Gergiev is especially convincing in his shaping of the large-scale architecture of the huge first movement and the fourth movement's passacaglia, one of Shostakovich's most profound essays in that form: we are really made to feel its imposing architecture and sense of root-and-branch organic growth … He's assisted by top-notch playing from the Mariinsky Orchestra (the cellos and basses are superb, and the solo trumpet in the third movement's demonic gallop is first-class), in a gloriously full-bodied SACD recording.