Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47
I. Moderato
II. Allegretto
III. Largo
IV. Allegro non troppo

In 1934 the young Shostakovich was a brilliant star in the firmament of Soviet music. He had just capped his career to date with his first major opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. It was a stunning success, and over the next two years was staged in both Moscow and Leningrad. It ran for 83 performances just in Leningrad, many of them totally sold out, and received six (!) radio broadcasts. Shostakovich was ecstatic: he had finally gained the national recognition he craved. On 26th January 1936 Joseph Stalin, the Communist Party leader himself, attended a performance in Moscow …

… and two days later, the thunderbolt fell. An unsigned editorial in Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, blasted the opera as "Muddle instead of Music". It described the opera as "a deliberately dissonant, muddled stream of sounds … a din, a grinding, a squealing …. The music quacks, hoots, pants and gasps.". The editorial ended with a thinly veiled threat: "This is a game that may end very badly." As if this was not clear enough, barely a week later another Pravda editorial severely criticised some of Shostakovich's recent ballet music. We can only assume that this criticism came directly from Stalin, presumably jealous of Shostakovich's popular success. The composer's name virtually disappeared from concert programmes, and he withdrew his fourth symphony shortly before its planned premiere late in 1936. (It was not heard until 1960).

And then as 1936 moved into 1937 the "Yezhov Terror", first of Stalin's great purges, gained momentum. It was a time of knocks on the door in the night, arrests, show trials, disappearances and executions. Many millions of people fell victim, including several Shostakovich knew well. Most famously, in May 1937 Marshall Tukhachevsky, a high ranking Red Army commander who was also a close friend and supporter of the composer, was arrested, accused of Treason, tried and shot.

It was in this terrifying atmosphere that Shostakovich wrote his fifth symphony. He wrote it rapidly in the summer of 1937, and it was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky. The significance of the occasion was obvious to everyone; Shostakovich's career - and possibly life - was at stake.

In the event, the triumph was total. A friend later recalled that, as the Largo unfolded, both men and women were weeping openly. And that well before the end, the whole audience was on its feet, and gave Mravinsky and Shostakovich a deafening ovation. Popular success was no guarantee of rehabilitation with the authorities - potentially quite the opposite - and it was only after a few months that Shostakovich felt sure he was safe - for the time being.

Incidentally, it is not true (as often stated) that the symphony is subtitled "A Soviet Artist's Reply to Just Criticism". This remark was made by a Soviet critic at the time, but was never appended to the score. Indeed, Shostakovich said to many friends that he never accepted the Pravda criticisms as valid.

The symphony is in the usual four movements, and the orchestral writing is always clear, even in the biggest climaxes, allowing the relationships between the many themes to be heard quite clearly.

The jagged opening motto subsides after a few bars, and then accompanies the violins in the long and winding principal theme of the movement. Soon a second theme appears, calm and ethereal, again on violins and supported by a lilting rhythmic figure. The development section starts as a march, based on the first theme low on the horns, accompanied by piano and lower strings. This section is reminiscent of Mahler, and works up more and more violently, until the jagged opening motto threatens to tear the whole fabric apart, while the second theme is no longer calm but threatening and aggressive on the brass. The climax is a restatement of the main theme in unison for the whole orchestra, fortissimo. Once this collapses exhausted, the movement gradually unwinds, and ends bleakly with a lonely celeste.

The second movement is a sardonic scherzo; Mahler would have called it a Ländler. The middle section employs a tipsy-sounding violin solo, while the third section is an exact repeat of the first, though orchestrated very differently.

The largo is the spiritual heart of the symphony. It is a mourning piece, a lament, in which the brass are silent and the strings are divided into eight parts throughout. It begins in the strings, rich and sorrowful, with a central section for flutes and harp. Then the grieving becomes more personal as oboe, then clarinet, then flute sing a sad lament accompanied by tremolo strings. This is the movement that caused such public emotion at the premiere in Leningrad - after all, many of the audience had lost friends and relatives in the terror. The pain becomes agonising when the cellos take over the melody fortissimo, supported by upper strings, clarinets and barking double basses. The last notes, though in the major key, suggest emptiness rather than comfort.

The brass and percussion, having been silent in the Largo, shatter the mood with a ferocious march. This is constantly loud, and seems to get ever faster. When this finally relents, it allows a long, thoughtful, quiet section to consider themes which are clearly related to those from the first movement. This sections ends in consoling beauty, but gives way to a restatement of the opening march, slower and more threatening (notice the ominous low horn notes). This eventually heaves itself out of D minor and into D major for the closing coda - though any feeling of joy is very strained, both by the dissonant trumpets, and the relentless battering of the timpani.