Mariinsky Orchestra/Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky MAR0533 ****

Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, begun in 1941 in besieged Leningrad, originally had titles for its four movements (War, Evocation, Native Expanse, Victory). It was so eagerly anticipated that major conductors vied to give the US première (Toscanini won), and the international routing of the microfilm of the score between wartime allies was the stuff of a spy story. The work has long been more appreciated in Russia than abroad, where conductors are often tempted into bombast, especially in the long first movement. Valery Gergiev's approach with his players from modern-day St Petersburg is expansive – his performance runs over 82 minutes – and is also fervent in a different way, heartfelt, reverential, sonically burnished. url.ie/8jpy