Shostakovich’s Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies are regarded as a wartime trilogy. Mentally, I like to tweak that definition forward so that the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Symphonies form a trilogy of his greatest works. 

Berlin Philharmonic Shostakovich Symphonies

Petrenko achieves a cracking Eighth, a work gradually gaining stature as the equal of the Fifth and Tenth. At 25 minutes, Petrenko’s timing in the opening movement is splendidly central (although this is by no means a middle of the road performance). Mark Wigglesworth, a fine Shostakovich interpreter, takes 29 minutes (without ever becoming bogged down) and the equally fine Oleg Caetani takes 20, proving there’s more than one way, etc. Petrenko conveys the movement’s sheer misery (for the composer as much as Russian people). The intermittent paroxysms are shocking, without yielding to chaotic hysteria. 

In the central movements, the grotesque strutting of the Waffen SS is captured perfectly; in the third movement – a relentless toccata crossed with a grim perpetuum mobile – the viciousness is toxic: I’ve never heard the mid-movement trumpet solo and the deep roar of the double basses played so brilliantly.

The...