Composed in 1941 as German armies closed in on the besieged city, Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony became an instant symbol of Soviet defiance – its early performances, from a starving Leningrad to Toscanini in New York, heard by millions as emblems of resistance. Yet as Mark Wigglesworth argues, the work's real power lies less in its wartime programme than in its timeless portrait of tyranny and the endurance of the human spirit. This recording, the opening volume in Wigglesworth's acclaimed BIS survey of the complete symphonies, unfolds the vast score across a single 79-minute span, from the relentless 'invasion' march of the first movement to the hard-won triumph of the finale. Throughout, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales responds with playing of great intensity and control.