Symphony No. 4 (Shostakovich)

Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43, by Dmitri Shostakovich was first played by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra on 30 December 1961. Kirill Kondrashin was the conductor.[1]

Shostakovich wanted the symphony to be played in December 1936, but the concert never happened. In January 1936, Pravda, a Soviet newspaper, wrote bad things about Shostakovich's opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Shostakovich may have agreed not to play Symphony No. 4 to keep the orchestra leaders from getting in trouble with Joseph Stalin.[2]

Instruments

The symphony is written for more than 100 players. The instruments are:[3]

Structure

The symphony has three parts, also called movements.

  1. Allegretto poco moderato – Presto
  2. Moderato con moto
  3. Largo – Allegro

It takes more than an hour to play the symphony.

References

  1. ↑ Steinberg, Michael, The Symphony (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). ISBN 978-0-19-506177-2.
  2. ↑ Fay, Laurel (2000). Shostakovich: A Life. Oxford University Press. pp. 95. ISBN 0-19-513438-9.
  3. ↑ Shostakovich, Dmitri. Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 43. New York: Kalmus.

Other reading

  • Freed, Richard, Notes for RCA/BMG 60887: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4; St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.
  • Glikman, Isaak D., tr. Anthony Phillips, Story of a Friendship (London: Faber & Faber, 2001). ISBN 978-0-571-20982-8.
  • Schwarz, Boris, Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia: 1917–1981 (London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1972). ISBN 978-0-253-33956-0.
  • Volkov, Solomon, tr. Antonina W. Bouis, Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004). ISBN 978-0-375-41082-6.

Other websites

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.