An interview with Andris Nelsons

You must be delighted with how this series has been received. I’m very pleased, and so is the orchestra. My joy is that, because of this, more and more people are simply listening to Shostakovich’s genius music.

The orchestra hadn’t played the symphonies for a long time, and some of them hadn’t played them at all – like the 11th. What is most important is that we can put Shostakovich on the podium again and remind people how great his music is; I’m really excited about that.

Tell us about your choices for this latest programme...

The symphonies are very different. The Sixth starts like a confession, with the second and third movements grotesque, humorous and sarcastic. The Seventh is probably the most political; he’s writing about his love for Leningrad and his desperate feelings about the tyranny of Hitler and Stalin. King Lear is a not very well-known piece he composed around that time. It’s interesting how much he was composing, and how differently; the Festival Overture being absolutely a different type of music than the symphonies. There are so many amazing pieces that aren’t connected to the political situation.

What’s next for the series?

We recorded the First Symphony at the beginning of the season, and this week we record the 15th. It’s so deep and so special in terms of the instrumentation, colours and story. It will be interesting to see, across a big time-frame, the development of Shostakovich compositionally. We are also recording Lady Macbeth live; so I’m very much looking forward to that.