André Previn, London Symphony Orchestra - Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 download free

At a time I still found Debussy a little edgy, this masterpiece opened my ears to the Twentieth Century... and to Shostakovich's sardonic melancholic blend of farce and pathos.To my ears it encapsulates the struggle of a sensitive artist to make his (or her) way amid the darkest century humanity has known. We must not forget that this work, hard on the heels of years when the composer's life was one knock on the door shy of extinction, was completed just after the death of Stalin, when Dmitri could begin to imagine expressing his true self without walking the razor's-edge between fearfully abandoning the tattered remains of his artistic integrity, and indulging his profound need to express the suffering of millions in irony that dared not be too overt.To a listener without a sense of history or an interest in socio-political issues, Shostakovich may seem simply deranged, a Beethoven gone deeply bipolar. But I cannot hear him that way, thank God. This work (and this performance) remain an icon in my life's gallery of significant music, and I am loathe to sell it cheap. But I cannot recommend it highly enough. I cannot say now if Previn's performance is among the greatest now on offer (Gergiev, Petrenko?), as I have not audited it now for 20+ years--but when a work speaks to you for the first time--like first love--they powerfully mould the imagined ideal.