The recordings of the gifted Shostakovich interpreter Andrey Boreyko have hitherto been considered with great acclaim. This new recording of the Fifth Symphony is destined to become a new benchmark for this popular work. Especially since the potential for conflict contained within its pages calls out a thoughtful, well-researched interpretations that artists such as Boreyko can deliver. The 5th Symphony was completed in July 1937 as a 'response of a Soviet artist to justified criticism' – a critique which befell Shostakovich in 1936, when Comrade Stalin took particular displeasure with the opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” , and reviled by Pravda as “Chaos instead of music”. Whether Shostakovich's response is to be regarded as an affirmative gesture of proletarian humility, or a sardonic parody of Socialist-Realist “forced rejoicing” are just two of the exegetical decisions facing each conductor approaching this score. And that's what makes Boreyko’s performances so endlessly fascinating.