This recording marks the first instalment of a long-term collaboration with one of the most exciting young conductors of our time: Andris Nelsons, the newly appointed Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The goal of this massive undertaking is a complete Shostakovich cycle on Deutsche Grammophon with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the core of which - Symphonies Nos 5-10 - is scheduled for recording and release over the next two years.

Andris Nelsons has had a long journey with Shostakovich. He studied in St Petersburg with Alexander Titov and also with Mariss Jansons. His new orchestra has had a great tradition in performing many of Shostakovich’s works in America for the first time.

The theme of the first album, with Shostakovich's 10th Symphony and Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth, is a reflection on Shostakovich and Stalin. Lady Macbeth was the piece which brought criticism of his work and the radical change of style, whereas Symphony No.10 is from the year Stalin died: the long arc of censorship of Shostakovich until Stalin's death, and the composer's response to this.