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As an impecunious teenager in the UK years ago, I was delighted to pick up this recording of the 5th Symphony of Shostakovitch for 50p at W. H. Smith.
I had already heard and been delighted by the 1st Symphony, so I spent my money on the strength of the composer's name alone.
It's a very different work, of course -- dramatic, bleak at times, but also lyrical and perhaps ironic too. I've never tired of it.
I've listened to some of the other symphonies since then (not the 2nd or 3rd) but come back to the 1st and the 5th as my favourites.
It might not be obvious from the garish album cover that this recording is in fact a reissue of....
#ClassicalMusic #Shostakovitch #5thSymphony #RussianMusic #SovietMusic #20thCenturyMusic #Symphonic #1930s #Stalinism
