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• Czech Philharmonic, Shostakovich Symphonies 5 and 7

  The Czech Philharmonic, under Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov, presents two of Dmitri Shostakovich’s most powerful symphonic statements: his Fifth and Seventh Symphonies. For Bychkov, no music is more essential or closer to the bone than Shostakovich's: "What amazes me is how strongly Shostakovich’s existential music resonates in a world which seems, outwardly, very different from the one in which he was fighting for his life, both as a human being and a composer."

  Like Shostakovich, Bychkov grew up in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and became obsessed by the composer’s music from an early age. Symphony No. 5 has been part of his repertoire since the early 1970s, when he began conducting it as a student at the Leningrad Conservatory. Symphony No. 7, Leningrad, holds particular personal significance for Bychkov: his mother lived through the city’s 900-day siege during the Second World War.

  This release continues the acclaimed partnership between the Czech Philharmonic, Semyon Bychkov and PENTATONE. Their most recent major project, the complete Mahler symphonies cycle, began in April 2022 and culminated in April 2026. In celebration of the Year of Czech Music 2024, they released Smetana’s Má vlast, which won the BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Award 2025, and Dvořák’s Symphonies Nos. 7–9.