Shostakovich 9th: Hymn to Victory or Musical Snub?

[VIDEO IS DEAD] The Ninth Symphony of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was expected the be a big celebratory piece with a large orchestra, soloists, and chorus, a hymn to victory at the end of the Second World War. When it was premiered in November of 1945, what the audience got was something else. Instead of the ode to the triumph of the Soviet army over Nazi Germany, full of patriotic fervor, they heard a light-hearted piece with wit and perhaps, irony. Shostakovich had written two wartime symphonies earlier, the bombastic Seventh Symphony, "Leningrad" from 1941, the real "victory" symphony, since it portrays a positive outcome for the Soviet Union, and the utterly devastating Eighth Symphony from 1943, which is an unvarnished expression of the horrors of war. The Ninth (just consider the symbolic resonance of that number with Beethoven) was going to be the completion of a "War Trilogy," but no one expected this, a Haydnesque musical romp. Was it expressing relief that the war was finally over, or was it a direct snub aimed at Joseph Stalin? Shostakovich had been in trouble before with the Soviet censors, and would be again. His opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, had earned him official condemnation in 1936 for its "modernist tendancies," and it was his popular Symphony No. 5 the following year that returned him to favor. It is thought Joseph Stalin himself was involved in that censure. Not toeing the ideological party line was very dangerous in those times. People would disappear in the middle of the night. The Ninth Symphony was initially received warmly enough by many, even if some were puzzled by its "non serious" nature. But in a second pogrom against creativity in 1948 led by Andrey Zhdanov, the composer was again in the hot seat. Shostakovich survived this as well, and it's said that the second movement of the Tenth Symphony, which was first performed after Stalin's death, is a musical portrait of the dictator. Its a brutal scherzo, music of a wild and crazed nature. It's up to the listener to decide if the Ninth Symphony is a satirical piece or a serious ending for a "War Trilogy." This evening on Symphony at 7, you can hear a complete performance of this work, but here is a sample with Sir Georg Solti conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony: [youtube490 344] And for good measure, here is the scherzo from the Tenth Symphony performed by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel: [youtube490 344] --John Rittmeyer