Boston Symphony wins Grammy for Shostakovich recording

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2016/02/16/boston-symphony-wins-grammy-for-shostakovich-recording/

BOSTON — The Boston Symphony Orchestra is rhapsodizing over winning the Grammy award for best orchestral performance Monday.

The symphony and musical director Andris Nelsons won the orchestral performance prize for “Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow,” which features Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 and the Passacaglia from “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” It was the orchestra’s first recording in a new partnership with the Deutsche Grammophon label, and its seventh Grammy overall.

The recording was produced from live performances April 2-4, 2015, at Symphony Hall in Boston, according to the BSO. It was released July 31.

Nelsons called the win “incredibly gratifying.” The Latvia-born maestro says he hopes it will bring new attention to classical music — and new fans to both the orchestra and the genre.

The Grammy “shines a spotlight on my exceptional Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians, who so powerfully convey both the exquisite music and great depth of emotion stemming from Stalin’s Soviet Union in our recording,” Nelsons, the orchestra’s music director, said in a statement. “We hope this recording will give the BSO’s devoted patrons and classical music fans around the world a sense of our commitment to this transcendent music from which so much can be taken.”

The orchestra also has a partial claim to the Grammy for best opera recording, which involved former longtime conductor Seiji Ozawa. Ozawa shared the opera recording honors with Japan’s Saito Kinen Orchestra.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.