For Gianandrea Noseda, the Ninth is Shostakovich at his most 'classical', but a modern statement nonetheless. "Stalin wanted a celebration of the victory of Russia, and Shostakovich came out with a sort of opera buffa symphony," the LSO's Principal Guest Conductor says. "Short, witty, lots of sarcasm. I can really feel his wish to go against what was expected of him." The Tenth Symphony was written after Stalin's death and allegedly portrays the tragedy, despair, terror and violence of his tenure. The second movement is a musical portrait of Stalin, a march of unremitting terror and frenzied violence, while the finale contains some of the slowest music of the whole symphony, a reminder of the desolation of the Gulag prisoners.

In a continuation of his symphony cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda conducts two curious and contrasting symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich-the Sixth and Fifteenth. Following the success of his Fifth Symphony, all eyes were on Shostakovich to create a work that would measure up to it's predecessor. The Sixth was originally intended as an immense musical monument to Lenin, to be woven with heroic melodies and folk songs. Instead his audiences were surprised to hear a quite different result-a contemplative, restrained first movement that morphs puzzlingly into a ferocious ending. The Fifteenth is another of Shostakovich's musical enigmas, with inexplicable quotes from music by Rossini, Glinka and Wagner dotted throughout, alongside references to his own music from his younger years. Written in 1970-71 when the composer's health was declining, this final symphony is one of fond reflection. Together these unconventional works showcase Shostakovich's range as a composer-from wild exhuberance to quiet introspection.

Conducting Bruckner, says Rattle, is a lifelong quest for some "extraordinary vista, some wonderful moment which leads you out of this world". This certainly rings true for Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, the opening theme for which is said to have come to him in a dream, played by an angel. This huge, glowing mountain-range of sound is all at once majestic, reverent and terrifying. This edition of the symphony by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs was first performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle in September 2022, and the recording completes a set of three albums which also features Cohrs' editions of Bruckner's Fourth and Sixth symphonies. Making use of Bruckner's discarded fragments and lesser-known material through his many revisions, this set of albums is a must-listen for lovers of Bruckner's music, and gives us a glimpse into the composer's untold musical thoughts.

Sir Simon Rattle's return to London heralded a new era for the LSO. The ten day festival that opened his inaugural season as the Orchestra's Music Director wowed critics and audiences alike, going on to win the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society award in the 'Concert Series and Festivals' category. This film captures Rattle's very first performance as Music Director; a program in which British composers took center stage. The world-premiere of Helen Grime's Fanfares, which became the first movement of the work Woven Space, opened the concert before violinist Christian Tetzlaff took to the stage to perform the concerto written for him in 2010 by Harrison Birtwistle. Two more works close to Rattle's heart followed: Thomas Ades' Asyla and the pocket-sized Symphony No.3 by the late Oliver Knussen. Finally, Rattle's stunning interpretation of the Enigma Variations brought the concert to a close and then the audience to it's feet, filling the Barbican Hall with rapturous applause.

Taking on the roles of both conductor and soloist, Nikolaj Znaider concludes his Mozart series on LSO Live with the great composer's first three concertos for the violin. While they were penned before he was even out of his teens, the music of Mozart's violin concertos is as characteristically elegant and uplifting as anything he would ever write. Znaider teases out the wit and charm in these delightful pieces, leading the virtuoso players of the London Symphony Orchestra as Mozart would have done, from the violin.

In 1781, the Zong - a British slave ship - left Ghana with twice the number it was designed to carry, bound for Jamaica. The ship's owners claimed that drinking water was running low, and ordered the crew to throw more than 130 living enslaved people overboard. Over 200 years later, Jamaica has become a place of significance for Witter-Johnson. As a young child, she often spent her six-week summer holiday visiting extended family in Jamaica, taking trips to a favorite beach on the south coast. It was here that she witnessed a terrible fatal accident at one end of the beach, yet at the other end, a baptism and celebration was taking place. Witter-Johnson explores this spectrum of events tied together by their central themes of ancestry, family and the ocean, noting that even amidst the darkness of death, there is still room for joy. Combining alternative R&B with classical, and with influences from soul, hip hop and reggae, Ayanna Witter-Johnson is the definition of an eclectic soul. Through her work with the LSO, she forged a friendship with LSO Principal Percussionist, Neil Percy, which became the starting point for the recording. "His enthusiasm for my music moves me to tears and was the catalyst behind our first collaboration and subsequent commission, Forever. The organic development of this project is something I will treasure forever, because above all, I have felt the fullest support in expressing myself exactly as I am, and that goes beyond words." This album showcases Witter-Johnson's special partnership with the LSO Percussion Ensemble, where her choice of rhythms and harmony and use of percussion all have symbolic meaning in relation to the songs' deep inspiration.

Since the London Symphony Orchestra's foundation in 1904, the music and spirit of Sir Edward Elgar have lived in the Orchestra's blood. Elgar conducted the LSO during it's very first 1904-5 season of concerts, and the Orchestra's first Principal Conductor, Hans Richter, was a devoted champion of the composer's music both at home and abroad. Combining a remastered collection of the LSO's finest Elgar recordings, this album demonstrates the enduring significance of the composer's work for the LSO, and showcases performances by conductors Barry Tuckwell, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Sir Colin Davis and Sir Antonio Pappano. The album features critically acclaimed, award-winning recordings of Elgar's Symphonies Nos 1-3, alongside orchestral favorites including Elgar's "Enigma" Variations, Cello Concerto, Imperial March and Pomp & Circumstance Marches.

François-Xavier Roth, Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, displays his deep affinity with the music of Debussy and Ravel on his latest LSO Live album. A fascination with his Spanish heritage would be a recurring theme in many of Ravel's creations. Mysterious melodies weave delicately throughout his early work Rapsodie espagnole, punctuated by bursts of Spanish-inspired fanfares and Habanera dance rhythms. The voluptuous flute opening of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune immediately conjures a world of luxurious fantasy, weaving through the music's changing scenes with effortless spontaneity. Every instrument adds something unique, and the whole work appears to float free of form and convention. In La mer, Debussy tells the story of the eternal odyssey of the ocean. He sails through storm and calm, wind and rain, in music that rises and falls with the rhythms of the sea. The score is so vivid that you can almost smell sea salt and see the crests of the waves.

Conductor François-Xavier Roth leads the London Symphony Orchestra on the third album in the Panufnik Legacies series, which showcases new music by some of the most exciting young composers working in the UK today. All of the composers featured on this recording are alumni of the LSO Discovery Panufnik Composers Scheme, which offers six composers each year the opportunity to write for a world-class symphony orchestra, guided by renowned composer Colin Matthews.

The Panufnik Legacies III contains world premiere recordings of compositions by Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Ewan Campbell, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Donghoon Shin, Alex Roth, Matthew Sergeant, Patrick Giguère, Sasha Siem, Bethan Morgan-Williams, Michael Taplin, Benjamin Ashby and Joanna Lee.

This recording has been generously supported by The Boltini Trust. The LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme is generously supported by The Helen Hamlyn Trust.

This album combines three of Britten's enduringly popular, yet vastly distinctive works. Sir Simon Rattle leads us on an unexpected journey through this diverse collection of masterpieces. Written shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Sinfonia da Requiem meditates in part on the political populism which had, for the second time in just a few decades, plunged the world in to an existential crisis. In this piece, Britten's rich, yearning harmonies reveal a sombre and dramatic warning of the cost of conflict. From the darkness of war, we move towards the light with Britten's choral Spring Symphony. With it's mysterious reimagining of traditional English folk song and verse, the work depicts the gradual reawakening of the natural world when winter ebbs away, and spring begins to triumph. Britten let his imagination catch fire in The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. This brilliantly original showpiece is one of the composer's best-known pieces, and draws the album to a close.

The second album in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Schumann series with the London Symphony Orchestra travels from glorious fanfare to dream-like passages with the lively Spring and Rhenish symphonies.

From the dramatic first trumpet-call which awakens the frozen landscape, the First Symphony is a celebration of spring. It moves through the season and a gruff folksong Scherzo until finally a jubilant conclusion dances into summer.

Desperate, heartfelt and elegant, the Manfred Overture opens with an urgent impetus that only increases through the work, displaying the intense strife which lies ahead for its protagonist. Schumann’s Third is one of the composer’s most impressive, painting a euphoric picture of the German Rhineland in broad Beethovenian style and closing with an exhilarating finale.

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REVIEW:

He brings the values of his period- instrument performances to both works and to the grandiose Manfred Overture, a Byronic tone poem in all but name. The LSO players respond with verve and elan to his impulsive baton.

– Sunday Times (UK)

Following their award-winning Mendelssohn cycle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra embark on a new journey through the symphonies of Robert Schumann.

Gardiner feels the Schumann symphonies are criticised unfairly and with these recordings he is on a mission to dispel the cobweb of myths around these symphonic masterpieces.

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REVIEW:

The LSO respond with elan to the bracing textures, confounding the cliché that Schumann “couldn’t orchestrate”. Gardiner chooses the 1841 version of the D minor work, No 4, which the LSO play as if discovering it anew.

– Sunday Times (UK)

London Symphony Orchestra Leader Roman Simovic steps back into the solo spotlight with a new recording of one of the cornerstones of the violin repertoire: Ysa�e's Six Sonatas for Solo Violin. Written in 1923, Eug�ne Ysa�e's set of sonatas represent a musical snapshot of that moment in the evolution of violin playing. An acclaimed violinist himself, each of the sonatas was written for one of Ysa�e's contemporaries: Joseph Szigeti, Jacques Thibaud, George Enescu, Fritz Kreisler, Mathieu Crickboom and Manuel Quiroga. What results is a creative love letter to the violin, challenging and embracing the technical and lyrical possibilities of the instrument throughout the six stylistically unique sonatas. This new recording of the Sonatas joins a collection of acclaimed recordings with Roman Simovic on LSO Live. Renowned for his brilliant virtuosity and musicality, he has performed as a soloist with many of the most distinguished orchestras and conductors around the world and has been serving as Leader of the LSO since 2010.

The culmination of an extraordinary 9-year collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor, Gianandrea Noseda, LSO Live proudly presents Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 1-15. A complete symphony cycle offers not only a comprehensive journey through a composer's artistic evolution but also a unique glimpse into history, revealing the world as they experienced it. Few composers embody this more than Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), whose career was profoundly shaped by the political pressures of Soviet Russia. His symphonies are known for walking the line between outward conformity and hidden defiance, often infused with irony and coded resistance. Renowned for his mastery of Russian repertoire, Noseda brings a rare depth of understanding to this recording, shaped in part by his work alongside musicians who personally knew Shostakovich. This new interpretation of the complete symphonies showcases his signature dynamism, insight, and flair-earning it's place among the most definitive recordings of our time.

Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano and the LSO build upon their stunning performances of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fourth and Sixth Symphonies with a magnificent interpretation of his beloved Fifth and enigmatic Ninth. Vaughan Williams' Symphony No.5 reaches for hope amid the turmoil of war. This sophisticated and deeply original work moved audiences at it's 1943 premiere-it's bittersweet melodies and transcendent climax offering a vision of future peace. By the time he wrote his final symphony in 1957, Vaughan Williams had witnessed the true devastation of two world wars and the years that followed. The Ninth is a powerful final statement, balancing darkness with warmth, and unease with resilience. Together, these two symphonies reflect a lifetime shaped by conflict and change. Side by side, they form a portrait of a composer who could embrace both light and shadow, hope and uncertainty, with equal mastery.

The culmination of an extraordinary 9-year collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor, Gianandrea Noseda, LSO Live proudly presents Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 1-15. A complete symphony cycle offers not only a comprehensive journey through a composer's artistic evolution but also a unique glimpse into history, revealing the world as they experienced it. Few composers embody this more than Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), whose career was profoundly shaped by the political pressures of Soviet Russia. His symphonies are known for walking the line between outward conformity and hidden defiance, often infused with irony and coded resistance. Renowned for his mastery of Russian repertoire, Noseda brings a rare depth of understanding to this recording, shaped in part by his work alongside musicians who personally knew Shostakovich. This new interpretation of the complete symphonies showcases his signature dynamism, insight, and flair-earning it's place among the most definitive recordings of our time.

• These recordings, made during Sir Colin Davis' 'Indian summer' with the London Symphony Orchestra, are acknowledged amongst the finest recordings ever made of this repertoire, receiving numerous awards. • The symphonies were originally released between 2011 and 2013 and are now made available together for the first time as a splendidly packaged 3 SACD box set, including one Pure Audio Blu-ray disc. • Despite giving titles to the majority of his symphonies, Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) was often vague about what influenced each work. • That fact notwithstanding, Neilsen was a master symphonist and his music is often mesmerizing, combining propulsive energy with lyrical invention. • 'Colin Davis establishes himself as a first-class Nielsenian on our pick of the week...' LSO0722 Symphonies Nos 2 & 3 (The Sunday Times) • Editor's Choice LSO0694 Symphonies 4 & 5 (Gramophone) • Disc of the Week LSO0715 Symphonies Nos 1 & 6 (BBC Radio 3)