Picture yourself on a cold November evening in 1930s Leningrad. November 21st 1937; to be precise. The bitter wind bites at your skin whilst snow falls in a cascade of ethereal beauty. It’s the night of Dmitri Shostakovich’s return to musical extolment and all is resting upon his newest work, Symphony No.5 in D Minor. As Yevgeny Mravinsky lifts the baton, he lifts with it the weight of Russia. With the Soviet regime reaching an unprecedented level of power, it’s more than jus