Shostakovich’s Sixth and Twelfth Symphonies both had their origins in large-scale projects about Lenin, though the Sixth was eventually to emerge as one of the composer’s most abstract and idiosyncratic symphonies. The long, intensely lyrical and meditative slow movement that opens the work is one of the composer’s most striking. The Twelfth, one of the least played of Shostakovich’s symphonies in the West, became less a celebration of Lenin’s legacy than a chronological depiction of events during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Born in 1976 in St Petersburg, Vasily Petrenko was appointed Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006 and in 2009 became Chief Conductor until 2015. He was the Classical BRIT Awards Male Artist of the Year 2010. In 2009 he was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University.

The award-winning Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is the UK’s oldest surviving professional symphony orchestra and has been at the heart of Liverpool’s cultural life since 1840. The Orchestra tours regularly throughout the UK and worldwide and has an extensive discography featuring many critically acclaimed recordings.