Symphony no. 7 "Leningrad" in C major, op. 60

Shostakovich began the symphony in Leningrad in July 1941 while serving in the fire brigade of the Conservatory, and completed it on 27 December after evacuation to Kuybyshev, where it was first performed in March 1942. A microfilm of the score was flown out through Tehran and Cairo; Toscanini broadcast it in New York that July. The performance that fixed its meaning came on 9 August 1942 in the besieged city itself, played by the remnants of the Radio Orchestra under Karl Eliasberg, with soldiers released from the front to fill the desks.