Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9

Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony was a bid for favor with a government bent on ending not only his career but possibly his very life. His concessions to popular accessibility are really not concessions at all, however, but are instead the inauguration of a new style rife with both nose-thumbing parody and achingly earnest expression. The Ninth reaches new levels of irony as a seemingly light neoclassical outing instead of the expected triumphant celebration of Soviet victory over the Nazis. No ensemble is better able to capture such extremes and all the nuances in between than the Kirov Orchestra under Valery Gergiev.