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Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)
Encyclopedia
The Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, by Dmitri Shostakovich
is a work for orchestra composed between April and July 1937. Its first performance was on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad
by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky
. The premiere was a huge success, and received an ovation that lasted well over half an hour.
:
s and piccolo
, two oboe
s, two clarinet
s and E-flat clarinet
, two bassoon
s and contrabassoon
, four horns, three trumpet
s, three trombone
s, tuba
, timpani
, snare drum
, triangle
, cymbal
s, bass drum
, tam-tam
, glockenspiel
, xylophone
, two harp
s (one part), piano
, celesta
and strings
.
and the ballet The Limpid Stream, Shostakovich was under pressure to simplify his music and adapt it to classical models, heroic classicism being a prime characteristic of socialist realism
. An adequate portrayal of socialist realism in music meant a monumental approach and an exalted rhetoric based on optimism. Shostakovich's music was considered too complex, technically, to fall under the strictures of socialist realism. Lady Macbeth had been derided in Pravda as "a farrago of chaotic, nonsensical sounds." At the meeting of the Composers' Union
weeks after the Pravda article, Lev Knipper
, Boris Asafiev
and Ivan Dzerzhinsky
suggested that the composer should be helped to "straighten himself out." Essentially a non-person in an era of unprecedented state terrorism, Shostakovich appeared to have no choice but to comply.
Shostakovich sought the aid of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky
, one of the highest-ranking officers in the Red Army
and since 1925 a patron of the composer. However, the marshal himself became a victim, convicted on a trumped-up charge of treason and shot. Many of Shostakovich's friends and relatives were arrested and disappeared, and for a year the composer feared the same would happen to him. He completed his Fourth Symphony
in April but withdrew the work the following year while it was in rehearsal.
This was the situation Shostakovich faced in April 1937. If he were to do anything but yield to Party pressure, it would have to be subtle, as all eyes would be on him and whatever composition he wrote. His form of musical satire had been denounced and would not be tolerated so blatantly again. Falling back on venting his tragic side cautiously whilst otherwise toeing the line of socialist realism would amount to self-betrayal. He had to somehow turn the simplicity demanded by the authorities into a virtue, mocking it whilst in the process of turning it into great art.
One work, written 37 years earlier, had achieved this basic paradox
—Mahler
's Fourth Symphony
. Mahler began his Fourth in a mode of apparently childish simplicity, at which initial audiences scoffed. However, Mahler's development subsequently indicated to listeners that the first impression was deceptive. Shostakovich referred to this opening passage from Mahler in his own symphony. Mahler's Fourth starts with 24 F-sharps tapped in consort with sleighbells; the vaulting canon theme which comprises the first four bars of Shostakovich's Fifth descends to a motto rhythm of three repeated A
s on the violins. These As would become much more important later in the symphony.
Four months after he withdrew his Fourth Symphony, he began writing his Fifth. This work, he hoped, would mark his political rehabilitation, at least outwardly coming up to party expectations. It could pass for an example of the heroic classicism demanded by official policy. He showed the first movement to Tikhon Khrennikov, Aram Khachaturian, and Vissarian Shebalin in May, and the first two movements were performed in June for Nikolai Zhilyaev and Grigoriy Frid. In October, he and Nikita Bogoslovsky performed a four-handed piano arrangement, after which Yevgeniy Mravsky and Shostakovich began preparing for the orchestral premiere. Shostakovich slimmed down his musical style considerably from the superabundance of the Fourth, with less orchestral color and a smaller breadth of scope. With this scaling down also came a refinement of his pithiness and a deepening of ambiguity. More importantly, Shostakovich found a language through which he could speak with power and eloquence over the following three decades. Paul Bekker, in describing Mahler's works, called this power Gesellschaftbildende Kraft, or literally "community-moulding power." It is the power to weld an audience together, uplifting and moving them in a single emotion-controlled wave, sweeping aside all intellectual reservations.
The Symphony quotes Shostakovich's song Vozrozhdenije (Op. 46 No. 1, composed in 1936-37), most notably in the last movement, which uses a poem by Alexander Pushkin (find text and a translation here) that deals with the matter of rebirth. This song is by some considered to be a vital clue to the interpretation and understanding of the whole symphony. In addition, commentators have noted that Shostakovich incorporated a motif from the "Habanera
" from Bizet
's Carmen into the first movement, a reference to Shostakovich's earlier infatuation with a woman who refused his offer of marriage, and subsequently moved to Spain and married a man named Roman Carmen.
, recalls that certain authorities bristled at Mravinsky's gesture of lifting the score above his head to the cheering audience, and a subsequent performance was attended by two plainly hostile officials, V.N. Surin and Boris M. Yarustovsky, who tried to claim in the face of the vociferous ovation given the symphony that the audience was made up of "hand-picked" Shostakovich supporters. Yet the authorities in due course claimed that they found everything they had demanded of Shostakovich restored in the symphony. Meanwhile the public heard it as an expression of the suffering to which it had been subjected by Stalin. The same work was essentially received two different ways.
attack at that time on the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
, the political basis for extolling the Fifth Symphony was to show how the Party could make artists bow to its demands. It had to show that it could reward as easily and fully as it could punish.
The official tone toward the Fifth Symphony was further set by a review by Alexei Tolstoy
, who likened the symphony to the literary model of the Soviet Bildungsroman
describing "the formation of a personality"—in other words, of a Soviet personality. In the first movement, the composer-hero suffers a psychological crisis giving rise to a burst of energy. The second movement provides respite. In the third movement, the personality begins to form: "Here the personality submerges itself in the great epoch that surrounds it, and begins to resonate with the epoch." With the finale, Tolstoy wrote, came victory, "an enormous optimistic lift." As for the ecstatic reaction of the audience to the work, Tolstoy claimed it showed Shostakovich's perestroyka to be sincere. "Our audience is organically incapable of accepting decadent, gloomy, pessimistic art. Our audience responds enthusiastically to all that is bright, clear, joyous, optimistic, life-affirming."
Not everyone agreed with Tolstoy, even after another article reportedly by the composer echoed Tolstoy's views. Asafiev, for one, wrote, "This unsettled, sensitive, evocative music which inspires such gigantic conflict comes across as a true account of the problems facing modern man—not one individual or several, but mankind." The composer himself seemed to second this view long after the fact, in a conversation with author Chinghiz Aitmatov
in the late 1960s. "There are far more openings for new Shakespeares
in today's world," he said, "for never before in its development has mankind achieved such unanimity of spirit: so when another such artist appears, he will be able to express the whole world in himself, like a musician."
At the height of the Stalinist Terror
, over half a million people were shot and another seven million despatched to the Gulag
in just over a year's time. Conservative estimates place the Gulag population at between nine and 15 million.
During the first performance of the symphony, people were reported to have wept during the Largo movement. The music, steeped in an atmosphere of mourning, contained echoes of the panikhida
, the Russian Orthodox requiem
. It also recalled a genre of Russian symphonic works written in memory of the dead, including pieces by Glazunov
, Steinberg
, Rimsky-Korsakov
and Stravinsky
. Typical of these works is the use of the tremolo
in the strings as a reference to the hallowed ambience of the requiem.
For an audience that had lost friends and family on a massive scale, these references were apt to evoke intense emotions. This was why the Fifth Symphony was received and cherished by the Soviet public unlike any other work as an expression of the immeasurable grief they endured during Stalin's regime.
called the work "deep, meaningful, gripping music, classical in the integrity of its conception, perfect in form and the mastery of orchestral writing—music striking for its novelty and originality, but at the same time somehow hauntingly familiar, so truly and sincerely does it recount human feelings."
By simultaneously pleasing the authorities with the Fifth Symphony while giving the audience an outlet for their sorrow, Shostakovich showed how effectively he had mastered the essence of the Romantic symphony. Bruckner
and Mahler had developed the symphony into a genre working specific musical images and allusions into a network through which each listener could interpret and evaluate on personal grounds. This transcendence of concrete content allowed for varied—and opposing—readings of the musico-emotional content of a symphony while also rendering a definitive account of its meaning impossible. Shostakovich may owe his artistic survival to his mastery of this genre and its now-inherent blurring of boundaries. While satisfying the Soviet demand for monumentality and classicism, it left room for personal expression.
Western critics who heard the Fifth tended to belittle it as a concession to political pressure. It could be argued in retrospect that Shostakovich made no significant concession to authority in writing the Fifth, with the arguable exception of the bombast in the finale. Had the composer truly wanted to make concessions, he could have written a work closer in specifics to socialist realism, such as a programme symphony or a "song symphony." Instead, he challenged prevailing taste by writing an abstract work that simply avoided some of the excesses of his Fourth Symphony. In doing so, he made the new piece a better one by his own standards.
Shostakovich returned to the traditional four-movement form and a normal-sized orchestra. More tellingly, he organized each movement along clear lines, having concluded that a symphony cannot be a viable work without firm architecture. The harmonic idiom in the Fifth is less astringent, more tonal than previously, and the thematic material is more accessible. Nevertheless, every bar bears its composer's personal imprint. It has been said that, in the Fifth Symphony, the best qualities of Shostakovich's music, such as meditation, humor and grandeur, blend in perfect balance and self-fulfillment.
to be a parody of shrillness, representing "forced rejoicing". In the words attributed to the composer:
This is symbolized by the repeated "A"'s at the end of the final movement in the string and upper woodwind sections. It includes a quotation from the composer's song "Rebirth", accompanying the words "A barbarian painter" who "blackens the genius's painting". In the song, the barbarian's paint falls away and the original painting is reborn. It has been suggested that the barbarian and the genius are Stalin
and Shostakovich respectively. The work is largely sombre despite the composer's official claim that he wished to write a positive work.
Though impossible to confirm, it seems evident in many passages that Shostakovich did not intend to compose a mindless triumphant symphony in an attempt to reenter the Russian music scene with the approval of the Stalinist regime. The march in the first movement is more of a parody of marching than one that draws the feet to tap the beat. The third movement is invariably sad, nostalgic and haunting rather than depicting the struggle of the working class or other progressive ideas. The fourth movement also introduces one of the only themes not based on the first two themes of the opening movement, drawn from a previous composition about an artist being criticised and the final moments of the symphony seem disguised.
While most performances and recordings of the symphony have ended with a gradual acceleration of the coda, especially Leonard Bernstein
's October 1959 Columbia Records
recording with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (following a performance in Moscow in the presence of the composer), more recent renditions have reflected Shostakovich's true attitude. Shostakovich's friend and colleague Mstislav Rostropovich
conducted the closing minutes in a much slower, subdued manner, never accelerating; he did this in a performance in Russia with the National Symphony Orchestra
and in their commercial Teldec
recording. He told CBS that Shostakovich had written a "hidden message" in the symphony, which is supported by the composer's words in Testimony.
Nowadays, it is one of his most popular symphonies.
(1) = recorded live at Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo, Japan
(2) = recorded live in Tokyo
(3) = recorded live in Birmingham
(4) = recorded live at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London
Source: arkivmusic.com (recommended recordings selected based on critics reviews)
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
is a work for orchestra composed between April and July 1937. Its first performance was on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad
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...
by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky
Evgeny Mravinsky
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Mravinsky was a Russian/Soviet conductor.-Life and career:Mravinsky was born in Saint Petersburg. The soprano Yevgeniya Mravina was his aunt. His father died in 1918, and in that same year, he began to work backstage at the Mariinsky Theatre. He first studied biology at...
. The premiere was a huge success, and received an ovation that lasted well over half an hour.
Form
The symphony is approximately 45 minutes in length and has four movementsMovement (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...
:
- Moderato
- The symphony opens with a strenuous string figure in canonCanon (music)In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
, initially leaping and falling in minor sixthMinor sixth-Subminor sixth:In music, a subminor sixth or septimal sixth is an interval that is noticeably narrower than a minor sixth but noticeably wider than a diminished sixth.The sub-minor sixth is an interval of a 14:9 ratio or alternately 11:7....
s then narrowing to minor thirdMinor thirdIn classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...
s. The sharply dotted rhythm of this figure remains to accompany a broadly lyric melody played by the first violins. Variants of this theme return throughout the 3rd and 4th movements. The second theme is built out of octaves and sevenths. Whereas the first theme is based on a sharp dotted rhythm, the second relies on a static long-short-short pattern. With that is found all the musical material for this movement—one that is tremendously varied, its climax harsh. The coda, with the gentle friction of minor in strings against chromatic scales in celesta, ends on a note of haunting ambiguity.
- The symphony opens with a strenuous string figure in canon
- Allegretto
- The opening motif in this waltz-like scherzo is a variation of the first theme of the first movement; other variations can be detected throughout the movement. The music remains a witty, biting satire—gay, raucous while also nervous, its energies playfully discharged in an episode of comic relief with its roots in ProkofievSergei ProkofievSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
and especially MahlerGustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
.
- The opening motif in this waltz-like scherzo is a variation of the first theme of the first movement; other variations can be detected throughout the movement. The music remains a witty, biting satire—gay, raucous while also nervous, its energies playfully discharged in an episode of comic relief with its roots in Prokofiev
- Largo
- After the assertive trumpets of the first movement and the raucous horns of the second, this movement uses no brass at all. The strings are divided throughout the entire movement (3 groups of violins, violas in 2, cellos in 2; the basses remain unison). Shostakovich fills this movement with beautiful, long melodies—one of them again based on the first theme of the first movement—punctuating them with intermezzi of solo woodwinds. Harp and celesta play prominent roles here as well. The music is emotive and even elegiac in tone; it returns to the sober mood which the scherzo interrupts.
- Allegro non troppo
- This movement, in an abbreviated sonata-allegro form, picks up the march music from the climax of the opening movement, at least in manner if not in specific material. A tense conclusion leads to the quieter section of the piece. This section ends and the short snare drum and timpani solo introduces a brief militaristic introduction to the finale of the movement—an extended and obsessive reiteration of the D majorD majorD major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
tonality.
- This movement, in an abbreviated sonata-allegro form, picks up the march music from the climax of the opening movement, at least in manner if not in specific material. A tense conclusion leads to the quieter section of the piece. This section ends and the short snare drum and timpani solo introduces a brief militaristic introduction to the finale of the movement—an extended and obsessive reiteration of the D major
Instrumentation
The work is scored for two fluteFlute
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 and 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...
, two 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, two 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 and E-flat clarinet
E-flat clarinet
The E-flat clarinet is a member of the clarinet family. It is usually classed as a soprano clarinet, although some authors describe it as a "sopranino" or even "piccolo" clarinet. Smaller in size and higher in pitch than the more common B clarinet, it is a transposing instrument in E, sounding a...
, two 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 and contrabassoon
Contrabassoon
The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon or double-bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower...
, four horns, three 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, three 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...
, 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...
, triangle
Triangle (instrument)
The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...
, cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s, 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...
, tam-tam
Gong
A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....
, 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...
, xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
, two harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
s (one part), piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, celesta
Celesta
The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
and strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
.
Composition
After his fall from favour in 1936 over the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk DistrictLady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is an opera in four acts by Dmitri Shostakovich, his Op.29. The libretto was written by Alexander Preis and the composer, and is based on the story Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. The opera is sometimes referred to informally as Lady Macbeth...
and the ballet The Limpid Stream, Shostakovich was under pressure to simplify his music and adapt it to classical models, heroic classicism being a prime characteristic of socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
. An adequate portrayal of socialist realism in music meant a monumental approach and an exalted rhetoric based on optimism. Shostakovich's music was considered too complex, technically, to fall under the strictures of socialist realism. Lady Macbeth had been derided in Pravda as "a farrago of chaotic, nonsensical sounds." At the meeting of the Composers' Union
Union of Soviet Composers
The USSR Union of Composers or Union of Composers of the USSR , , was a professional organisation of composers in the Soviet Union...
weeks after the Pravda article, Lev Knipper
Lev Knipper
Lev Konstantinovich Knipper , a Russian composer of partially German descent and an active OGPU - NKVD agent.Lev Knipper was the nephew of the actress Olga Knipper...
, Boris Asafiev
Boris Asafiev
Boris Vladimirovich Asafyev was a Russian and Soviet composer, writer, musicologist, musical critic and one of founders of Soviet musicology.Asafyev had a strong influence on Soviet music. His compositions include ballets, operas, symphonies, concertos and chamber music...
and Ivan Dzerzhinsky
Ivan Dzerzhinsky
Ivan Ivanovich Dzerzhinsky was a Russian composer. He is notable in that the work for which he best known, his opera Quiet Flows the Don , was more successful for its political potential than for any musical distinction.-Personal life and career:Born in Tambov, Dzerzhinsky had an extended formal...
suggested that the composer should be helped to "straighten himself out." Essentially a non-person in an era of unprecedented state terrorism, Shostakovich appeared to have no choice but to comply.
Shostakovich sought the aid of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander in chief of the Red Army , and one of the most prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.-Early life:...
, one of the highest-ranking officers in the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
and since 1925 a patron of the composer. However, the marshal himself became a victim, convicted on a trumped-up charge of treason and shot. Many of Shostakovich's friends and relatives were arrested and disappeared, and for a year the composer feared the same would happen to him. He completed his Fourth Symphony
Symphony No. 4 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Opus 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material...
in April but withdrew the work the following year while it was in rehearsal.
This was the situation Shostakovich faced in April 1937. If he were to do anything but yield to Party pressure, it would have to be subtle, as all eyes would be on him and whatever composition he wrote. His form of musical satire had been denounced and would not be tolerated so blatantly again. Falling back on venting his tragic side cautiously whilst otherwise toeing the line of socialist realism would amount to self-betrayal. He had to somehow turn the simplicity demanded by the authorities into a virtue, mocking it whilst in the process of turning it into great art.
One work, written 37 years earlier, had achieved this basic paradox
Paradox
Similar to Circular reasoning, A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition...
—Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Fourth Symphony
Symphony No. 4 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1899 and 1901, though it incorporates a song originally written in 1892. The song, "Das himmlische Leben", presents a child's vision of Heaven. It is sung by a soprano in the work's fourth and last movement...
. Mahler began his Fourth in a mode of apparently childish simplicity, at which initial audiences scoffed. However, Mahler's development subsequently indicated to listeners that the first impression was deceptive. Shostakovich referred to this opening passage from Mahler in his own symphony. Mahler's Fourth starts with 24 F-sharps tapped in consort with sleighbells; the vaulting canon theme which comprises the first four bars of Shostakovich's Fifth descends to a motto rhythm of three repeated A
A (musical note)
La or A is the sixth note of the solfège. "A" is generally used as a standard for tuning. When the orchestra tunes, the oboe plays an "A" and the rest of the instruments tune to match that pitch. Every string instrument in the orchestra has an A string, from which each player can tune the rest of...
s on the violins. These As would become much more important later in the symphony.
Four months after he withdrew his Fourth Symphony, he began writing his Fifth. This work, he hoped, would mark his political rehabilitation, at least outwardly coming up to party expectations. It could pass for an example of the heroic classicism demanded by official policy. He showed the first movement to Tikhon Khrennikov, Aram Khachaturian, and Vissarian Shebalin in May, and the first two movements were performed in June for Nikolai Zhilyaev and Grigoriy Frid. In October, he and Nikita Bogoslovsky performed a four-handed piano arrangement, after which Yevgeniy Mravsky and Shostakovich began preparing for the orchestral premiere. Shostakovich slimmed down his musical style considerably from the superabundance of the Fourth, with less orchestral color and a smaller breadth of scope. With this scaling down also came a refinement of his pithiness and a deepening of ambiguity. More importantly, Shostakovich found a language through which he could speak with power and eloquence over the following three decades. Paul Bekker, in describing Mahler's works, called this power Gesellschaftbildende Kraft, or literally "community-moulding power." It is the power to weld an audience together, uplifting and moving them in a single emotion-controlled wave, sweeping aside all intellectual reservations.
The Symphony quotes Shostakovich's song Vozrozhdenije (Op. 46 No. 1, composed in 1936-37), most notably in the last movement, which uses a poem by Alexander Pushkin (find text and a translation here) that deals with the matter of rebirth. This song is by some considered to be a vital clue to the interpretation and understanding of the whole symphony. In addition, commentators have noted that Shostakovich incorporated a motif from the "Habanera
Habanera (aria)
In the form of habanera, there is a famous aria from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. It is sometimes referred to as "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle." . Its score was adapted from the habanera "El Arreglito," originally composed by the Spanish musician Sebastián Yradier...
" from Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen into the first movement, a reference to Shostakovich's earlier infatuation with a woman who refused his offer of marriage, and subsequently moved to Spain and married a man named Roman Carmen.
Reception
With the Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich gained an unprecedented triumph, with the music appealing equally—and remarkably—to both the public and official critics, though the overwhelming public response to the work initially aroused suspicions among certain officials. The then head of the Leningrad Philharmonic, Mikhail ChulakiMikhail Chulaki
Mikhail Ivanovich Chulaki was a Soviet composer and teacher.He studied under the composer Vladimir Shcherbachov at the Leningrad Conservatory, graduating in 1931. He held administrative and teaching positions, including at the Leningrad Conservatory and taught composition at the Moscow...
, recalls that certain authorities bristled at Mravinsky's gesture of lifting the score above his head to the cheering audience, and a subsequent performance was attended by two plainly hostile officials, V.N. Surin and Boris M. Yarustovsky, who tried to claim in the face of the vociferous ovation given the symphony that the audience was made up of "hand-picked" Shostakovich supporters. Yet the authorities in due course claimed that they found everything they had demanded of Shostakovich restored in the symphony. Meanwhile the public heard it as an expression of the suffering to which it had been subjected by Stalin. The same work was essentially received two different ways.
Official
An article reportedly written by the composer appeared in the Moscow newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva a few days before the premiere of the Fifth Symphony. There, he reportedly states that the work "is a Soviet artist’s creative response to justified criticism." Whether Shostakovich or someone more closely connected with the Party actually wrote the article is open to question, but the phrase "justified criticism"—a reference to the denunciation of the composer in 1936—is especially telling. Official critics treated the work as a turnaround in its composer's career, a personal perestroyka or "restructuring" by the composer, with the Party engineering Shostakovich's rehabilitation as carefully as it had his fall a couple of years earlier. Like the PravdaPravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
attack at that time on the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is an opera in four acts by Dmitri Shostakovich, his Op.29. The libretto was written by Alexander Preis and the composer, and is based on the story Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. The opera is sometimes referred to informally as Lady Macbeth...
, the political basis for extolling the Fifth Symphony was to show how the Party could make artists bow to its demands. It had to show that it could reward as easily and fully as it could punish.
The official tone toward the Fifth Symphony was further set by a review by Alexei Tolstoy
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy , nicknamed the Comrade Count, was a Russian and Soviet writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels...
, who likened the symphony to the literary model of the Soviet Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
describing "the formation of a personality"—in other words, of a Soviet personality. In the first movement, the composer-hero suffers a psychological crisis giving rise to a burst of energy. The second movement provides respite. In the third movement, the personality begins to form: "Here the personality submerges itself in the great epoch that surrounds it, and begins to resonate with the epoch." With the finale, Tolstoy wrote, came victory, "an enormous optimistic lift." As for the ecstatic reaction of the audience to the work, Tolstoy claimed it showed Shostakovich's perestroyka to be sincere. "Our audience is organically incapable of accepting decadent, gloomy, pessimistic art. Our audience responds enthusiastically to all that is bright, clear, joyous, optimistic, life-affirming."
Not everyone agreed with Tolstoy, even after another article reportedly by the composer echoed Tolstoy's views. Asafiev, for one, wrote, "This unsettled, sensitive, evocative music which inspires such gigantic conflict comes across as a true account of the problems facing modern man—not one individual or several, but mankind." The composer himself seemed to second this view long after the fact, in a conversation with author Chinghiz Aitmatov
Chinghiz Aitmatov
Chyngyz Aitmatov was a Soviet and Kyrgyz author who wrote in both Russian and Kyrgyz. He was the best known figure in Kyrgyzstan's literature.- Life :...
in the late 1960s. "There are far more openings for new Shakespeares
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
in today's world," he said, "for never before in its development has mankind achieved such unanimity of spirit: so when another such artist appears, he will be able to express the whole world in himself, like a musician."
Public
To fully understand the public success of the Fifth Symphony and how it resonated with audiences, musicologist Genrikh Orlov argues that the music has to be seen as an artistic portrayal of the time in which it originated. Shostakovich grew in the years preceding the symphony as both a master and a thinking artist-citizen. He did so together with his country and people, sharing their hopes, aspirations and fate, intensely scrutinizing everything going on around him.At the height of the Stalinist Terror
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, over half a million people were shot and another seven million despatched to the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
in just over a year's time. Conservative estimates place the Gulag population at between nine and 15 million.
During the first performance of the symphony, people were reported to have wept during the Largo movement. The music, steeped in an atmosphere of mourning, contained echoes of the panikhida
Memorial service (Orthodox)
A memorial service is a liturgical observance in honor of the departed which is served in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches.-The service:In the Eastern Church, the various prayers for the departed have as their purpose: to pray for the repose...
, the Russian Orthodox requiem
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
. It also recalled a genre of Russian symphonic works written in memory of the dead, including pieces by Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
, Steinberg
Maximilian Steinberg
Maximilian Osseyevich Steinberg was a Russian composer of classical music born in what is now Lithuania.-Life:...
, Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
and Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
. Typical of these works is the use of the tremolo
Tremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
in the strings as a reference to the hallowed ambience of the requiem.
For an audience that had lost friends and family on a massive scale, these references were apt to evoke intense emotions. This was why the Fifth Symphony was received and cherished by the Soviet public unlike any other work as an expression of the immeasurable grief they endured during Stalin's regime.
Symphony as artistic salvation
After the symphony had been performed in Moscow, Heinrich NeuhausHeinrich Neuhaus
Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus was a Soviet pianist and pedagogue of German extraction. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. He was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1956...
called the work "deep, meaningful, gripping music, classical in the integrity of its conception, perfect in form and the mastery of orchestral writing—music striking for its novelty and originality, but at the same time somehow hauntingly familiar, so truly and sincerely does it recount human feelings."
By simultaneously pleasing the authorities with the Fifth Symphony while giving the audience an outlet for their sorrow, Shostakovich showed how effectively he had mastered the essence of the Romantic symphony. Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
and Mahler had developed the symphony into a genre working specific musical images and allusions into a network through which each listener could interpret and evaluate on personal grounds. This transcendence of concrete content allowed for varied—and opposing—readings of the musico-emotional content of a symphony while also rendering a definitive account of its meaning impossible. Shostakovich may owe his artistic survival to his mastery of this genre and its now-inherent blurring of boundaries. While satisfying the Soviet demand for monumentality and classicism, it left room for personal expression.
Western critics who heard the Fifth tended to belittle it as a concession to political pressure. It could be argued in retrospect that Shostakovich made no significant concession to authority in writing the Fifth, with the arguable exception of the bombast in the finale. Had the composer truly wanted to make concessions, he could have written a work closer in specifics to socialist realism, such as a programme symphony or a "song symphony." Instead, he challenged prevailing taste by writing an abstract work that simply avoided some of the excesses of his Fourth Symphony. In doing so, he made the new piece a better one by his own standards.
Shostakovich returned to the traditional four-movement form and a normal-sized orchestra. More tellingly, he organized each movement along clear lines, having concluded that a symphony cannot be a viable work without firm architecture. The harmonic idiom in the Fifth is less astringent, more tonal than previously, and the thematic material is more accessible. Nevertheless, every bar bears its composer's personal imprint. It has been said that, in the Fifth Symphony, the best qualities of Shostakovich's music, such as meditation, humor and grandeur, blend in perfect balance and self-fulfillment.
Post-Testimony response
The finale of the Fifth Symphony, which has been called grandiose, has remained the topic of continual discussion revolving around the question, "Is it a Stalinist victory hymn or is it a parody of one?" If it were meant as a parody, the bombast of the coda would have to be deliberately pitched so it would sound ridiculous; this would underline the hypocrisy of the apparent tribute. However, this final movement, often being criticized for sounding shrill, is declared in TestimonyTestimony (book)
Testimony is a book that was published in October 1979 by the Russian musicologist Solomon Volkov. He claimed that it was the memoirs of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
to be a parody of shrillness, representing "forced rejoicing". In the words attributed to the composer:
This is symbolized by the repeated "A"'s at the end of the final movement in the string and upper woodwind sections. It includes a quotation from the composer's song "Rebirth", accompanying the words "A barbarian painter" who "blackens the genius's painting". In the song, the barbarian's paint falls away and the original painting is reborn. It has been suggested that the barbarian and the genius are 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...
and Shostakovich respectively. The work is largely sombre despite the composer's official claim that he wished to write a positive work.
Though impossible to confirm, it seems evident in many passages that Shostakovich did not intend to compose a mindless triumphant symphony in an attempt to reenter the Russian music scene with the approval of the Stalinist regime. The march in the first movement is more of a parody of marching than one that draws the feet to tap the beat. The third movement is invariably sad, nostalgic and haunting rather than depicting the struggle of the working class or other progressive ideas. The fourth movement also introduces one of the only themes not based on the first two themes of the opening movement, drawn from a previous composition about an artist being criticised and the final moments of the symphony seem disguised.
While most performances and recordings of the symphony have ended with a gradual acceleration of the coda, especially Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's October 1959 Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
recording with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (following a performance in Moscow in the presence of the composer), more recent renditions have reflected Shostakovich's true attitude. Shostakovich's friend and colleague 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...
conducted the closing minutes in a much slower, subdued manner, never accelerating; he did this in a performance in Russia with the National Symphony Orchestra
National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra , founded in 1931, is an American symphony orchestra that performs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.-History:...
and in their commercial Teldec
Teldec
The Teldec is a German record label in Hamburg, Germany. Today the label is a property of Warner Music Group.-History:...
recording. He told CBS that Shostakovich had written a "hidden message" in the symphony, which is supported by the composer's words in Testimony.
Nowadays, it is one of his most popular symphonies.
Notable recordings
Notable recordings of this symphony include:| Orchestra | Conductor | Record Company | Year of Recording | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Philharmonic New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"... |
Dimitri Mitropoulos | Urania | 1952 | CD |
| New York Philharmonic New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"... |
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim... |
Sony Classical | 1959 | CD |
| Hallé Orchestra | Sir John Barbirolli | BBC Legends BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff... |
1966 | CD |
| Philadelphia Orchestra Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900... |
Eugene Ormandy Eugene Ormandy Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five... |
RCA Victor Red Seal | 1975 | CD |
| Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival... |
André Previn André Previn André George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in... |
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.... |
1977 | CD |
| New York Philharmonic New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"... |
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim... |
Sony Classical | 1979(1) | CD |
| Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra | Evgeny Mravinsky Evgeny Mravinsky Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Mravinsky was a Russian/Soviet conductor.-Life and career:Mravinsky was born in Saint Petersburg. The soprano Yevgeniya Mravina was his aunt. His father died in 1918, and in that same year, he began to work backstage at the Mariinsky Theatre. He first studied biology at... |
Erato Records Erato Records Erato Records is a record label founded in 1953 to promote French classical music. In 1992 it became part of Warner Bros. Records. In 1999 Erato launched a subsidiary Detour Records.... |
1987 | CD |
| 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.... |
1987 | CD |
| Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra The Vienna Philharmonic is an orchestra in Austria, regularly considered one of the finest in the world.... |
Sir Georg Solti | 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.... |
1993 | CD |
| Philadelphia Orchestra Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900... |
Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.-Childhood and education:... |
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.... |
1993 | CD |
| National Symphony Orchestra National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra , founded in 1931, is an American symphony orchestra that performs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.-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:... |
1994 | CD |
| 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"... |
Sir Charles Mackerras | Royal Philharmonic | 1994 | CD |
| 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 :... |
1996 | CD |
| Philharmonia Orchestra Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke... |
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... |
Signum UK | 2001(2) | CD |
| Kirov 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,... |
Philips Classics | 2002 | CD |
| 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... |
LSO Live | 2004 | CD |
| 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... |
Kurt Masur Kurt Masur Kurt Masur is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.- Biography :Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times... |
LPO | 2004 | CD |
| St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra The Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra was formed in 1882 and is Russia's oldest symphony orchestra.It was initially known as the "Imperial Music Choir" and performed privately for the court of Alexander III of Russia. By the 1900s it had started to give public performances at the... |
Yuri Temirkanov Yuri Temirkanov Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov is a Russian conductor of Circassian origin.Yuri Temirkanov has been the Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic since 1988.-Early life:... |
Warner Classics | 2005(3) | CD |
| Russian National Orchestra Russian National Orchestra The Russian National Orchestra premiered in Moscow in 1990.It was the first Russian orchestra to perform at the Apostolic Palace, Vatican and in Israel.... |
Yakov Kreizberg Yakov Kreizberg - In the Soviet Union :Yakov Kreizberg was born in Leningrad. He began studying piano at age 5. He attended the Glinka Choir School, where he began composing at age 13 and studied conducting with Ilya Musin. "Musin had an incredible system" Kreizberg recalled... |
Pentatone | 2006 | CD |
| Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a symphony orchestra of the Netherlands, based at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1988, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands conferred the "Royal" title upon the orchestra... |
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 | |
| Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Atlanta Symphony Orchestra The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Robert Spano has been its music director since 2001... |
Yoel Levi Yoel Levi Yoel Levi is a musician and conductor. Born in Romania, he grew up in Israel. He studied at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, earning a Master of Arts degree with distinction. He also studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music under Mendi Rodan. Levi won the 1978 International Besançon Competition... |
Telarc | CD | |
| Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi The Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi is an Italian orchestra based in Milan. The orchestra refers to itself as La Verdi colloquially. The orchestra's primary residence is the Auditorium di Milano Fondazione Cariplo.-History:Vladimir Delman founded the orchestra in 1993 as an... |
Oleg Caetani Oleg Caetani Oleg Caetani is a conductor of Ukrainian and Italian descent. He is the son of Igor Markevitch and Donna Topazia Caetani, Markevitch's second wife, who is descended from a Roman family that included the early 14th-century Pope Boniface VIII. Caetani has chosen to use his mother's family name to... |
Arts Music | CD | |
| Vienna Symphony Orchestra Vienna Symphony Orchestra -History:In 1900, Ferdinand Löwe founded the orchestra as the Wiener Concertverein . In 1913 it moved into the Konzerthaus, Vienna. In 1919 it merged with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. In 1933 it acquired its current name... |
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.... |
CD | |
| BBC National Orchestra of Wales BBC National Orchestra of Wales The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is a Welsh symphony orchestra and one of the BBC's five professional orchestras. The BBC NOW is the only professional symphony orchestra organisation in Wales, occupying a dual role as both a broadcasting orchestra and national orchestra.The BBC NOW has its... |
Mark Wigglesworth Mark Wigglesworth Mark Wigglesworth is a British conductor. Wigglesworth has served as associate conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, as musical director of the Opera Factory of London, and music director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales... |
BIS Records BIS Records BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden.BIS focuses on classical music, both contemporary and early, especially works that are not already well represented by existing recordings.... |
CD | |
| Berlin Symphony Orchestra Berlin Symphony Orchestra The Konzerthausorchester Berlin is a symphony orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. The orchestra is resident at the Konzerthaus Berlin, designed by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel... |
Kurt Sanderling Kurt Sanderling Kurt Sanderling, CBE was a German conductor.-Biography:Kurt Sanderling was born in Arys, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire to Jewish parents. After early work at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he left for the Soviet Union in 1936, where he worked with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra... |
Berlin Classics | CD | |
| Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society is a society based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, that organises concerts and other events mainly in the field of classical music. The society is the second oldest of its type in the United Kingdom and its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic... |
Vasily Petrenko Vasily Petrenko Vasily Petrenko is a Russian conductor. He attended the Capella Boys Music School and the St Petersburg Conservatoire. He studied conducting with Ilya Musin, and later under the tutelage of Mariss Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He was resident conductor at the St. Petersburg... |
Naxos Records Naxos Records Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest... |
CD | |
| San Francisco Symphony San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization... |
Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:... |
SFS | CD | |
| San Francisco Symphony San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization... |
Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:... |
SFS | (4) | DVD |
(1) = recorded live at Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo, Japan
(2) = recorded live in Tokyo
(3) = recorded live in Birmingham
(4) = recorded live at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London
Source: arkivmusic.com (recommended recordings selected based on critics reviews)
Sources
- Blokker, Roy, with Robert Dearling, The Music of Dmitri Shostakovich: The Symphonies (Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1979). ISBN 0-8386-1948-7.
- MacDonald, Ian, The New Shostakovich (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990). ISBN 1-55553-089-3.
- Maes, Francis, tr. Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2002). ISBN 0-520-21815-9.
- Rothstein, Edward, "A Labour of Love," Independent Magazine, November 12, 1968, 49-52.
- Schwarz, Boris, Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia: Enlarged Edition, 1917-1981 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983). ISBN 0-253-33956-1.
- Schwarz, Boris, ed. Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: MacMillan, 1980), 20 vols. ISBN 0-333-23111-2.
- Sollertinsky, Dmitri & Ludmilla, tr. Graham Hobbs & Charles Midgley, Pages from the Life of Dmitri Shostakovich (New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980). ISBN 0-15-170730-8.
- Steinberg, MichaelMichael Steinberg (music critic)Michael Steinberg was an American music critic, musicologist, and writer. Born in Breslau, Germany , Steinberg left Germany as one of the Kindertransport child refugees...
, The Symphony: A Listener's Guide (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). ISBN 0-19-512665-3. - Volkov, Solomon, tr. Antonina W. Bouis, Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich (New York: Harper & Row, 1979). ISBN 0-06-014476-9.
- Volkov, Solomon, Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator (London: Little, Brown, 2004). ISBN 0-316-86141-3.
- Wilson, Elizabeth, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (Princeton University Press, 1994). ISBN 0-691-04465-1.
- Wilson, Elizabeth, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (London: Faber & Faber, 2006). ISBN 0-571-22050-9.
External links
- Sample recordings of the first and second movements by the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting.
- Keeping Score: Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 Multimedia website produced by the San Francisco SymphonySan Francisco SymphonyThe San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
- PBS Video: (Full Episode) Publicly condemned Shostakovich's 5th Symphony saved his life. Was there a hidden meaning