Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 (titled Leningrad), was written c. 1939–40. Initially dedicated to the life and deeds of Vladimir Lenin, Shostakovich decided instead to dedicate the symphony to the city of Leningrad on its completion in December 1941. The work remains one of Shostakovich's best-known compositions.
The piece soon became very popular in both the Soviet Union and the West as a symbol of resistance to Nazitotalitarianism and militarism. It is still regarded as the major musical testament of the estimated 25 million Soviet citizens who lost their lives in World War II. The symphony is played frequently at the Leningrad Cemetery, where half a million victims of the 900-day Siege of Leningrad are buried. As a condemnation of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the work is particularly representative of the political responsibilities that Shostakovich felt he had for the state, regardless of the conflicts and criticisms he faced throughout his career with Soviet censors and Joseph Stalin.
Unlike its immediate predecessors, Henze has stated that this work is very much a 'German' symphony, in the Beethovenian tradition. Accordingly, it is cast in four movements and is broadly analogous to the 'classical' form: Introduction, slow movement, Scherzo and Finale. However Henze uses even more traditional German motifs across the movements: an allemande (a German dance) in the first and Liedform in the second. For the two final movements he focuses on the eighteenth-century poet Friedrich Hölderlin, incarcerated at Tübingen where he was subjected to what amounted to torture in the name of medical intervention. The final movement is a deeply lyrical orchestral setting of Hölderlin's late poem Hälfte des Lebens (Half of Life).
Performances
The premiere was given by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Gianluigi Gelmetti in 1984. In that performance the work took 46 minutes. Sir Simon Rattle's 1992 recording takes 38 minutes, and Marek Janowski's 2007 recording slightly under 35.
Piston's Seventh Symphony was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and was premiered by that orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy, on February 10, 1961. The symphony was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, which was the second time for Piston—his first was in 1948 for his Third Symphony(Archibald 1978, 266–67). It bears some resemblance to Piston's Three New England Sketches, composed in 1959, and for this reason as well as for parallels of structure has been compared to Beethoven'sPastorale Symphony (Pollack 1982, 133).
When Piston was composing his Seventh Symphony he took into account the particular sonic character of the Philadelphia Orchestra's rich string timbres, as well as the acoustics of the Philadelphia Academy of Music where it was to be premiered (Archibald 1978, 267).
The first movement begins with a large, soaring theme, featuring a propulsive rhythm in fast triple meter. The minor mode, forceful rhythms, and cumulative contrapuntal density in both the exposition and recapitulation lend this movement a vehemently passionate character. The second movement, Adagio pastorale, similarly is dominated by serious but not solemn broad melodies. The finale, as in Piston's other symphonies, is sunny and brilliant, including a passage of syncopated wind melodies accompanied by pianissimo percussion, and pizzicato strings, which recalls the scherzo of Piston's Sixth Symphony (Archibald 1978, 266).
Milhaud's Seventh Symphony has three movements and a total running time of about 20 minutes. The titles of the movements, as descriptive of their character as of tempo, are as follows:
The evening began with Shostakovich's Symphony No 9 in E-flat Major, Op 70, a lively and uncharacteristically lighthearted piece completed in 1945, which captures the euphoria at the end of World War II.
Which felt strange, he told the audience in SymphonyHall, where he was ...Brahms’s Piano Concerto No 1 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No 6 proved to be, while not exactly two sides of a coin, certainly.
“maybe the dingo ate your baby”; “no soup for you!”; “not that there’s anything wrong with that” and, of course, “yada, yada, yada.” ... In other words, it’s no wonder why this show sold out well in advance ...Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.
