymensky’s poem To October, a hymn of praise to Lenin and the revolution. While avant-garde and modernist traits prevail in the first section, the choral finale features a conventional, almost placating tonal language that emphasises the histrionic gestures of the text, so that the composition communicates as a piece of programmatic propaganda. Shostakovich himself was rather dissatisfied with his Symphony No.2 but it was awarded first prize in a composition competition for the best pieces relating to the revolution’s jubilee.
Symphony No.3 ‘The First of May’ (1929)
Study score 979-0-003-04370-8
Against the backdrop of increasingly strict guidelines for the creation of art and music from the beginning of the 1930s, Shostakovich presented with his Symphony No.3 a work that satisfied a number of the required characteristics: alongside the clear, tonal writing and insistent rhythms, the choral finale triumphantly sings of the revolutionary celebration of May Day. The composer spoke in a letter of the “spirit of peaceful reconstruction” which he wanted to express in his new work. Despite its initial success, Shostakovich’s Third was categorised as ‘formalistic’ and disappeared from the repertoire for the next 30 years.
Symphony No.12 ‘The Year 1917’ (1961)
Study score 979-0-003-04379-1
After giving in to massive pressure from state authorities in 1960 and finally becoming a member of the Communist Party, Shostakovich fell into a gloomy depression. His 8th String Quartet, composed in the same year, is interpreted as a deeply personal commentary on this. By contrast, his Symphony No.12, which was written around the same time and bears the subtitle ‘The Year 1917’, seems like a dutiful official statement with its October Revolution subject matter. Remarkable are the work’s recourse to the ideals of early communism and the omission of any references to contemporary times. In the West, the symphony was seen as pure propaganda music – but even back then, many listeners will have had an idea of what was hidden behind the shrill, tense jubilation.
Symphony No.14 (1969)
Study score 979-0-003-04381-4
Shostakovich composed his Symphony No.14 for soprano, bass, string orchestra and percussion during a hospital stay in the spring of 1969. Modest Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, which Shostakovich had already orchestrated a few years earlier, can clearly be recognised as a source of inspiration. This penultimate symphony is structured as a cycle of eleven settings of texts by different poets (Lorca, Apollinaire, Küchelbecker and Rilke), all of which deal with death. In a speech at the launch of his new symphony, Shostakovich said: “Death awaits each and every one of us. I can see nothing good in our lives ending like this, and that is what I want to convey in this work”. In the score, the texts are underlaid in Russian, German and in the respective original languages.
> Further information on the Shostakovich Symphony edition
Programming for Shostakovich 2025 has brought over 2000 international performances in the two seasons encompassing the anniversary year. This month brings a major focus in Leipzig led by Andris Nelsons and Anna Rakitina at the helms of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a specially-formed festival orchestra. Repertoire highlights include cycles of all 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets and a pair of performances of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Leipzig Opera, with events running between 15 May and 1 June.
> View the Shostakovich Festival Leipzig
Boosey & Hawkes | Sikorski is pleased to present a series of web videos, Beyond the Baton, in which Shostakovich’s creative life is reassessed from the perspective of the conductor’s rostrum. The opening video, released in January, featured an introduction from conductor Semyon Bychkov. March saw a second video with Marin Alsop explaining her ongoing fascination with Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5 and its power to transcend political barriers.