Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi was born in 1937 in Tallin, where he studied music before moving to Leningrad to study at the conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky. He returned to Tallinn and held posts with the Estonian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and Estonian National Opera, before emigrating to the United States in 1980. For twenty-two years, he held the post of Principal Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, where he is now Principal Conductor Emeritus. His long career has included tenures at many other orchestras, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and Residentie Orchestra of the Hague.

Järvi was Principal Conductor of the then Scottish National Orchestra from 1984 to 1988, and named Conductor Laureate of the Orchestra in 2006. He has recorded more than 500 albums, almost 300 of those with Chandos Records, which released his latest recording (Alfvén and Rautavaara) in February 2026. His recorded legacy with the RSNO includes Prokofiev and Dvořák symphony cycles, Richard Strauss’s tone poems and symphonies, and the Shostakovich recordings presented in this collection, recorded between 1984 and 1988.