Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)

After the persecutions of 1936 for the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and the ballet Svetly Ruchey , Shostakovich was under pressure. They demanded that he simplify his music and adapt it to the model of socialist realism. According to the official position, socialist realism in music suggested a monumental approach and sublime optimistic rhetoric. Shostakovich’s music was considered too complex technically, the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” was criticized in Pravda . At a meeting of the Union of Composers a week after this article, Lev Knipper , Boris Asafiev and Ivan Dzerzhinsky suggested helping the composer to take the right path.

Shostakovich created a new work with surprising depth and diversity, reflecting modern life. He reached a new height in his work, leaving descendants a time slice in the classical musical interpretation.

One piece of work written earlier was able to achieve this — Mahler’s Fourth Symphony . Mahler began his fourth symphony in the mode of childish simplicity, but later it became obvious that the first impression was deceptive. Shostakovich used a passage from Mahler in his symphony.

Four months after the Fourth Symphony, Shostakovich began writing the Fifth. The composer gave the symphony the subtitle "The response of the Soviet artist to fair criticism." This “answer” provided an example of heroic classicism . Shostakovich expanded his musical style, while strengthening the content and creating multidimensionality. He found a new musical language that he used in all the following years.

The first part (Moderato - Alegro non troppo, D minor , sonata form ) is a huge, detailed narrative, unfolding according to Shostakovich’s typical interpretation of the sonata form in symphonies. It opens with an interrogative, tense theme, imitating canonically in lower case, the distinguishing feature of which is the double dotted rhythm. The exhibition continues with an unstable, Faustian melody in a treble violin; the next enlightened side part is also played by the violins. The development leads to the invasion of hard, imperative intonations and rhythms, and as a result - to a significant increase and its culmination - the marching image of the mechanistic movement, in which brass instruments and rhythmic figure of the snare drum play the main role - thus, this episode can be considered a prototype the famous section from the first part of the Seventh Symphony . But the imperative image of the oppressive force gradually gives way to moods of reprise - interrogative intonations, “wandering” musical constructions return, the secondary party is already embodied in the canonical imitation of the flute and horn. The reprise of the part, the essence of which is the comprehension of the action that occurred in the development, ends with the first theme going up.

The second part (Allegretto, in A minor , complex three-part form ) is the scherzo. The first section begins cello and double basses ^[2] . The theme of the middle section ( C major ) is in the spirit of a simple street song, first it sounds at the solo violin, then the flute ^[3] . The reprise of the first section is somewhat modified and re-instrumented ^[4] .
The third movement (Largo, in F sharp minor , sonata form without elaboration ) is the emotional and tragic “center” of the symphony ^[4] . The piece begins with a quiet chorus of strings.
The finale (Allegro non troppo, D minor - D major , sonata form with an episode instead of elaboration ) begins with a shrill trill, and then with a bright, energetic theme in brass against the background of timpani ^[5] . The secondary part, noble and invocatory, first sounds at the solo pipe, and then at the string and wooden wind instruments with the accompaniment of pipes ^[6] . Not all interpretations of this part recognize its external optimism,

The symphony is written for orchestra and consists of: 2 flutes and piccolo flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets and a small clarinet, 2 bassoons and contraphoga, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tubas, timpani, snare, triangle, cymbals, bass drum , gong, bells, xylophone, 2 harps (one part), piano, celesta and strings.

Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony was an unprecedented triumph. The music met with a positive response from both official critics and the public. The authorities found everything they were looking for in the composer’s previous works. The public heard it as an expression of suffering. The symphony was his artistic image of the time in which it originated. Years later, the author responded as follows: “They ... put on masks ... Now everyone says:“ We didn’t know, we didn’t understand. We believed Stalin. We were deceived, oh, how cruelly we were deceived! “... I would never believe that those who did not understand could feel the Fifth Symphony” ^[1] .

• Lev Abramovich Mazel. Symphonies D.D. Shostakovich. Guide .. - Soviet composer, 1960.

• Information on Shostakovich's fifth symphony // cl.cam.ac.uk
• Sample recordings // npr.org
• Keeping Score: Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 // keepingscore.org