Symphony No.11 in G minor, op.103, composed in 1957, bears the subtitle 'The Year 1905,' alluding to the failed, bloodily suppressed revolution in the Russian Tsarist Empire. In private, however, Shostakovich reportedly said that his symphony was also reminiscent of the present, perhaps referring to the brutal repression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956. The symphony's extremely pictorial musical idiom 'tells' of injustice and violence against the defenceless. In this score, no fewer than nine popular revolutionary songs from 1905 are to be heard.

This volume is part of the revised and corrected new edition of all 15 symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich published by Boosey & Hawkes and Sikorski as large format study scores for optimal legibility. All scores and the related orchestral parts have been newly computer typeset, and the orchestral parts are also compatible for performance use with scores in ‘The New Collected Works of Dmitri Shostakovich’.