Symphony No. 2 (Shostakovich) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....

wrote his Symphony No. 2 in B major, Opus 14 and subtitled To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

. It was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko

Nikolai Malko

-Biography:Malko was born in Semaky, Ukraine. His father was Ukrainian, his mother Russian. He studied philology at St Petersburg University. He published articles on music criticism in the Russian press and performed as a pianist and later a conductor. In 1906 he completed his studies in history...

, on 5 November 1927. Shostakovich later revisited the events of the October Revolution in his Twelfth Symphony

Symphony No. 12 (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 12 in D minor, Op. 112, subtitled The Year of 1917, in 1961, dedicating it to the memory of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution. The symphony was premiered that October by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Yevgeny...

, subtitled The Year 1917.

Structure

The symphony is a short (ca. 20 minutes) experimental work in one movement

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

; within this movement are four sections, the last of which includes a chorus

Strophic form

Strophic form is the simplest and most durable of musical forms, elaborating a piece of music by repetition of a single formal section. This may be analyzed as "A A A..."...

. In a marked departure from his First Symphony

Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich)

The Symphony No. 1 in F minor by Dmitri Shostakovich was written between 1924 and 1925, and first performed in Saint Petersburg by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Nikolai Malko on 12 May 1926...

, 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

Neorealism (art)

In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...

style. This choice may have been influenced at least partially by Vsevolod Meyerhold

Vsevolod Meyerhold

Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...

's theory of biomechanics

Biomechanics (Meyerhold)

Biomechanics was a system of actor training developed by Vsevolod Meyerhold. Its purpose was to widen the emotional potential of a theater piece and express thoughts and ideas that could not be easily presented through the naturalistic theater of the period....

Largo

Meant to portray the primordial chaos from which order emerged, instrumental voices merge in this 13-voice polyphonic
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....

beginning, like impulses released from the void. This was considered Klangflächenmusik (cluster composition) before the term was officially coined.
Quarter note
Quarter note
A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note . Often people will say that a crotchet is one beat, however, this is not always correct, as the beat is indicated by the time signature of the music; a quarter note may or may not be the beat...

=152

A meditative episode which Shostakovich described as the "death of a child" (letter to Boleslav Yavorsky
Boleslav Yavorsky
Boleslav Leopoldovich Yavorsky was a Russian musicologist, music teacher, administrator and pianist.Through his teachings and editorial positions he heavily influenced the Soviet music theory. However, outside Soviet circles, he has had little impact....

) killed on the Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Avenue |Prospekt]]) is the main street in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. Planned by Peter the Great as beginning of the road to Novgorod and Moscow, the avenue runs from the Admiralty to the Moscow Railway Station and, after making a turn at Vosstaniya Square, to the Alexander...

.
Poco meno mosso. Allegro molto.
Chorus: "To October"

The choral finale of the work sets a text by Alexander Bezymensky praising Lenin and the revolution.

Shostakovich placed far more emphasis on texture

Texture (music)

In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...

in this work than he did on thematic material. He quickly adds sonorities and layers of sound in a manner akin to Abstract Expressionism

Abstract expressionism

Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...

instead of focusing on contrapuntal

Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...

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.

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for mixed choir (in the final part) and orchestra of piccolo

Piccolo

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...

, 2 flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

s, 2 oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

s, 2 clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

s, 2 bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

s, 4 horns, 3 trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

s, 3 trombone

Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

s, tuba

Tuba

The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...

, timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

, triangle, snare drum

Snare drum

The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...

, bass drum

Bass drum

Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...

, cymbals, glockenspiel

Glockenspiel

A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...

, siren

Siren (noisemaker)

A siren is a loud noise making device. Most modern ones are civil defense or air raid sirens, tornado sirens, or the sirens on emergency service vehicles such as ambulances, police cars and fire trucks. There are two general types: pneumatic and electronic....

, and strings

String section

The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...

Overview

Shostakovich's Second and Third

Symphony No. 3 (Shostakovich)

The Symphony No. 3 in E flat major by Dmitri Shostakovich was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and Academy Capella Choir under Aleksandr Gauk on 21 January 1930....

Symphonies have been often been criticized for incongruities in their experimental orchestral sections and more conventionally agitprop

Agitprop

Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....

choral finales. In the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

they were considered experiments, and since the days of Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

the term "experiment" was not considered positive. Much later, Shostakovich admitted that out of his 15 symphonies, "two, I suppose, are completely unsatisfactory - that's the Second and Third." He also rejected his early experimental writing in general as "erroneous striving after originality" [the piano cycle Aphorisms] and "infants' diseases" [the Second and Third Symphonies].

The Second Symphony was commissioned to include a poem by Alexander Bezymensky, which glorified Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

's role in the proletariat

Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

struggle in bombastic style. The cult of Lenin, imposed from the upper echelons of the Party, grew to gigantic proportions in the years immediately following his death. The work was initially titled "To October". It was referred to as a Symphonic Poem and Symphonic Dedication to October. It became To October, a Symphonic Dedication when the work was published in 1927. It only became known as a "symphony" considerably later.

The spirit of October

During the 1920s in Russia, "October" referred to the spirit of the Revolution, which was a new world of freedom and fellowship reaching politically from the center to the left. The nearest political idea to this concept was the Trotskyite doctrine of "permanent revolution". This made it the very opposite of Bolshevik

Bolshevik

The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

regimentation.

The Bolshevik Party was hard at work in 1927, trying to fuse the historical Revolution and the October mystique, so they considered taking Shostakovich as a court composer. In this context, the Second Symphony was subtitled To October and dedicated, "Proletarians of the World, Unite!

Workers of the world, unite!

The political slogan Workers of the world, unite! is one of the most famous rallying cries of communism, found in The Communist Manifesto , by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...

". In 1927, every artist in Russia was producing something based on the October theme.

Composition

Shostakovich was commissioned by Lev Shuglin, a dedicated Bolshevik

Bolshevik

and head of the Propaganda Department of the State Music Publishing House (Muzsektor), to write a large orchestral work with a choral finale, called Dedication to October, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution

October Revolution

. The composer seems to have been dissatisfied with the work; he wrote to Tatyana Glivenko, on 28 May 1927, that he was tired of writing it, and considered the Bezymensky text "abominable". Nonetheless, it stands as an important representation of Soviet music in the 1920s, and in particular of the notion of "industrial" symphonies intended to inspire the proletariat: the choral section of the work is heralded within the score by way of a blast from a factory whistle, an innovation proposed by Shuglin.

Part of the problem Shostakovich had in writing the symphony was that people expected a successor to his First Symphony

Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich)

The Symphony No. 1 in F minor by Dmitri Shostakovich was written between 1924 and 1925, and first performed in Saint Petersburg by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Nikolai Malko on 12 May 1926...

, and he no longer believed in writing in the same compositional style. He also had other projects toward which he wanted to direct his attention as soon as possible, and the First Symphony had taken him nearly a year to write. As it turned out, the Commissariat for Enlightenment's propaganda department, Agitotdel, regularly commissioned single-movement works on topical subjects. These works often featured revolutionary tunes and invariably employed sung texts to make the required meaning clear. Furthermore, because of the non-musical orientation of potential audiences, these pieces were not expected to last more than 15 or 20 minutes at most.

Though Shostakovich had been commissioned by Muzsektor rather than Agitotdel, and was thus expected to produce a composition of abstract music

Abstract music

Abstract music may mean:*Abstract electronic music, a style of electronic music commonly practiced in techno, glitch and ambient that involves significant sampling and sound processing....

instead of a propaganda piece, writing a short agitprop symphony seemed to solve all of Shostakovich's problems. Such a work was entirely appropriate for the occasion for which it was being written. It would also be impossible for Muzsektor to turn it down, and was guaranteed at least some friendly press. It also side-stepped the stylistic problem of producing a sequel to the First Symphony while also opening the door to experiment with orchestral effects in an entirely new vein. Most importantly for Shostakovich, the piece took little time to compose, allowing him to return to other projects at his earliest convenience.

The choral section gave the composer particular trouble. Shostakovich told Yavorsky confidentially, "I'm composing the chorus with great difficulty. The words!!!!" The consequent lack of creative fire becomes obvious; the section lacks the drive and conviction that typified many of his later works, the singers sounding melancholy, almost desultory. It is obviously a stilted, formal addition to a composition already lacking compositional unity. The final words are not even given a melodic line; instead they are simply chanted by the chorus, culminating in a formulaic apotheosis. Solomon Volkov

Solomon Volkov

Solomon Moiseyevich Volkov is a Russian journalist and musicologist. He is best known for Testimony, which was published in 1979 following his emigration from the Soviet Union in 1976...

admitted of the entire choral section, "[O]ne is tempted simply to cut it off with a pair of scissors".

Chorus: “To October”

Text by Alexander Bezymensky

Russian

Мы шли, мы просили работы и хлеба,
Сердца были сжаты тисками тоски.
Заводские трубы тянулися к небу,
Как руки, бессильные сжать кулаки.
Страшно было имя наших тенет:
Молчанье, страданье, гнет.

Но громче орудий ворвались в молчанье
Слова нашей скорби, слова наших мук.
О Ленин! Ты выковал волю страданья,
Ты выковал волю мозолистых рук.
Мы поняли, Ленин, что наша судьба
Носит имя: борьба.

Борьба! Ты вела нас к последнему бою.
Борьба! Ты дала нам победу Труда.
И этой победы над гнетом и тьмою
Никто не отнимет у нас никогда.
Пусть каждый в борьбе будет молод и храбр:
Ведь имя победы – Октябрь!

Октябрь! – это солнца желанного вестник.
Октябрь! – это воля восставших веков.
Октябрь! – это труд, это радость и песня.
Октябрь! – это счастье полей и станков.
Вот знамя, вот имя живых поколений:
Октябрь, Коммуна и Ленин.

English translation

We marched, we asked for work and bread.
Our hearts were gripped in a vice of anguish.
Factory chimneys towered up towards the sky
Like hands, powerless to clench a fist.
Terrible were the names of our shackles:
Silence, suffering, oppression.

But louder than gunfire there burst into the silence
Words of our torment, words of our suffering.
Oh, Lenin! You forged freedom through suffering,
You forged freedom from our toil-hardened hands.
We knew, Lenin, that our fate
Bears a name: Struggle.

Struggle! You led us to the final battle.
Struggle! You gave us the victory of Labour.
And this victory over oppression and darkness
None can ever take away from us!
Let all in the struggle be young and bold:
The name of this victory is October!

October! The messenger of the awaited dawn.
October! The freedom of rebellious ages.
October! Labour, joy and song.
October! Happiness in the fields and at the work benches,
This is the slogan and this is the name of living generations:
October, the Commune and Lenin.

Reception

In the Soviet Union the orchestral section initially confused listeners — many of whom were workers worn out by the October Revolution, yet listening patiently to the first performance — while they were very much at home with the setting of characteristic revolutionary rhetoric to music. In the West the opposite was true: listeners appreciated the orchestral section but not the choral emotionalism that followed. While some Soviet critics acclaimed it at the time of the premiere, the Second Symphony did not attain lasting success.

Notable Recordings

Notable recordings of this symphony include:

Chorus	Orchestra	Conductor	Record Company	Year of Recording	Format
Brighton Festival Chorus	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...	Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian-Icelandic conductor and pianist. Since 1972 he has been a citizen of Iceland, his wife Þórunn's country of birth. Since 1978, because of his many obligations in Europe, he and his family have resided in Meggen, near Lucerne in Switzerland...	Decca Records Decca Records Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....	1992	CD
London Voices London Voices London Voices is a London-based choral ensemble led by Terry Edwards, who founded the ensemble in 1973...	London Symphony Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...	Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...	Teldec Teldec The Teldec is a German record label in Hamburg, Germany. Today the label is a property of Warner Music Group.-History:...	1993	CD
Bavarian Radio Chorus	Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, in German Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks is the internationally renowned orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk , based in Munich, Germany. It is one of the three principal orchestras in the city of Munich, along with the Munich Philharmonic...	Mariss Jansons Mariss Jansons Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons is a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, who was Jewish, gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga Ghetto...	EMI Classics EMI Classics EMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....	1994	CD
London Philharmonic Choir London Philharmonic Choir The London Philharmonic Choir is one of the leading independent British choirs in the United Kingdom based in London. The Patron is Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy and Sir Roger Norrington is President. The choir, comprising over 200 members, holds charitable status and is governed by a...	London Philharmonic Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...	Bernard Haitink Bernard Haitink Bernard Johan Herman Haitink, CH, KBE is a Dutch conductor and violinist.- Early life :Haitink was born in Amsterdam, the son of Willem Haitink and Anna Haitink. He studied music at the conservatoire in Amsterdam...	Decca Records Decca Records Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....		CD
Prague Philharmonic Chorus	Prague Symphony Orchestra Prague Symphony Orchestra The Prague Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1934 by Rudolf Pekárek. In the 1930s the orchestra performed the scores for many Czech films, and also appeared regularly on Czech radio. An early promoter of the orchestra was Dr...	Maxim Shostakovich Maxim Shostakovich Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich is a Russian conductor and pianist. He was the second child of Dmitri Shostakovich and Nina Varzar.Since 1975, he has conducted and popularised many of his father's lesser-known works....	Supraphon Supraphon Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, it is oriented mainly towards publishing classical music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers.- History :...		CD
Mariinsky Chorus	Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra The Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra or the Kirov Orchestra is located in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. The orchestra was founded in 1783 during the reign of Peter the Great, it was known before the revolution as the Russian Imperial Opera Orchestra...	Valery Gergiev Valery Gergiev Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...	Mariinsky	2010	SACD

Source: arkivmusic.com (recommended recordings selected based on critics reviews)

Sources

Stanley Sadie

Stanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...

Macmillan Publishers

Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...

|volume=Volume XVII: Schütz-Spinto |location=London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, United Kingdom |isbn=0333231112 |oclc=5676891 |pages=264, 266 }} |last1=Shostakovich |first1=Dmitri Dmitriyevich |authorlink1=Dmitri Shostakovich |last2=Glikman |first2=Isaak Davidovitch |title=Письма к другу (Pisʹma k drugu) |trans_title=Letters to a Friend |url= |format= |accessdate=16 September 2011 |year=1993 |publisher=DSCH |location=Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Russia |language=Russian |isbn=5852852317 |oclc=490559096 |page=278 }}

- |last1=Shostakovich |first1=Dmitri Dmitriyevich |authorlink1=Dmitri Shostakovich |last2=Bobykina |first2=I. |title=Письма к другу (Dmitriǐ Shostakovich : v pisʹmakh i dokumentakh) |trans_title=Letters to a Friend |url= |format= |accessdate=16 September 2011 |year=1993 |publisher=DSCH |location=Moscow
  Moscow
  Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
  
  , Russia |language=Russian |isbn=5852852317 |oclc=490559096 |page=115 }}

Records
|title=Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 |albumlink= |artist=Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...

and the London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...

Teldec

The Teldec is a German record label in Hamburg, Germany. Today the label is a property of Warner Music Group.-History:...

|publisherid=90853 |location=Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany |page=8 }}

- |title=Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 11 |albumlink= |artist=Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater Chorus and Orchestra |first=Leonid |last=Gakkel |authorlink= |coauthors=Alexander Bezymensky (text); Eyvor Fogarty, Anna Gunin, Mireille Ribière, and Ursula Wulfekamp (liner note translation) |year=2010 |format=SACD liner |publisher=Mariinsky |publisherid=MAR0507 |location=Saint Petersburg
  Saint Petersburg
  Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
  
  , Russia }}