Dmitri Shostakovich on Music Theory Print

24 Preludes (Shostakovich)

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Composition#

Shostakovich began composing the preludes in December 1932, shortly after finishing his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. He completed the cycle in March 1933, and premiered it in Moscow himself in May of the same year. He composed the preludes largely in order to return to public performance. He had stopped performing in 1930, after his failure to place at the 1927 First International Chopin Piano Competition. The Preludes were first published by Muzgiz in 1935, two years after their premiere.

24 Preludes and Fugues (Shostakovich)

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History#

After the Second World War, Dmitri Shostakovich was Russia’s most prominent composer. Although out of favour with the Soviet Communist Party, he was still sent abroad as a cultural ambassador. One such trip was to Leipzig in 1950 for a music festival marking the bicentennial of J.S. Bach’s death. As part of the festival, Shostakovich was asked to sit on the judging panel for the first International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. One of the entrants in the competition was the 26-year-old Tatiana Nikolayeva from Moscow. Though not required by competition regulations, she had come prepared to play any of the 48 preludes and fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier on request. She won the gold medal. Inspired by the competition and impressed by Nikolayeva’s playing, Shostakovich returned to Moscow and started composing his own cycle of 24 preludes and fugues. Shostakovich worked fairly quickly, taking only three days on average to write each piece. As each was completed, he would ask Nikolayeva to come and visit him in his Moscow apartment where he would play her the latest piece. The complete work was written between 10 October 1950 and 25 February 1951. Once finished, Shostakovich dedicated the work to Nikolayeva, who undertook the public premiere in Leningrad on 23 December 1952. Shostakovich wrote out all the pieces without many corrections except the B minor prelude, with which he was dissatisfied and replaced what he had begun initially.

American premieres of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7

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Shostakovich’s reception in the United States, 1928–1941#

The music of Dmitri Shostakovich was familiar to audiences in the United States by 1942. In 1928, the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski played the American premiere of his Symphony No. 1 to great success. Over the next decade, Shostakovich’s music was widely performed and discussed in the United States. Artur Rodziński conducted the American premiere of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1935. He called it “one of the most important contributions to music brought out in the past 25 years.” The Associated Press reported that after the same forces performed it at the Metropolitan Opera later that year, the audience “cheered and shouted and applauded beyond anything seen lately”. An article published in Musical America and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said that not since Alban Berg’s Wozzeck had a “modern opera been so much talked about.” The composer’s 1936 censure by Soviet authorities was reported on across the country; including by the Associated Press, Time, The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, Deseret News, Oregon Statesman, and in nationally syndicated columns by Bruce Catton and Chester Harvey Rowell. The world and American premieres of his Symphony No. 5, as well as his subsequent political rehabilitation, also received national media attention. On December 7, 1941, a performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 played by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rodziński for a live CBS national radio broadcast was interrupted by a breaking news announcement of the Empire of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

Antiformalist Rayok

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Background#

Conflicting dates are documented for the composition of Antiformalist Rayok. According to Isaak Glikman and the Shostakovich family, the score was begun in 1948, with further revisions in 1957, followed by a finale composed between 1965 and 1968. The finale was not discovered until May 1989 by Veniamin Basner. Lev Lebedinsky recalled that the whole work dates from 1957 and that he, rather than Shostakovich, wrote the text. Current scholarship has not verified Lebedinsky’s statements. Its first public performance was on 12 January 1989 conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington, D.C. At this concert, the cantata was sung in English and performed without the finale composed in the late 1960s. The premiere of the work in its original version took place at the Bolshoi Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on the composer’s 83rd birthday (25 September 1989). In the 1990s, Vladimir Milman and Vladimir Spivakov made another orchestral version. This version was recorded in 2003 and released by Capriccio.

Cello Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)

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Scoring#

The concerto is scored for solo cello, two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets (each doubling B and A), two bassoons (2nd doubling contrabassoon), one horn, timpani, celesta, and strings.

Movements#

The work has four movements in two sections: The second, third and fourth movements are played continuously.

I. Allegretto#

The first movement begins with a four-note main motive some believe is derived from the composer’s musical cryptogram D-S-C-H for his name DSCH. The concerto motive is only remotely related, specifically by both being four-note motives having a half-step between the third and fourth notes. The intervals, rhythm and shape of the motto are continually distorted and re-shaped throughout the movement. It is also related to a theme from the composer’s score for the 1948 film The Young Guard, which illustrates a group of Soviet soldiers being marched to their deaths at the hands of the Nazis. The theme reappears in Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 (1960). The theme is simplified even further in the woodwind, which reappears throughout the work: The opening motive recurs throughout the concerto (except in the second movement), giving this concerto a cyclic structure.

Cello Concerto No. 2 (Shostakovich)

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Composition#

Like the Fourth Symphony and Ninth String Quartet before it and the Fifteenth Symphony after it, the Second Cello Concerto gave Shostakovich some compositional problems. The opening Largo was originally conceived as the start of a new symphony. But Shostakovich abandoned that idea, and reworked the movement into its present form. The finale also gave him trouble. He confessed to Rostropovich that he had a finale completely written out but decided it was weak, scrapped it, and replaced it with the one we know today. Shostakovich also allowed Rostropovich to make a few changes to the concerto’s cadenzas.

Cello Sonata (Shostakovich)

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I. Allegro non troppo#

The sonata form first movement contrasts a broad first theme in the cello, accompanied by flowing piano arpeggios, developed by the piano until reaching a climax. The second theme is first played by the piano, then followed by the cello. In the development a rhythmic motif goes through the flowing textures of the first theme. The recapitulation appears with the second theme rather than the first. Shostakovich repeats the first theme where all moves in slow motion, with staccato chords in the piano and sustained notes in the cello.

Children's Notebook

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Background#

In contrast to composers such as Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich never demonstrated an interest in teaching piano to children or composing music for pedagogical use. The impetus for the creation of the Children’s Notebook was personal: it was intended for his daughter, Galina, who in 1944 was eight years old and commencing piano lessons. Her interests as an adult eventually developed away from music. At first Shostakovich envisioned the Children’s Notebook as a cycle of 24 pieces in all keys, each one succeeding the other along a circle of fifths, an idea that may have been influenced by Viktor Kosenko’s Twenty-four Pieces for Children. After Shostakovich completed a piece, Galina would spend up to two months mastering it. Upon her doing so, he would compose the next piece. Each one was originally accompanied by a corresponding illustration by . The composition of Children’s Notebook cannot be dated precisely, but is believed to have taken twelve to eighteen months, mostly in 1944. The final piece, “Birthday”, was composed in 1945 as a present for Galina’s ninth birthday. Another Shostakovich piano work for children, “Murzilka”, was composed at the same time as Children’s Notebook and may have been intended for it. According to Shostakovich’s original tonal plan, its key of F minor suggests that it would have followed “Birthday”, which is in A major.

Concerto (ballet)

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Production#

The ballet is plotless and consists of three movements. The first was originated by Didi Carli and Falco Kapuste. The second movement is a pas de deux originated by Lynn Seymour and Rudolf Holz, and was inspired by Seymour’s warm up. MacMillan had said that he “decided to incorporate the idea of the barre work into the choreography.” The man acts as a “barre” for the female dancer. The third and final movement was intended for a “playful” lead couple, but the male dancer broke his foot prior to the premiere, so MacMillan turned the pas de deux to a female solo, danced by Silvia Kesselheim. The ballet also includes a corps de ballet, that dances in unison, originally 16 women and 8 men.

Concerto DSCH

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Casts#

World premiere (2008): Wendy Whelan, Ashley Bouder, Benjamin Millepied, Joaquín De Luz, Gonzalo Garcia
Pacific Northwest Ballet premiere (2011): Carla Körbes, Carrie Imler, Karel Cruz, Seth Orza, Bakthurel Bold
La Scala Theatre Ballet premiere (2012): Svetlana Zakharova, Alessandra Vassallo, Eris Nezha, Antonino Sutera, Federico Fresi
Mariinsky Ballet premiere (2013): Yekaterina Kondaurova, Nadezhda Batoeva, Andrey Ermakov, Alexander Sergeyev, Vasily Tkachenko

Videography#

In light of the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts, New York City Ballet released a recording featuring Sara Mearns, Tyler Angle, Ashley Bouder, Gonzalo Garcia and Joaquin De Luz, recorded on October 5, 2018.

Festive Overture

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Background#

At the time the Festive Overture was composed, Shostakovich was engaged with the Bolshoi Theatre as a musical consultant. According to Lev Lebedinsky, the commission resulted from an impromptu visit to the composer’s apartment by Vassili Nebolsin, who came to express the Bolshoi’s urgent need of a celebratory work on short notice. With only three days to meet the deadline, Shostakovich agreed to provide an appropriate work and immediately began to compose the Festive Overture. Within an hour, Nebolsin began to send couriers to the composer’s apartment to pick up the score page by completed page, who then took them to the Bolshoi’s music copyists in order to prepare the parts for performance. The premiere of the score took place on November 6, 1954 at the Bolshoi, with the house orchestra conducted by Alexander Melik-Pashayev.

Five Fragments

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Background#

Shostakovich began to plan the work that ultimately became his Symphony No. 4 in 1931. By 1935, he had discarded the torso of a rough draft for a first movement and began to sketch out the new version of the work. In an article published on April 11, he said that he wanted to compose chamber and instrumental music before he embarked on the “big job” of writing the final draft of the symphony. Among the works he contemplated writing were a string quartet and violin sonata, but the only score he produced that year aside from film music was the Five Fragments. In a 1973 interview, Shostakovich confirmed that the music was intended as sketches for a larger work that he never embarked upon. According to Laurel Fay and Marina Frolova-Walker, the Five Fragments prefigured aspects of the Symphony No. 4, with the former calling them “preparatory work” for the larger piece. He also described the work as his attempt to create an “instrumental equivalent” to the song cycles of Gustav Mahler. The Five Fragments was initially designated “Op. 43”, but was later assigned Op. 42. Despite being part of the Shostakovich work list, it was unperformed for 29 years. The composer indicated to in a letter dated January 28, 1941, that he did not believe the work was of sufficient quality to be performed or published. It was not until the 1960s that Shostakovich expressed interest in publicizing the Five Fragments. He sent photocopies of some of his works from the 1930s to conductor , who was interested in his early music, and amended the orchestration in three places; the most notable being the doubling of the last chord’s top note with a xylophone, the only time the instrument is used in the entire work.

Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin

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Background#

Shostakovich had a profound appreciation for Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In 1975, he wrote to a friend: I love him and admire him as a great artist. I admire his love for people, for the humiliated and the wretched. In the same letter Shostakovich also said that he “never parted” from his copy of The House of the Dead while composing Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. In spite of this, he had never set any of Dostoyevsky’s texts to music, aside from a brief excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov in The Nose. A cue from his 1928 film score to The New Babylon representing the Franco-Prussian War, which juxtaposed “La Marseillaise” with the can-can from Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, may have been inspired by a reference to a fictitious piano piece with similar characteristics in Dostoyevsky’s Demons.

From Jewish Folk Poetry

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Structure#

The cycle consists of 11 songs: # The Lament for the Dead Child. Russian translation by T. Spendiarova (1 August 1948) # The Thoughtful Mother and Aunt. Russian translation by A. Globa (5 August 1948) # Lullaby. Russian translation by V. Zvyagintseva (10 August 1948) # Before a Long Parting. Russian translation by A. Globa (15 August 1948) # A Warning. Russian translation by N. Ushakov (20 August 1948) # The Abandoned Father. Russian translation by S. Mar (25 August 1948) # The Song of Misery. Text by B. Shafir. Russian translation by B. Semyonov (29 August 1948) # Winter. Russian translation by B. Semyonov (29 August 1948) # A Good Life. Russian translation by S. Olender (10 October 1948) # The Young Girl’s Song. Russian translation by S. Olender (16 October 1948) # Happiness. Russian translation by L. Dligach (24 October 1948)

Ill Manors (song)

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Composition#

Plan B returns to the hip hop style of his debut album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words with the release of “Ill Manors”, after his more soulful second album The Defamation of Strickland Banks. The lyrics mingle perceived causes of the riots such as the closing of community centres with threats and jokes. The aggressive baseline in the song is designed to mirror the turmoil and unrest felt by those involved in the riots, engaging a “visceral energy” to raise awareness. It heavily samples “Alles neu” by Peter Fox, which itself uses elements from the fourth movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony.

Intervision (Shostakovich)

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Background#

Intervision was commissioned from Dmitri Shostakovich by the Intervision Network, which broadcast its premiere on March 29, 1971, the day before the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Because Intervision was regularly used to preface broadcasts of foreign news items, it became one of the composer’s best known in the final decades of the Soviet Union. According to : The “Intervision” fanfares, the melody for which was written by Dmitri Shostakovich, are well-known in the socialist commonwealth countries and many other countries in the world. These fanfares bring millions of people to their television screens. Viewers know that they will be followed by the announcement of an important event, an interesting program, or authentic and exhaustive information. It was first published in 1987 by Muzyka in volume 42 of its collected works edition of Shostakovich’s music. It was republished by DSCH Publishers in 2019 in volume 36 of its new complete works edition.

Katyusha Maslova

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Background#

In late 1940, while Shostakovich was composing the music for Grigori Kozintsev’s production of King Lear, he began considering an operatic treatment of a subject with a female central character that would reveal the “untruth of the world”. On October 10, he signed a contract with the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad to compose the opera Katyusha Maslova, based on the novel Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy. A friend, Anatoly Mariengof, was engaged as librettist. In contrast to the librettists of Shostakovich’s other unfinished operas, Mariengof was an experienced collaborator with composers. The deadline for the libretto’s completion was set for January 1, 1941. Mariengof delivered the libretto of Act I to Shostakovich on November 23. Musical work was delayed by preparations for the premiere of the Piano Quintet, which required him to be away in Moscow for nearly a month. While there, he learned from colleagues about Franco Alfano’s opera Risurrezione, which is also based on Tolstoy’s Resurrection. They informed him that it had been successfully revived in the United States, France, Italy, and Chile, and questioned whether it was wise for Shostakovich to set what they considered was an old-fashioned text. On January 6, 1941, Mariengof requested an extension of the deadline to April 15, citing the need to work closer with Shostakovich, who had been unable to do so because of his frequent journeys away from home. By this point, Shostakovich had already privately decided against finishing the opera, but explained in a letter to Sergei Prokofiev, who was also interested in composing his own opera on the same subject during this period, that he had not yet informed him: I won’t evidently be writing an opera on the subject of Resurrection. But for now, I request that you keep this circumstance between us. For an entire series of reasons, it is very hard for me now to decline the opera formally. With me it has come about that, as they say, “If a claw is caught, the whole bird is lost.” My librettist and great friend, the writer A. B. Mariengof, will be very hurt and offended by my refusal to work with him… In this instance, I can’t bring Mariengof grief, since in the first place we are friends, but most important because he is having a very hard time of it: his seventeen-year-old son very recently hanged himself. On March 8, Shostakovich received Mariengof’s completed libretto, which he noted in his diary. At a meeting with the board of directors of the Kirov Theatre, Mariengof said that he had been able to work much closer with Shostakovich, enumerating various instances wherein he tailored the libretto to the benefit of the music. The Kirov board were mostly satisfied with his work, but requested further alterations to the libretto, criticizing what they considered were “crudely naturalistic denouements of several scenes in the second, third, and fourth acts”. Shostakovich said that he was satisfied with the libretto, but was preparing himself for “many corrections in the process of composing the music”. On May 10, Glavrepertkom telegrammed the Kirov Theatre with their rejection of Mariengof’s libretto, effectively ending the project. No explanation for their decision was given. Shostakovich received the news while touring and vacationing in Crimea.

King Lear (Shostakovich film score)

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Origins#

Grigori Kozintsev and Dmitri Shostakovich were longstanding collaborators on numerous films, beginning with The New Babylon in 1929. They had also previously worked together on a staging of William Shakespeare’s King Lear performed in Leningrad at the Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theatre in 1941. Pre-production for what eventually became his cinematic adaptation of King Lear began in late 1965, when he re-engaged Simon Virsaladze as set designer. The two had previously worked together on Hamlet. Virsaladze’s belief that a film version of King Lear should be austere in tone and gesture became defining traits of Kozintsev’s burgeoning project. A subsequent trip to Japan reaffirmed this stylistic direction for the director. During this time, he reacquainted himself with Kabuki, which he had first experienced with Sergei Eisenstein when the company of the Kabuki-za toured the Soviet Union in 1928. Kozintsev also attended a performance of a Noh play, which he described as a “philosophical poem with lyrical digressions”. He was reminded of a sub-plot from King Lear as he watched the performance. By the end, he recorded in his diary that he “finally understood the art of classical drama”. In the course of travels in Japan, Kozintsev met with Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune, and Hiroshi Teshigahara. They conversed at length and exchanged ideas on art. The Soviet director also visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. All these experiences left their imprint upon his King Lear.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (opera)

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Performance history#

The opera was initially successful in both Leningrad and Moscow, and was also performed outside the Soviet Union during the 1930s. According to Tim Ashley in The Guardian, it had received nearly 200 performances in the Soviet Union and had also been heard in Copenhagen, Prague, New York and London before its official condemnation. Recent scholarship has identified the journalist David Zaslavsky as the likely author of the article. In 1962 Shostakovich revised the opera under the title Katerina Izmailova (), assigning it Op. 114. The revision altered parts of the score and libretto, including changes to act 1, scene 3 and the replacement of two orchestral interludes. Katerina Izmailova was first performed on 26 December 1962 at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre in Moscow.

Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7

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Background#

Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich completed his Symphony No. 7 on 27 December 1941 and dedicated it to his native Leningrad. At the time the city was about 16 weeks into its 872 day week siege by Nazi German forces, which would kill about a third of the city’s pre-war population. Shostakovich wanted the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra to première the symphony, but that group had been evacuated to Novosibirsk as part of the government-led cultural exodus. The world première was instead held in Kuybyshev on 5 March 1942, performed by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra under conductor Samuil Samosud.

Loyalty (Shostakovich)

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Background#

Compositions for a cappella chorus were rare in Shostakovich’s work. He said in a 1951 interview with Vechernyaya Moskva that his first such composition, numbers in film scores notwithstanding, was the Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets from 1950, which developed his interest to continue writing for choirs. Shostakovich had begun to contemplate composing a work to commemorate the centennial of Lenin’s birth as early as December 1968. In a speech he gave at the Fourth All-Union Congress of Composers, he closed by saying: It is the duty of all Soviet composers to celebrate this anniversary with dignity. And the best gift for the anniversary will be new beautiful works lauding the image of the beloved leader, the greatness of the achievements of the Soviet people building communism. In April 1969, Shostakovich announced that he had begun to work on an oratorio. In July of that same year, he visited Estonia and attended the XVII Estonian Song Festival, which closed with a rendition led by Gustav Ernesaks of his setting of Lydia Koidula’s “Mu isamaa on minu arm”. The performance, which was sung by a choir of children and adults that numbered over 30,000 singers, impressed the composer, who had known Ernesaks since March 1943. After the performance, Shostakovich kept a booklet commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Estonian SSR State Academic Male Choir, which Ernesaks founded.

March of the Soviet Militia

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History#

Shostakovich composed the “March of the Soviet Militia” in October 1970 at the request of Nikolai Shchelokov, then Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Sources disagree about whether the work bears a dedication. According to Maxim Shostakovich, Pauline Fairclough, and Derek C. Hulme, Shostakovich dedicated the work to his deceased friend, writer and satirist Mikhail Zoshchenko. The editor for the new collected works edition of the score, however, states that the score has no dedication. The work was published by , Muzika, and DSCH Publishers in 1972, 1978, and 2006 respectively. It is Shostakovich’s final ceremonial work for the Soviet government.

Mercurial Manoeuvres

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Moscow, Cheryomushki

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Composition history#

Cheryomushki belongs in the category of Shostakovich’s lighter works. While this idiom lent the operetta some initial success, the work soon became forgotten in the Soviet operetta repertoire. For a long time the work remained unknown in the West; Shostakovich maintained a low opinion of the work. The operetta tells the story of a group of friends and acquaintances who have been granted new apartments in this residential development. The different aspects of the housing problem are represented by each of the many characters. * Sasha, after his recent marriage to Masha, finds that the young couple cannot live together as they have no home. Sasha shares a communal apartment with one of his fellow museum guides, Lidochka and her father, Semyon Semyonovich, while, on the other side of town, Masha shares a room in a temporary hostel. * Boris is an explosives expert, who sought to settle in Moscow having worked in many parts of the Soviet Union. In the opening of the operetta, Boris encounters an old acquaintance, Sergei, who works as a chauffeur for a high-ranking official. Sergei meets and falls in love with Liusia, a young alluring construction worker from the Cheryomushki site. * The seven “good” characters are unsurprisingly confronted by enemies with conflicting interests. Fyodor Drebednev is an obnoxious bureaucrat who is responsible for the construction of the Cheryomushki microdistrict and the allocation of the apartments. Drebednov has been married three times, but now has a new partner, Vava, a Machiavellian young woman who uses her affair as a means of acquiring a new apartment. Barabashkin is the lower-rank estate manager, who is likewise corrupt as his superior, Drebednov.

October (Shostakovich)

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Composition#

In a Pravda article published before the premiere of October, Shostakovich said: I had long been intending to write a musical work for the fiftieth anniversary of the Revolution, but nothing had worked out. Then a few months ago I was at the Mosfilm Studios, where the Vasilyev brothers’ old film , for which I wrote the music, was being prepared for re-release. On hearing it again, I felt that my “Partisan Song” had turned out not badly in those days. The picture reminded me of it, and quite unexpectedly I “heard” the whole of my future symphonic poem, and set about writing it. I composed the main theme afresh—it is marked by the intonations of revolutionary songs—and for the secondary theme I used my old “Partisan Song.” I elaborated both themes considerably, and the result was a symphonic work of about 12 or 13 minutes’ duration. According to , Shostakovich complained that the physical effort of writing October was “very hard work.” He completed the score on August 10 while vacationing with his family at Belovezhskaya State Reserve. The following day, Shostakovich announced the news in a letter to his friend Isaak Glikman, writing to him that he had “been working without a break for the past seven days” and felt exhausted as a result. Marina Sabinina speculated that October may have emerged from Shostakovich’s unrealized attempt to depict the Russian Civil War in the third movement of his Twelfth Symphony, citing its use of the “Partisan Song” and a comment by the composer saying that he had “been nurturing his new poem for a long time.” In response to a questionnaire submitted to him by Komsomolets Tajikistana, Shostakovich wrote: I particularly enjoyed working on my symphonic poem October, which expresses my feelings of pride in my Motherland and admiration for her exploits.

Orango (Shostakovich)

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1932 commission#

The Bolshoi Theatre commissioned the opera in 1932 intending it as a celebration of the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution. Alexei Tolstoy and Alexander Starchakov were engaged as librettists to work with Shostakovich and given the broad theme “‘human growth during revolution and socialist construction.’ Ultimately, the collaborators conceived their opera as ‘a political lampoon against the bourgeois press,’ adapting the plot from one of Starchakov’s stories concerning a human-ape hybrid conceived in a medical experiment.” When the librettists failed to deliver on schedule, Shostakovich, who was busy in the midst of composing Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, deferred and then abandoned the project, discarding his draft. Starchakov was arrested in 1936 and shot in 1937 during the Great Purge.

Piano Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)

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Classification#

Despite the title, the work might be classified as a double concerto rather than a piano concerto, in which the trumpet and piano command equal prominence. The trumpet parts assume equal importance during the conclusion of the last movement, immediately after the cadenza for piano solo. Years after he wrote the work, Shostakovich recalled that he had initially planned to write a concerto for trumpet and orchestra and then added the piano to make it a double concerto. As he continued writing, it became a piano concerto with a solo trumpet.

Piano Concerto No. 2 (Shostakovich)

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Music#

The work is scored for solo piano, two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, timpani, snare drum, and strings. The concerto lasts around 20 minutes and has three movements, with the last played attacca: “attached” to the second (i.e. to be played without any gap or pause between the end of the second movement and the start of the third). The first movement is in sonata form. The main theme of the first movement is played first by the bassoon, then soon accompanied by the clarinets and oboes. The piano answers with its own theme, played as single notes in both hands an octave apart. This develops into a march-like theme. A new theme in D minor is then introduced, with unisons two octaves apart on the piano, winding down to nothing. Then, an abrupt blast from the orchestra leads into tumultuous and low jumping octaves on the lower piano, while the orchestra plays a variation on the original piano melody fortissimo. The piano builds in a triplet pattern to introduce the D-minor theme (now in B major) in an augmentation in a triumphant tutti. At the climax, the piano comes in with a contrapuntal solo. After a minute of the fugato, the orchestra returns, playing the melody in the high winds. The orchestra builds on the main melody while the piano plays scales and tremolos, which lead into a few lines of chords and octaves by the piano, with the main theme finally resurfacing and bringing the movement to a close. The second movement presents two different themes that are in variation form. Strings start gently in C minor, with a short introduction before the piano comes in with a triplet theme in C major. Although it remains slow throughout, and works within a comparatively small range, it is marked by the recurrence of two- or four-on-three rhythms. The finale is a dance in duple time, making much use of pentatonic scales and modes. Soon, the second theme is introduced, in time, with the piano accompanied by balalaika-like pizzicato strings. This carries on for a short time before a new motif arrives in “Hanon” exercise mode, with scales in sixths and semiquaver runs, this being the joke for Maxim’s graduation. These three themes are then developed and interwoven before a final statement of the theme and finally a virtuoso coda in F major.

Piano Quintet (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

First attempt at a quintet#

Shostakovich first attempted to compose a piano quintet during his student years. This earlier quintet was conceived in the early 1920s; by April 9, 1923, he completed its first movement and designated the work “op. 7”. A subsequent movement, subtitled “Fantastic Scherzo”, was also planned, but the idea of a piano quintet was soon abandoned. Instead, he developed the “Fantastic Scherzo” into the Scherzo for piano and orchestra, which kept the projected quintet’s op. 7 assignation, while the remaining music was repurposed in the Piano Trio No. 1. He also composed music for piano with string quartet in his score to the 1936 film, Girlfriends.

Piano Sonata No. 2 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The Piano Sonata No. 2 was Shostakovich’s first solo piano composition since the 24 Preludes, Op. 34 from 1933 and his second attempt at composing a piano sonata in the key of B minor. In late 1942, Shostakovich and his family were living in the city of Kuybyshev (present-day Samara), where they had been evacuated by the Soviet government in order to escape the Nazi siege of Leningrad. That October, the composer learned about the death of his former piano professor Leonid Nikolayev, who had died in Tashkent earlier that month from typhoid fever. “I loved him greatly and it grieves me to think that I shall never see him again”, Shostakovich wrote to Isaak Glikman. “I have thought much about his life and shall miss him sorely”. Shostakovich commenced work on his second piano sonata in January 1943; its composition was concurrent with his waning enthusiasm for work on the opera The Gamblers as well as his own bout with typhoid fever. Initially, he had envisioned a four-movement sonata in C minor. Three pages of rough drafts labeled “Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 63” detailing this eventually abandoned concept are extant; none of this material was used in the final version of the sonata. Shostakovich continued to maintain in a letter to Vissarion Shebalin dated February 22 that the sonata would be cast into four movements. Soon thereafter, Shostakovich played the first movement of the final draft for Lev Oborin, who approved of the music, but suggested some edits, which Shostakovich accepted. In a letter to Ivan Sollertinsky from March 1943, the composer claimed that the sonata was a symptom of his ongoing “graphomania” and that the score had been “nearly all” written down. On April 21, 1943, Shostakovich wrote to Glikman that he had just completed the Piano Sonata No. 2, which he dedicated to the memory of Nikolayev. He completed the final draft of the sonata on March 17 while recovering his health at a sanatorium in Arkhangelskoye.

Piano Trio No. 1 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Originally titled Poème, the work was composed in 1923 when the composer was sixteen and had been in the Leningrad Conservatory for three years. By the time the score was being prepared for publication six decades later, the last 22 bars of the piano part had been lost, which were completed by Shostakovich’s pupil, Boris Tishchenko. All of the work’s themes are derived from the opening chromatic motive. Its Romanticism is atypical of the composer’s mature work. In a letter to the trio’s dedicatee, his then girlfriend Tatiana Glivenko, Shostakovich wrote that the second subject had been salvaged from a partially lost Piano Sonata in B minor he had composed three years before. It was first performed privately by the composer and two of his friends, followed by an audition for Nikolai Myaskovsky at the Moscow Conservatory on April 8, 1924. Standard duration is approximately 13 minutes.

Piano Trio No. 2 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Shostakovich began writing the trio during December 1943, having earlier that year in October mentioned beginning work on a piano trio “on Russian folk themes”, and having written to Isaac Glikman on 8 December he was working on the trio. Several days before completing the piece’s first movement, Shostakovich’s closest friend Ivan Sollertinsky, a Russian polymath and avid musician, died at age 41, having experienced heart pains in the preceding days. Sollertinsky’s death affected Shostakovich deeply. He decided to dedicate the trio to his friend’s memory. Upon hearing of his friend’s death he wrote to Sollertinsky’s widow that “it is impossible to express in words all the grief that engulfed me on hearing the news about Sollertinsky’s death”, and that “to live without him will be unbearably difficult”; in the following months he suffered from periods of depression and struggled to compose, at one point writing “it seems to me that I will never be able to compose another note again”. He finished writing the work later that year, completing the second movement by 4 August 1944 and the fourth by 13 August. The work received its premiere in Leningrad on 14 November 1944, with the composer at the piano alongside and Sergei Shirinsky, members of the Beethoven Quartet, who gave his Second String Quartet its premiere during the same concert. Two years after premiering the work, in 1946, Shostakovich made the first recording of the work with Tsyganov and Shirinsky. The next year, on 26 May 1947, he made a second recording with David Oistrakh and the Czech cellist Miloš Sádlo at the Prague Festival. In 1946, Shostakovich was also awarded a State Stalin Prize (second grade) for the trio.

Quartet Movement in E-flat major (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Shostakovich’s Ninth String Quartet had a difficult creation process, with at least one completed version being destroyed by the composer in 1961, as described by Elizabeth Wilson in her biography Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, “Shostakovich finished the first version of the Ninth Quartet in the autumn of 1961. In a fit of depression, or, to quote his own words, ‘in an attack of healthy self-criticism, I burnt it in the stove. This is the second such case in my creative practice. I once did a similar trick of burning my manuscripts, in 1926.’” Until 2003 it was believed that nothing had survived of the earlier version(s). In that year, musicologists Olga Digonskaya and Olga Dombrovskaya found a manuscript entitled “Quartet No. 9/I DShostakovich/op.113’ Key Es-dur, tempo Allegretto”. which comprised both a complete rough draft of a string quartet movement and a partially completed fair score of the same movement.

Scherzo in F-sharp minor (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The Scherzo in F minor is one of the few surviving examples of Dmitri Shostakovich’s early works, along with five of his Eight Preludes for piano. It is commonly dated as being written during the autumn or early winter months of 1919, the composer’s first year at the Petrograd Conservatory (now the Saint Petersburg Conservatory), when he was aged 13. Multiple dates, however, are recorded: the Scherzo is recorded as being written in 1920 in a compilation of works entitled ‘A description of the life of Dmitriy Shostakovich’ (1926); another compilation entitled ‘List of Shostakovich’s works’ (1927) dates the Scherzo as 1919–1920; Shostakovich himself cited the Scherzo’s date of composition as 1919 in subsequent lists of his works. The musicologist Ol’ga Digonskaya, however, writes that it is most likely that the piece was composed in late 1921 or early 1922 when Shostakovich was almost 15. Following Digonskaya’s discovery, this generally remains the accepted date of composition. In his first or second year at the Conservatory, Shostakovich began composing a Piano Sonata in B minor. The third movement—the only surviving movement of the work—was later orchestrated and became the Scherzo in F minor. Shostakovich dedicated the piece to his composition teacher Maximilian Steinberg, who had taught Shostakovich at the Conservatory and encouraged both academic and aesthetic musical appreciation. Steinberg also assisted Shostakovich with the Scherzo’s orchestration.

Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

In the late 1960s, Dmitri Shostakovich developed an interest in setting Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem to music. However, when his student Boris Tishchenko made his own setting of those verses, Shostakovich declined to further pursue his as he believed that doing so would be seen as an encroachment into his student’s work. A few years later, the interests of Shostakovich and Tishchenko crossed again. In 1970, Shostakovich became acquainted with the poetry of Marina Tsvetayeva through Tishchenko’s Three Songs to Verses by Marina Tsvetaeva, which the latter had composed earlier that year. Both music and poetry elicited Shostakovich’s approval. He wrote to Tishchenko that he had become very fond of the work and requested a copy of the score. After receiving it, he wrote to the younger composer that he was playing and singing the work every day. Shostakovich soon acquired a collection of Tsvetayeva’s poetry, which became part of his daily reading. Sofia Khentova, Shostakovich’s official biographer, speculated that Tsvetayeva’s character and outlook may have attracted the composer’s attention. The next year, while working on the Fifteenth Symphony and notated among its sketches, Shostakovich composed “Yelabuga Nail”, an incomplete and unpublished setting for bass and piano of a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko about Tsvetayeva’s suicide. Shostakovich was sufficiently pleased with the song that he offered to play it for his friend, the arts critic Isaak Glikman.

Song of the Forests

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The oratorio lasts around 40 minutes and is written in seven movements: # When the War Was Over # The Call Rings Throughout the Land # Memory of the Past # The Pioneers Plant the Forests # The Fighters of Stalingrad Forge Onward # A Walk into the Future # Glory

In the shadow of the Zhdanov decree#

Compared to most of Shostakovich’s other output, especially several of his symphonies, it is all too easy to consider The Song of the Forests a simplistic and overtly accessible “official” piece without remembering the context of the time in which it was written. In 1948 Shostakovich, along with many other composers, was again denounced for formalism in the Zhdanov decree. Simplistic and overtly accessible compositions was exactly what the Party demanded. Shostakovich was not the only one writing “safe” pieces at this time. Prokofiev composed his oratorio On Guard for Peace and Myaskovsky wrote his 27th Symphony. Even so, Soviet attacks on composers were both arbitrary and unpredictable, due in no small part to vagueness surrounding the theory of socialist realism in music and how it should be applied. Marina Frolova-Walker stated the situation this way: For Shostakovich the story of 1936 was repeated, only this time he was not alone. Most of his works were banned, he was forced to publicly repent, and his family had privileges withdrawn. Yuri Lyubimov says that at this time “he waited for his arrest at night out on the landing by the lift, so that at least his family wouldn’t be disturbed”. In the next few years Shostakovich divided his compositions into film music to pay the rent, official works aimed at securing official rehabilitation, and serious works “for the desk drawer”. The latter included the Violin Concerto No. 1 and the song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry.

String Quartet No. 1 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Premiere#

The work was premiered in Leningrad on 10 October 1938 by the Glazunov Quartet. It was also premiered in Moscow on 16 November 1938 by the Beethoven Quartet. This premiere began a lifelong friendship between Shostakovich and the quartet.

Structure#

In the traditional style of a string quartet, the work has four movements: Playing time is approximately 15 minutes.

I. Moderato#

The first movement, in C major, is in sonata-allegro form. The exposition starts with flowing chords under an opening theme, which then moves to a contrasting second theme. After a brief development section and recapitulation, the movement comes to a close.

String Quartet No. 10 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The work has four movements: Playing time is approximately 22 minutes.

I. Andante#

The first movement is in sonata rondo form and makes use of soft dynamics. Opening with a four-note motif on solo violin, the movement is largely written in E minor, a minor sixth away from the main key of A major. This E minor/A major dialogue recurs throughout the quartet. Themes in both keys are heard separately, then simultaneously, before being recapitulated in A. The movement ends morendo, denoting gradually dying away in volume. A typical performance takes around 5 minutes.

String Quartet No. 12 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The work lasts approximately 26 minutes and is in two movements: The piece contains twelve-tone elements, such as the opening in the cello:

String Quartet No. 13 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

String Quartet No. 15 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

According to Sofia Khentova, the Fifteenth Quartet was intended as a “milestone” heralding the next nine string quartets that Shostakovich intended to compose for the Beethoven Quartet. He had previously promised them a cycle of 24 quartets in all major and minor keys. Shostakovich told the quartet’s leader, , that the next quartet would be dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet as a testament to his loyalty to the ensemble. Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Quartet was modeled on the Third Quartet by his former pupil, Boris Tchaikovsky, which is composed entirely of slow movements. On May 2, 1974, Shostakovich telephoned Isaak Glikman and told him he had begun work on a new string quartet. Despite difficulties with his right hand, he continued to compose while convalescing in a Moscow hospital. After being discharged, he and his wife traveled to their dacha in Repino for the summer. He completed the quartet on May 17, 1974. On June 3, Glikman visited Shostakovich, who told him he had completed the quartet: “I don’t know how good it is, but I had some joy in writing it.” The Fifteenth was his first quartet since the Sixth and one of only three that did not bear a dedication. It was also only one of two that were not premiered by the Beethoven Quartet. In September, Shostakovich returned to Moscow and presented his new quartet to the members of the Beethoven Quartet. By that time his poor health had left Shostakovich unable to give a preliminary performance on the piano, as had been his practice with his previous quartets. He handed the score to Tsyganov and told him, “I cannot play it. Just see it for yourself.” The quartet’s cellist, , one of the group’s two remaining founding members, had suffered a heart attack earlier that year and was also having health problems at the time. As a result, the Beethoven Quartet delayed rehearsals for the Fifteenth’s premiere, which worried Shostakovich. During the rehearsals, he asked the members to play the opening movement “so that flies drop dead in mid-air and the audience start leaving the hall from sheer boredom.” After rehearsals on the morning of October 18, Shirinsky died. Shostakovich asked the Taneyev Quartet, whom he had already familiarized with the score, to take over the responsibility of the world premiere, an offer which they accepted. Prior to the Moscow premiere, Dmitri Tsyganov, the Beethoven Quartet’s last surviving founding member, visited Shostakovich in the hospital for interpretive advice. The composer said to him that he had begun to think over his next quartet, then added: “You know, Mitya, I will not be able to finish the cycle of 24 quartets I had promised you.”

String Quartet No. 16 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

On April 11, 1974, the Polish composer Krzysztof Meyer visited Shostakovich at his home in Moscow. In the course of their conversation, Shostakovich played a tape recording of his String Quartet No. 14 for Meyer, who then asked whether any work had been made on the quartet’s successor. Shostakovich replied that illness had prevented him from working on the score, but that he envisioned the work as a large, single-movement “Adagio”. He then related to Meyer that he had also conceived what would have been the String Quartet No. 16: And the Sixteenth will be in three movements, with a fugue in the finale, you understand, with a double fugue in the finale. And the second movement will be lyrical, very lyrical… Shostakovich followed this remark by playing the double fugue’s theme for Meyer, who said it “ran through his head for a long time”. In response to a query from Meyer, Shostakovich confirmed that the quartet would be composed in the key of B major. He made no further comment. On another occasion, Shostakovich told the violinist that the String Quartet No. 16 would be dedicated to the new line-up of the Beethoven Quartet. The composer never completed this work. According to an article by Iain Strachan, had Shostakovich composed his String Quartet No. 16, it would have completed a “mathematical version” of his musical monogram “DSCH”. All quartets in major keys based on one of the notes in the monogram would have been square numbers. This theory of Shostakovich’s intent is believed to be plausible by the British musicologist, David Fanning.

String Quartet No. 2 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The work has four movements: Playing time is approximately 35 minutes, one minute shorter than his longest, String Quartet No. 15. The overture that the work begins with is in sonata form, traditional for the first movement of such a work. The music is strong, forceful, and animated. This strong tone is subdued by the lyrical, wandering mood of the recitative. The first violin leads a slow, distressed line of music over soft seventh chords, and eventually finds calm in the romance. The finale works around to and ends in A minor, meaning that the quartet ends in the parallel minor to the opening major key.

String Quartet No. 3 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The quartet has five movements: Playing time is approximately 33 minutes. Shostakovich originally provided programmatic subtitles for each movement, but retracted them immediately after the Beethoven Quartet’s 1946 premiere. The consensus among music history scholars is that he did so because tying each movement directly to a topic was too limiting, or because of worries about backlash from Soviet society, particularly the Union of Soviet Composers. The subtitles, translated from their original Russian, are as follows:The first movement is in sonata allegro form. The first theme appears in the first violin in F major, accompanied by the other three instruments. It includes each of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale and is echoed by the cello. The second theme, in E minor, is stated in the first violin as well and is imitated and transformed by the second violin, viola, and cello. The development lasts over 100 measures and pulls its material mainly from the first theme, beginning with a fugue that starts with the first theme and devolves into dissonance. After a brief recapitulation, which includes the second theme not in the tonic but in B minor, the cello takes over the closing theme. The coda arrives with an acceleration and crescendo, borrowing the main theme as its material, and the movement abruptly closes with a first violin harmonic and pizzicato in the other voices. Rudolph Barshai arranged the piece for chamber symphony (Op. 73a). It calls for flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, harp, and strings. It adds winds for tonal colour in the style of Shostakovich’s symphonies.

String Quartet No. 7 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I. Allegretto#

The first movement begins with a descending line by the first violin that emphasizes the key of F minor as the central of tonality in this movement. The thematic material then gets an answer from a cello with three eight-notes. The counterpoint in this movement can be described as a conversation of two opposite characters starts at the beginning of the movement. In the opening, there are two distinct character through the rhythmic pattern. The first violin has two sixteenth-notes followed by an eight-note while the cello answer it with straight three eight notes in the lower register. The melodic material in the first violin always starts on F until m. 39, when Shostakovich begins it on A. The secondary theme (mm. 46), it introduces a new three eight-notes thematic material on cello. Instead of focusing on F minor, Shostakovich shifted the attention to E minor. Later on, the first violin also has the thematic material in the higher register. In this second theme, the second violin and viola have steady sixteenth-notes throughout the entire section. The recapitulation begins in mm. 106 with the recomposition of the first theme through pizzicato and straight eight-notes. The recapitulation also brings back the F♯ minor tonality again. In addition, Shostakovich also put the second theme in the recapitulation as well with unstable harmony. The coda restores the metric instability in the exposition. The movement ends in the major with one last espressivo on cello.

String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition and performances#

The piece was written shortly after Shostakovich reluctantly joined the Communist Party. According to the score, it is dedicated “to the victims of fascism and the war”; his son Maxim interprets this as a reference to the victims of all totalitarianism, while his daughter Galina says that he dedicated it to himself, and that the published dedication was imposed by Soviet authorities. Shostakovich’s friend, Lev Lebedinsky, said that Shostakovich thought of the work as his epitaph and that he planned to commit suicide around this time. Peter J. Rabinowitz has also pointed to covert references to Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen in the Eighth Quartet. The work was written in Dresden, where Shostakovich was to write music for the film Five Days, Five Nights, a joint project by Soviet and East German filmmakers about the bombing of Dresden in World War II.

String Quartet No. 9 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The final version of the Ninth Quartet was preceded by another which Shostakovich admitted to partially destroying: I n an attack of healthy self-criticism, I burnt it in the stove. This is the second such case in my creative practice. I once did a similar trick of burning my manuscripts, in 1926. Shostakovich took three years to complete the new Ninth Quartet, finishing it on 28 May 1964. The premiere was by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow on 20 November 1964. Dmitri Tsyganov, the first violinist, recalled that Shostakovich had told him that the first Ninth Quartet was based on “themes from childhood”, and was “completely different” from the final version.

Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The suite has three movements: It is scored for 3 saxophones (2 alto (2nd doubling soprano), and tenor), 2 trumpets, trombone, wood block, snare drum, suspended cymbal, glockenspiel, xylophone - one player, banjo, Hawaiian guitar, piano, violin and double bass. A performance takes about 8 minutes.

Notable recordings#

Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam conducted by Riccardo Chailly (DECCA)
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, conducted by Theodore Kuchar (Brilliant Classics)
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons (EMI)
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky (Naxos)

External links#

Work details, note by Gerard McBurney
, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly

Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Misidentification#

The Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1 is often mistaken for the unrelated Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 from 1938. This resulted from an error in an editorial footnote printed in volume 10 of the Shostakovich collected works edition published by Muzyka in 1984, which misidentified the Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1 as the “Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2”. The editor-in-chief of the collected works edition, Konstantin Titarenko, inserted the footnote without informing his editorial staff. When Manashir Yakubov, the uncredited editor of volume 10’s critical commentary, called to inform him of his mistake and demanded an explanation, Titarenko hung up.

Suite on Finnish Themes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In 1939, before the Soviet forces were to invade Finland, the Party Secretary of Leningrad Andrei Zhdanov commissioned a celebratory piece from Shostakovich, a theme to be performed as the marching bands of the Red Army would be parading through the Finnish capital Helsinki. Shostakovich finished composing on 3 December 1939, as the Red Army was advancing in the Finnish front and the puppet regime Finnish Democratic Republic was founded three days earlier. The exact commission date is uncertain, but according to the Finnish historian Ohto Manninen, it was probably commissioned on 25 November, though not earlier than 23 November. An earlier date is not likely as Shostakovich sent a telegram on 22 November to Atovmyan where Shostakovich was certain he would arrive in Moscow. The war began on 30 November 1939. However, the Winter War was a bitter experience for the Red Army. The Red Army never entered Helsinki, and Shostakovich would never lay claim to the authorship of this work. The Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra recorded the suite for BIS in 2002.

Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The work has four movements (the last two being played without interruption) and is approximately half an hour in length. The work begins with an introductory Allegretto section, which is developed from a duet between solo trumpet and bassoon. This leads into the first subject proper, a lively march-like Allegro reminiscent of the vaudeville and theatre music Shostakovich would have encountered during his time as a cinema pianist. The second subject is ostensibly a waltz, with the flute melody finding its way around several sections of the orchestra. The development section features a return to mock-comic grotesqueries, although the sonata-form structure of this movement is entirely conventional. In the second movement we are presented with a ‘false start’ in the cellos and basses before a frantic scherzo begins with the clarinet. The piano features for the first time with rapid scalic runs before a more sombre mood develops in the Meno mosso section. Here Shostakovich writes a triple-time passage in two, with melodies being passed through the flutes, clarinets, strings, oboes, piccolos, and the clarinets again, while the strings and triangle play in the background. The bassoon brings us back to the Allegro of the opening. The climax occurs with a combination of the two melodies presented earlier in the movement followed by a coda which is announced by widely spaced chords from the piano and violin harmonics. The third movement begins with a dark oboe solo transferring to a cello solo, and proceeds to develop into a crescendo. There is a drum roll attacca from the third movement into the fourth. After another sombre passage, the music suddenly enters the Allegro molto section with a very fast melody on the clarinet and strings. This reaches a furious climax, after which calm descends. The following Allegro section culminates in a fortissimo timpani solo, a rhythmic motif which featured in the third movement. A passage for solo cello and muted strings cleverly uses this motif along with several other elements, leading into a coda section which ends the work with rousing fanfare-like figures from the brass.

Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The symphony is scored for piccolo, two flutes (first flute with B foot extension, second flute doubling piccolo), three oboes (third doubling cor anglais), three clarinets (third doubling E clarinet), three bassoons (third doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, tambourine, tam-tam, xylophone, and strings.

Composition#

The symphony has four movements and a duration of approximately 50-60 minutes:

I. Moderato#

The first and longest movement is a slow movement in rough sonata form. As in his Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich alludes to one of his settings of Pushkin: in the first movement, from the second of his Four Monologues on Verses by Pushkin, entitled “What Does My Name Mean to You?”.

Symphony No. 11 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The symphony is scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling cor anglais), 3 clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, xylophone, tubular bells, 2 harps (preferably doubled), celesta and strings. It has become common professional performance practice for the tubular bells part (only used at the conclusion of the fourth movement) to be played on four large church bells tuned to the notes required (G, C, B and B).

Symphony No. 12 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Form#

The symphony, which is scored for large orchestra, runs 38 to 40 minutes. It is divided into four movements, which are played without pause:

Instrumentation#

The symphony is scored for: ;Woodwinds : 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo) : 3 oboes : 3 clarinets (B♭ and A) : 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon) ;Brass : 4 horns : 3 trumpets (B♭) : 3 trombones : tuba ;Percussion : timpani : bass drum : triangle : snare drum : cymbals : tam-tam ;Strings : 1st violins : 2nd violins : violas : cellos : double basses

Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

The symphony consists of five movements.

I. Babi Yar#

In this movement, Shostakovich and Yevtushenko transform the 1941 massacre by Nazis of Jews at Babi Yar, near Kiev, into a denunciation of anti-Semitism in all its forms. (Although a monument was not erected at Babi Yar by the Soviet government, it still became a place of pilgrimage for Soviet Jews.) This movement touches on the subject of suppression in the Soviet Union and is the most elaborate musically of the symphony’s five movements, using a variety of musical ideas to stress its message, from an angry march to alternating soft and violent episodes.

Symphony No. 14 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

Besides the soloists, the symphony is scored for a chamber orchestra consisting only of strings and percussion. The strings consist of ten violins, four violas, three cellos, and two double basses, and the percussion section (two players) includes wood block, castanets, whip, soprano, alto and tenor tom-toms, xylophone, tubular bells, vibraphone, and celesta. The percussion section does not include common instruments such as timpani, bass drum, cymbals, or triangle.

Symphony No. 15 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Shostakovich began to prepare the Fifteenth Symphony in late 1970; he originally envisioned it as a present to himself for his 65th birthday. He wrote to Boris Tishchenko that he wanted to write a “merry symphony”. By no later than April 2, 1971, Shostakovich completed a sketch outline of the symphony that was sparsely notated and made extensive use of shorthand. The sketch manuscript totals 18 pages. It also includes sketches for “Yelabuga Nail”, an unfinished setting of a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko about the suicide of Marina Tsvetayeva.

Symphony No. 2 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The symphony is a short (about 20 minutes) experimental work in one movement; within this movement are four sections, the last of which includes a chorus. In a marked departure from his First Symphony, Shostakovich composed his Second in a gestural, geometric “music without emotional structure” manner, with the intent of reflecting speech patterns and physical movements in a neo-realistic style. This choice may have been influenced at least partially by Vsevolod Meyerhold’s theory of biomechanics. The symphony begins with a “Largo” meant to portray the primordial chaos from which order emerged, instrumental voices merge in this 13-voice polyphonic beginning, like impulses released from the void. This was considered Klangflächenmusik (cluster composition) before the term was officially coined. This is followed by a meditative episode with a tempo marking of " 152". Shostakovich said in a letter to Boleslav Yavorsky that it depicted the “death of a child” killed on Nevsky Prospekt. The symphony concludes with a choral setting of “To October”, a poem by Alexander Bezymensky praising Lenin and the October Revolution. Shostakovich placed far more emphasis on texture in this work than he did on thematic material. He quickly adds sonorities and layers of sound in a manner akin to Abstract Expressionism instead of focusing on contrapuntal clarity. While much of the symphony consequently consists of sound effects rather than music, the work possesses an unquestionable vitality and incorporates the basic elements of the musical language he used in the rest of his career.

Symphony No. 3 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Like the Second Symphony, the Third was written at a time when the freedom and modernism of the New Economic Policy (NEP) was giving way to the dominance of the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians. The Third more obviously reflects the latter’s demands for clear, simple expression of musical and political ideas, in its largely diatonic writing, its insistent rhythms, its remaining largely fixed in the ‘home’ key of E, its episodic nature, and in the use of a revolutionary text as a finale to deliver a clear, politically attuned message. Unlike the Second, which was commissioned by the State Publishing House to honour the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, the Third was composed without a commission, with a text chosen by Shostakovich. In his report to the Leningrad Conservatory (1929), Shostakovich wrote “While in the Second Symphony the main content is struggle, the “May First” expresses the festive spirit of peaceful construction, if I may put it that way. To make the main idea clearer for the listeners, I introduced a chorus to words by the poet Kirsanov at the end."

Symphony No. 4 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

Shostakovich uses a large orchestra requiring over one hundred musicians. It is scored for the following instruments: ;Woodwind: :2 Piccolos :4 Flutes :4 Oboes (4th doubling on Cor anglais) :1 E Clarinet :4 Clarinets :1 Bass clarinet :3 Bassoons :1 Contrabassoon ;Strings :2 Harps :16–20 1st Violins :14–18 2nd Violins :12–16 Violas :12–16 Cellos :10–14 Double basses ;Keyboard :Celesta ;Brass: :8 Horns :4 Trumpets :3 Trombones :2 Tubas ;Percussion: :6 Timpani (two players) :Bass drum :Snare drum :Cymbals (crash and suspended, 2 players, one for each) :Triangle :Wood block :Castanets :Tam-tam :Xylophone :Glockenspiel

Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The work is scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets and E clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three B trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, glockenspiel, xylophone, two harps (one part), piano, celesta and strings.

Form#

The work is in four movements:

I. Moderato#

: \new staff \relative c \set Staff.midiInstrument = #“violin” \key d \minor \time 4/4 \tempo “Moderato” \tempo 8 = 76 a2(_\p) (g4 f) es4. (f8 d4) The first movement, in D minor, is in sonata form. The exposition opens with a “strenuous” string figure in canon of rising and falling minor sixths that quickly narrow to minor thirds. The opening’s dotted rhythm persists as a lyrical first theme is played by the first violins. This theme presents itself as a descending five-tone motif in bars 6-7, but Shostakovich had already used it in the second movement of his fourth symphony (bars 318-321), which was recognized there as a quotation from Gustav Mahler’s song “Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt”, from Des Knaben Wunderhorn; specifically, the line “He goes to the rivers and preaches to the fishes”. In its original appearance, this Mahler quotation is juxtaposed with musical notation in the shape of a nose (on page 122 of the Sikorski score), the notes in the “nose” being a quotation from “The Internationale”, which was also previously hidden in bars 25-30 of the first movement of the 4th symphony, with the effect of depicting the futility of the socialist “sermon”. For the appearance of this quotation in the fifth symphony, the five-tone Mahler motif occurs in a total of 15 variants in the first and third movements, and bears witness to the Shostakovich’s secret triumph in being able to describe the party doctrine that had silenced his earlier work as a completely useless sermon. This provocative insight is therefore part of Shostakovich’s “creative response of a Soviet artist to justified criticism”. However, since the fourth symphony had been withdrawn before the premiere in 1936 and could only be presented to the public 25 years later, the extramusical context was lost when the 5th symphony was premiered in Leningrad. Only later has this connection between the fourth and fifth symphonies, which undermines the demands of “socialist realism”, been uncovered. The first theme is repeated several times in combination with the opening motif, and greatly varied with new demarcations and penetrations. There is a great deal of variation and linking of all elements, giving the impression of a single continuous process. : \new Staff > The secondary theme (mm. 50-120) in E minor, introduced by the first violins, offers the greatest possible contrast to the main theme. The tempo is more fluid, and the sustained tones of the secondary theme are linked by wide intervals: octaves, fourths, sevenths instead of the dominant seconds found in the first theme. Simplicity prevails over complexity, as the far-reaching lyrical melody is accompanied by chords in a continuous, slightly lively rhythm. An accompanying figure takes the lead at the beginning of the powerful development. Only now does the tempo of this movement reach Allegro. Themes from the exposition appear in augmentation and diminution in contrapuntal conflicts with themselves. The thematic material is transformed into a grotesquely distorted quick march in a wide development with military drums and trumpets. After several false starts, from m. 157 the second theme intervenes in the action. In the recapitulation, which is heavily reduced compared to the exposition, themes heard earlier on are brought back again either identically or somewhat varied. Near the end of the movement, the second subject is heard again in the form of a canon played by flute and horn, this time in D major, then the same material is played by the piccolo and a solo violin in D minor. The movement ends with the celesta playing a rising figure, and slowly fading away. In general, the inner drama of the first movement can be described as an interplay between lamentation and mourning, contrasting with a “departure for battle” which reaches its climax with the entry of the recapitulation. In the end, the outcome of this conflict proves to be ambiguous, and the looming threats have not yet been resolved.

Symphony No. 6 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

Symphony No. 6 is in three movements and lasts approximately 30 minutes: The Sixth Symphony is unusual in structure: a ‘regular’ symphonic structure would contain a first movement in sonata form, a scherzo, a slow movement, and a quick finale, often also in sonata form. This symphony, however, begins with a long and introspective slow movement, followed by two short movements: a scherzo and a “full-blooded and debauched music-hall galop”. According to music critic Herbert Glass, the “entire first movement is based on the cell of a minor third, with a second theme - which follows without transition - the motif of a diminished seventh, with the trill at its close forming the third major ingredient of the movement - the two themes and the trill combined as a sort of super-theme. The composer lays this out as clearly as if he were teaching a music-appreciation class: do listen for it. Chamber music effects abound with, for instance, piccolo or flute, eerily alone or accompanied by the B clarinets. There are walloping climaxes, too, each of which dies away into the gloom. Note, too, the composer’s wonderful spotlighting of the melancholy English horn, a lone figure after the din has evaporated.” The third movement galop is the movement Shostakovich himself thought was most successful. Music critic Daniel Hathaway noted that “Snare drums ratcheted up the riot of brutal sound in the Scherzo and references to the William Tell Overture and laughing trombones added a hilarious burlesque quality to the finale.” On average, the first movement is 15–20 minutes long, the second movement is 4–6 minutes long, and the third movement is 5–7 minutes long.

Symphony No. 7 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Length and form#

Shostakovich’s longest symphony, the work typically takes approximately 80 minutes to perform. It has four movements. Shostakovich at first gave them titles —“War”, “Reminiscence”, “Home Expanses”, and “Victory”—but he soon withdrew these and left the movements with their tempo markings alone.

I. Allegretto#

The first movement is in a modified sonata form that the musicologist Hugh Ottaway described as “misplaced and misshapen”. It begins with a broad theme played by the strings in unison, which is later echoed by the woodwinds. This is followed by a slower section played by flutes and strings, which segues into a 22-measure ostinato march that Shostakovich anticipated would be compared to Ravel’s Boléro. At the end of the twelfth statement of the theme, the brass present an inverted version of the theme, which is developed into a climax. After this a slower, two-part section follows, with a bassoon solo introduced by a solo clarinet; then a soft recapitulation of the opening theme is played by the strings. The movement’s brief coda repeats fragments of the “invasion” theme, played by a solo muted trumpet and percussion.

Symphony No. 8 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

The work consists of five movements: The first movement, which runs roughly half an hour, is by far the longest. It opens with a dramatic motif played fortissimo in octaves, characterised by David Haas in his study as a “fate” motif: : > However, the motif is immediately replaced by the two subjects of this sonata form movement, both lyrical in character. In the development section, the second subject is transformed before march motifs come to dominate. The recapitulation sees a dissonant version of the fate motif displaced by a cor anglais solo which restates the second subject. The composer described the short second movement allegretto as “a march with elements of a scherzo”: : 2~^\ff^\ 2~^\ 8 1~^\ > \new Staff \relative c \clef bass \key des \major 2.-\ff^“Bcl, Fg, Cfg, Vc, Cb” 8 2. 8 4 8 4 2~ q8 » The third movement (conventionally described as a toccata) is again short, driven onwards by motor rhythms: : > This movement has been interpreted as a depiction of battle, or (by Kurt Sanderling) as “the crushing of the individual” by the Soviet system. It finally erupts into a “massive climax of self-destruction”, leading to the penultimate movement, a subdued passacaglia. This in turn, as in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, leads directly into the C major finale. However, in contrast to Beethoven’s exuberant conclusion, Shostakovich provides a pastoral rondo in which solo woodwinds again dominate. The movement begins with a passage for solo bassoon, and ends quietly with both pizzicato and sustaining strings; for some additional color, a solo flute joins in for the last note of the motive, at the very bottom of its range. The pizzicato material is an inverted version of the symphony’s opening fate motif, and is connected by Haas to a similar passage for soprano voice in the fifth movement of Mahler’s Second. Here, however, there is no resurrection: “The hero who announced himself using the voices of cor anglais and bassoon has not clearly triumphed, merely survived”. The weight of the first and final movements of the symphony is centered on simultaneous crescendos of the snare and bass drums, while trumpets call to the pinnacle which is overlaid by woodwind trills. A second interval is used as a motif throughout the symphony: C–B–C in the opening motif of the first movement, D–C–D in the theme of the second movement, E–F–E in the third movement (here separated by an octave), and C–D–C in the last movement.

Symphony No. 9 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Development#

The Ninth Symphony was originally intended to be a celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Shostakovich declared in October 1943 that the symphony would be a large composition for orchestra, soloists, and chorus. Shostakovich told his students on 16 January 1945 that he had begun work on a new symphony the day before. A week later, he told them that he had reached the middle of the development section, and the work was going to open with a big tutti. Isaak Glikman heard around ten minutes of the music Shostakovich had written for the first movement in late April. Soon thereafter, Shostakovich stopped working on the symphony. He resumed work on 26 July 1945 and finished on 30 August 1945. The resulting symphony was unrelated to the one he had originally planned.

Tahiti Trot

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In his memoirs, Nicolai Malko recalled first hearing Vincent Youmans’ “Tea for Two” at the Meyerhold Theatre in Moscow in 1927: They performed a play called Roar, China. In one of the scenes some Americans on a ship are dancing. The foxtrot used in that scene became very popular. Nobody knew who the composer was. … It was called the “Tahiti Trot”. In reality it was “Tea for Two”. Jazz music was regarded very negatively in Russia in those days. I did not agree with this philosophy and referred to that foxtrot as an example of music that was not bad. Shostakovich developed an interest in popular music during this period. Like Malko, he had heard “Tea for Two” at the Meyerhold Theatre. He was also greatly impressed by Ernst Krenek’s jazz-influenced opera, Jonny spielt auf, and its arrangement of another Youmans song from No, No, Nanette, “I Want to Be Happy”. In the company of friends he enjoyed playing jazz-style improvisations on the piano for them. At some point before October 1927, Malko jokingly suggested to Shostakovich that he should orchestrate “Tea for Two” and proposed a bet: If you, Mitenka, are as brilliant as they all say, then please go into the next room, write that song down from memory, orchestrate it, and I will play it. I will give you an hour to do this. Shostakovich completed his task in forty-five minutes, thereby winning the bet. He dedicated the score to Malko as a “token of his best feelings”.

The Big Lightning

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Bolt (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The ballet is an ironic tale of slovenly work in a Soviet factory. The lazy Lyonka hates work and together with a local priest and anti-Soviet plotter he plans to sabotage the machinery by putting a bolt in it. Their plan is foiled by a group of Young Communists.

Instrumentation#

The list below details the instrumentation for the more commonly performed suite compiled by Shostakovich. * Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 B♭ clarinets, E♭ clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, double bassoon * Brass: 6 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 baritone or euphonium, 1 tuba * Percussion: timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle, tambourine, tam-tam, glockenspiel, xylophone * Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double basses Additional instruments used in the full ballet but not in the suite include: 2 pianos (onstage and pit), harp, tubular bell in D, wood block, police whistle, and an offstage selection of instruments drawn from the orchestra in the first act (3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, cymbals). The second clarinettist also doubles alto saxophone in Eb. A male chorus (TTBB) and narrator are also required in some movements. Additional optional brass band (Finale): E♭ cornet, 2 B♭ cornets, 2 trumpets, 2 tenor horns, 2 baritone horns, 2 tubas. The 2002 Naxos recording of the suite extracted from this ballet, performed by the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, uses four saxophones here instead.

The Counterplan Song

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The song stems from and is featured prominently in Counterplan, a propaganda drama film about workers at a metal plan in Leningrad during the first five-year plan originally released on 7 November 1932. The music for the film was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich. The lyrics came from Boris Kornilov.

Other usage#

The song would later become popular abroad. The music or the song was used in the following: * “Au-devant de la vie”, a song of the French socialist movement, with new lyrics by Jeanne Perret. * “United Nations on the March”, with new lyrics by Harold Rome. That song was also used in the 1943 American film Thousands Cheer. * “Dmitri Shostakovich - Into the Cold Dawn”, a 2008 documentary on Shostakovich by German filmmaker Armin Mueller-Stahl, referenced the song in the title. * “Two Prosecutors”, a 2025 historical drama film about the Great Purge by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa used the song both in the third act and in the end credits.

The Execution of Stepan Razin

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lyrics#

The opening section of Yevtushenko’s poem depicts Razin’s fate in front of the uncaring crowd: In the middle section, Razin reflects on his fate: “Fool! Stenka, you die for nothing!” The final section describes the execution itself, in very short, choppy lines: the crowd falls silent, and Razin’s head, still living - laughs his triumph over the watching tsar.

Recordings#

Shostakovich: Cantatas — Estonian Concert Choir, ENSO Paavo Järvi Erato 2015.
The Execution of Stepan Razin — Seattle Symphony Chorale, Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz: Naxos 2006.
Symphony No. 12 and The Execution of Stepan Razin — Rundfunkchor & Sinfonie-orchester Leipzig, Herbert Kegel: Philips 1992.
Georgy Sviridov Oratorio Pathetique and Shostakovich The Execution of Stepan Razin — Varna Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Andrey Andreev (cond.) & Assen Vassilev (bass): Koch International Classics 1990.
Symphony No. 9 and The Execution of Stepan Razin — Moscow State Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra & Republican Russian Choir Capella, Kirill Kondrashin (cond.) & Vitali Gromadsky (bass): Melodiya 1965 (reissued as a CD in 2015 by High Definition Tape Transfers).

The Gamblers (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Shostakovich based his first opera, The Nose, on a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol. For The Gamblers, he turned again to the same author, this time to the play The Gamblers. Shostakovich tried to set Gogol’s play word for word. He realised when arriving at the end of the first act that the opera would become too long and unwieldy, and also that its mocking text and the bitter irony of the music would not be performed under the repressive regime at the time. He abandoned the project. He reused material from the opera in the scherzo of his final composition, the Viola Sonata. The world premiere was a concert performance at the hall of the Leningrad Conservatory on 18 September 1978, sung by members of the Moscow Chamber Theatre with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. A new staged performance was played at the New Opera Moscow in 2016, conducted by Andrey Lebedev.

The Golden Age (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot summary#

The ballet is a satirical take on the political and cultural change in 1920s Europe. It follows a Soviet football (soccer) team in a Western city where they come into contact with many politically incorrect antagonistic characters such as the Diva, the Fascist, the Agent Provocateur, the Negro and others. The team falls victim to match rigging, police harassment, and unjust imprisonment by the evil bourgeoisie. The team is freed from jail when the local workers overthrow their capitalist overlords. The ballet ends with a dance of solidarity between the workers and the football team. Shostakovich himself was a very keen football follower, and is said to have coined the expression “Football is the ballet of the masses”.

The Limpid Stream

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The plot centres around a group of ballet dancers who have been sent to provide sophisticated entertainment on a new Soviet collective farm during their harvest festival. The workers, along with two older residents of a nearby dacha, welcome the city dancers, with special welcome given to the troupe’s ballerina who was the former dance teacher of Zina. Zina introduces the ballerina to her husband, Pyotr, and Pyotr immediately begins to flirt with the ballerina. Hurt, Zina removes herself from the celebrations and is comforted by the ballerina. The ballerina suggests a plan in which she will dress as her dance partner, her dance partner will dress as a female dancer, and Zina will dress as the ballerina. They will fool Pyotr and the two dacha dwellers and Pyotr will realize his mistake. The woes of two other couples with overly-assured men are also resolved through the plan. After this all has been accomplished, there is a grand celebration which, in the Ratmansky production, includes the grim reaper who, after a scare, is banished.

The Nose (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Style and structure#

The opera was written between 1927 and 1928. The libretto is by Shostakovich, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin, and Alexander Preis. Shostakovich stated it was a satire on the times of Alexander I. The plot concerns a Saint Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own. The libretto includes material borrowed from some other of Gogol’s works, including “The Overcoat”, Marriage, “Diary of a Madman”, and Dead Souls; as well as The Brothers Karamazov (1881) by Dostoyevsky. (The Dostoyevsky material appears in act 2, scene 6, where Kovalyov returns home to find Ivan singing. The song is Shostakovich’s setting of the words of part 2, book 5, chapter 2 of Karamazov, where the lackey, Smerdiakov, sings to his neighbour Mariia Kondratevna. An invisible force ties to my beloved. Bless us, O Lord, her and me! Her and me! I’ll give up a king’s crown, if my beloved is happy. Bless us, O Lord, her and me! Her and me!) Shostakovich uses a montage of different styles, including folk music, popular song, and atonality. The apparent chaos is given structure by formal musical devices such as canons and quartets, a device taken from Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. According to the British composer Gerard McBurney writing for Boosey & Hawkes, “The Nose is one of the young Shostakovich’s greatest masterpieces, an electrifying tour de force of vocal acrobatics, wild instrumental colours and theatrical absurdity, all shot through with a blistering mixture of laughter and rage…. The result, in Shostakovich’s ruthlessly irreverent hands, is like an operatic version of Charlie Chaplin or Monty Python…. D espite its magnificently absurd subject and virtuosic music, The Nose is a perfectly practical work and provides a hugely entertaining evening in the theatre.”

The Phoenix (Fall Out Boy song)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

The song was inspired by Soviet Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and drum loops, both of which Stump was interested in at one point in the recording process. While listening to the fourth movement (Allegro non troppo) of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, Stump became entranced by a certain string moment and proceeded to build an entirely new song influenced by it. The same orchestral snippet was employed as a sample by German hip-hop artist Peter Fox in his 2008 single Alles neu. The tempo of the song is 138 BPM, and it is written in the key of E minor.

The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performance and Recording History#

It was premiered by the USSR Symphony Orchestra and Choir with the Moscow Choir School Boys’ Choir under Konstantin Ivanov at the Bolshoi Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire on 6 November 1952. It was recorded in mono with the same forces under Alexander Yurlov after a public concert ten years later. It was re-recorded with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Kondrashin in 1965 for Melodiya Records. In the West, the Kondrashin appeared in an His Master’s Voice record of 1970, and again in a box of Shostakovich symphonies mainly under the direction of Kondrashin (1975). More recently, it was recorded by Mikhail Jurowski with the Kölner Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester on Capriccio Records, and a live recording of Paavo Järvi with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Estonian Concert Choir on Erato Records. Because of the nature of the text, it remains a highly controversial work to perform. Paavo Jarvi’s performance of the work in 2011 caused outrage amongst many in Estonia, to the point of him receiving death threats.

The Unforgettable Year 1919 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sources#

Adriano (n.d.). “The Unforgettable Year 1919”, in liner notes to Naxos Records recording 8.570238, accessed 31 December 2017
Frolova-Walker, Marina (2016). Stalin’s Music Prize. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Volkov, Solomon, tr. A. W. Bouis (1995). Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. New York: Limelight Editions.

Three Fantastic Dances

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Shostakovich completed the first of the Three Fantastic Dances on December 4, 1920, with the remaining two completed in 1922. He dedicated the work to his friend Iosif Shvarts, a fellow pianist and pupil in the class of Leonid Nikolayev, who esteemed him as one of his best students. Shostakovich himself admired Shvarts’ playing and said he was “fascinated by his fine polish, meticulous penetration of the composer’s wishes, and excellent technique.” Sources conflict as to when and where the Three Fantastic Dances was premiered. Hans Sikorski Musikverlage, which publishes Shostakovich’s music, lists March 20, 1923, at the Small Hall of the Petrograd Conservatory as the premiere date and location. According to , the Three Fantastic Dances “amazed Shostakovich’s fellow students with their freshness, originality, and mature mastery.” Later in 1923, Shostakovich collaborated on a choreographic treatment of the music with Mariya Ponna, a champion swimmer turned dancer, and Kasyan Goleizovsky. This was performed at the Main Hall of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. Shostakovich’s mother, who attended the performance, was reportedly scandalized. According to Sofia Khentova, Shostakovich drew on the experience with Ponna and Goleizovsky while composing his first ballet, The Golden Age. Shostakovich included the Three Fantastic Dances on his Moscow concert debut as composer and pianist on March 20, 1925. The program included a selection of his vocal, chamber, and solo piano works, as well as music by his friend Vissarion Shebalin.

Viola Sonata (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Surviving rough drafts of the sonata’s first movement, which use a bass clef instead of an alto, suggest that Shostakovich may have originally conceived the work for cello. According to Sofia Khentova, the viola sonatas of Mieczysław Weinberg and Grigory Frid had been the impetus for Shostakovich to compose his own. His Viola Sonata also marked a return to an idea that the composer had expressed in the mid-1930s of writing a cycle of works for instruments not usually considered ideal for solo roles. Shostakovich first announced his intention to compose the Viola Sonata in May 1975 to the management of Leningrad’s Glinka Maly Hall. In response to their proposal for a concert that would simultaneously open its 1975–76 season and commemorate his 69th birthday, he requested a program of his sonatas for cello, violin, and viola; the latter to be completed in the summer. On the morning of July 1, 1975, Shostakovich telephoned Druzhinin to tell him that he had an idea for a Viola Sonata. He called again later in the day asking whether certain double stops played in rapid succession were possible on the viola. Druzhinin encouraged the composer to write as he pleased and said that violists would stretch their techniques to play whatever he asked them to. In the final days before completing the sonata, Shostakovich complained about the inability of his right hand to remain still enough for writing and had also telephoned Druzhinin on July 4 warning him that he was considering delaying further work as a result of his declining health. Despite these challenges, he announced to the violist on July 5 that he had completed the score and that it had been dispatched to the Union of Soviet Composers for copying. After unexpected delays in its preparation, Druzhinin received the fair copy of the score from the composer’s wife on August 6. Shostakovich died on August 9.

Violin Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Delay in premiere#

Shostakovich catalogued the First Violin Concerto as Op. 77, but because of the delay in performance, he originally published it as Op. 99. Op. 77 was originally assigned to the Three Pieces for Orchestra, an unpublished and unperformed orchestral work. In addition to the political circumstances surrounding its delay, some musicologists have argued that the intervening years allowed Shostakovich to refine the concerto’s structure and emotional range with the collaboration of Oistrakh. Laurel E. Fay observes that the composer used this period to heighten the contrast between the work’s “private introspection” and “sardonic brilliance”, a duality that reflected both his personal struggles and the cultural climate of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Violin Sonata (Shostakovich)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oistrakh’s contribution#

According to the dedicatee, the sonata was “greeted enthusiastically everywhere”, and indeed, the third movement was the Russian piece on the set list for violinists at the 1970 Tchaikovsky Competition. The autograph resides in the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture in Moscow. Oistrakh collaborated with Shostakovich on several of the composer’s major works, purportedly contributing his own insight and suggestions based on the violin’s strengths and technical limitations. The work’s inscription reads: “For the 60th birthday of David Oistrakh”, who offered an explanation for its composition: Dmitri had been wanting to write a new, second concerto for me as a present for my 60th birthday. However, there was an error of one year in his timing. The concerto was ready for my 59th birthday. Shortly afterwards, Dmitri seemed to think that, having made a mistake, he ought to correct it. That is how he came to write the Sonata … I had not been expecting it, though I had long been hoping that he would write a violin sonata. The unofficial premiere with Moishe Vainberg as pianist happened on 8 January 1969 in the Russian Union of Composers, the official premieres with Richter as pianist happened at Great Hall Moscow Conservatory on 3 May and at the Small Hall of Leningrad Philharmonic on 23 September. Before the official public premiere in May, Oistrakh and Shostakovich recorded the work informally in the latter’s apartment, though the composer’s physical handicap (he was diagnosed with polio in 1965) and a relative lack of rehearsal and polish is evident in the performance. Oistrakh later recorded the sonata with Sviatoslav Richter on piano for the official release (USSR Melodiya CM-02355-6 Deep-Blue Stereo Label).

Yelabuga Nail

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Dmitri Shostakovich discovered the poetry of Marina Tsvetayeva in 1970, through the song cycle Three Songs to Verses by Marina Tsvetayeva by Boris Tishchenko. Shostakovich later requested a copy of the score, which he repeatedly played and sang at home, and acquired a collection of Tsvetayeva’s poetry. “One gets the impression that Shostakovich himself could have written these poems had he been a poet”, his official biographer, Sofia Khentova, later said. In early 1971, Shostakovich sketched out the song “Yelabuga Nail”, a setting of Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s eponymous poem about Tsvetayeva’s suicide in Yelabuga. Later in the same year, the composer told his friend, the arts critic Isaak Glikman, about the song and offered to play it for him. Shostakovich never informed Yevtushenko about his setting. The sketch of the song, which Khentova described as “clear and complete enough”, takes up four pages, some of which also include sketches for the Fifteenth Symphony. In 2023, the International Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch, Germany, commissioned a completion of “Yelabuga Nail” from the composer Alexander Raskatov. He finished it the following year. Although Jan Brachmann’s liner notes for the 2025 premiere recording of “Yelabuga Nail” state that the song had only been discovered “a few months ago”, it was first publicized in 1985 by Khentova in the second volume of her biography of Shostakovich. Aside from brief commentary on the music and manuscript, she also published a fragment of the score.