One of the “selling points” of John Storgårds’ new recording of Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony (The Year 1905) with the BBC Philharmonic is that it uses real church bells rather than orchestral tubular bells for possibly the first time since the original recording by the Leningrad Phil.  They are interesting but that’s not the main reason to buy this disk.  There are two far stronger ones.  It’s extremely well played.  Storgårds conjures up an almost unbearable amount of tension and it never really relaxes.  This is a performance that will have you on the edge of your seat throughout.  Needless to say, he’s very well backed up by the BBC’s Salford based orchestra who produce exceptionally lovely string tone and brass that is emphatic without quite the “teeth on edge” quality of some Russian orchestras.

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