Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65, is the eighth symphony by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, composed and premiered in 1943. The four-movement work is sombre and large-scale, characterised by dense orchestration, extended developmental passages and stark contrasts between elegiac string textures and brass-dominated climaxes, and it occupies a central place in Shostakovich's wartime output as a reflection of the era and the composer's artistic response to war.
