The work of D. D. Shostakovich is closely connected with the difficult destinies of his native country. The composer embodied the most acute conflicts in music modern world. The music of D.D. Shostakovich is distinguished by its depth and richness of figurative content. The large inner world of a person with his thoughts and aspirations, doubts, a person fighting against violence and evil - this is the main theme of the composer.

The genre range of D. D. Shostakovich’s work is very wide. He is the author of symphonies and instrumental ensembles, large vocal forms (oratorios, cantatas, choral cycles) and songs, musical and stage works (opera, ballets, operetta), music for films and theatrical productions, instrumental concerts and short plays. Fluency in each of these genres is combined with a unique, always new interpretation of them.

The basis of the composer's work is instrumental music, primarily the symphony. The enormous scale of content, the tendency to generalized thinking, the severity of the conflict, the dynamism and strict logic of the development of musical thought - all this determines his appearance as a symphonic composer. D. D. Shostakovich uses the traditions of world musical classics. Uses a variety of expressive means that developed in different historical eras. The means of polyphonic style play a large role in his thinking. This is reflected in the texture, the nature of the melody, and in the methods of development. He often uses homophonic-harmonic style in his works.

In the composer's melodies, historically associated with improvisational genres (fantasies, toccatas), pathetic declamation is often found. Used genre features minuet.

The symphonies of D. D. Shostakovich, with its deep philosophical and psychological content and intense drama, continue the line of Tchaikovsky’s symphonism; vocal genres - develop the principles of Mussorgsky. The melodic style of D. D. Shostakovich approaches the chant of a Russian song.

Deep sincerity, truthfulness - in all this he proceeds from the precepts of Russian classics.

Themes and images

In his works, D. D. Shostakovich addressed themes and images of social significance, reflecting the most important aspects of modern reality. For example, the Seventh (Leningrad) and Eighth symphonies were created during the Great Patriotic War, the Eleventh - “1905” and the Twelfth - about the October Revolution of 1917 are dedicated to historical events. The thirteenth symphony based on the poems of E. Yevtushenko - a symphony-oratorio - is dedicated to current problems of civil morality, condemns bloody crimes caused by racism

The music of D. D. Shostakovich combines epic breadth, drama and subtle lyricism.

Main genre

The central place in the work of D. D. Shostakovich is occupied by symphonic works, characterized by intense musical drama.

Origins of musical language. Innovation.

The composer created a deeply original style, drawing on the traditions of M. Mussorgsky, I.S. Bach, L. Beethoven, G. Mahler

In many ways he transformed traditional fret systems and created individually-authored ones.

Polyphony

D.D. Shostakovich is an outstanding master of polyphony. In his works he used various shapes polyphony (fugues, passacaglia) and development techniques (imitation, canons)

Orchestra

Dmitry Shostakovich is an outstanding master of the orchestra. The dramaturgy of orchestral timbres is of great expressive importance in the composer’s works.

D. D. Shostakovich orchestrated works by Mussorgsky: the operas “Boris Godunov”, “Khovanshchina”, the vocal cycle “Songs and Dances of Death”.

Questions

1. Which composer can we call the greatest composer of our time?
2. What is his music inextricably linked to?
3. What worried the composer most?
4. How is his music different?
5. What genres did the composer work in?
6. Name the works of D. D. Shostakovich that you know.
7. How did the composer’s work on the works go?
8. Tell us about the composer - the man, about his friends.
9. What are his interests?
10. Name the main theme of the composer's work.
11. What means of expression does the composer use?
12. Does Dmitry Shostakovich continue to develop the traditions of Russian composers in his symphonies? Say their names.
13. Name the themes and images of his work.
14. What are the origins of the musical language of D. D. Shostakovich.
15. What outstanding master can we call D. D. Shostakovich?
16. What role does the orchestra play in his works?
17. Name the years of D. D. Shostakovich’s life.
18. What kind of education did the composer receive?
19. How the composer greeted the beginning of the war (1941)
20. Tell us about the post-war years of the composer’s life.

From the notes . The work of DDS is a “cry” for the entire twentieth century and its evil. A classic of the 20th century, a tragedian, an unbending civic and social position of creativity - “the voice of the conscience of his generation.” Retains the significance of all stylistic systems of the twentieth century. The first three symphonies formed two main trends in his work: from symphony No. 1 - a 4-part cycle (No. 4-6, 14-15), the concept of “me and the world” and from No. 2, 3 to No. 7, 8, 11-13 social line.

From Sabinina.

Periodization of creativity (3 periods):

Until the 30s - the early period: the search for means to express, the formation of language - three ballets, “The Nose”, symphonies No. 1-3 (influences of Eyes, Seagulls, Scriabin, Prock, Wagner, Mahler. Not copying their language, but transformation, new light , finding your own specific techniques, methods of development. Sudden rethinking of thematics, clashes of antipodal images. Lyric images do not oppose the images of war, they are like the reverse side of the evil ones.)

The 4th symphony is a borderline position. After this, the focus moves to the principles of designing the form and developing the muses of the material. No. 5 – center and beginning: 5 – 7, 8, 9, 10.

In the third period - the search for the very interpretation of the symphony genre - 11-14. Everyone is software, but the software is implemented differently. In the 11th there is a displacement of sonatism, unification into a contrasting-composite form, in the 12th there is a return to sonatism, but the cycle is compressed. In the 13th there is rondo-likeness + features of a pure symphony, in the 14th there is sonata-ness and chamberness. The 15th is apart. Non-programmatic, traditional functions of the parts, but synthesizes elements of the middle and late periods. "Style Harmonizer" Lyrical-philosophical, suffering of spiritual enlightenment in the finale. “24 Preludes and Fugues”, “The Execution of Stepan Razin”, camera-instrument pr-niya.

Style features

RHYTHM (especially in the early period) - from the general trends of art - movement (cinema, sportiness) - effects of rhythm of acceleration, motor pumping (Honegger, Hind, Prock). Gallop, march, dance, fast tempos - already in the 1st symphony. Genre-dance rhythms. Rhythm is the most important engine of dramaturgy - but it will truly become so only in the 5th symphony.

ORCHESTRATION – I didn’t want to give up romantic tendencies (only during the intermission to “The Nose”... - there was a lot of extravagant stuff). The presentation of the theme is one-timbre, assigning the timbre to the image. This is a follower of Chaik.

HARMONY – does not come to the fore like paint, any admiration of colors is alien... Innovations are not in the field of chords, but in modal systems (minds...translation of the melodic horizontal into the chord vertical).

TOPICS – large extent, including their development – ​​from Chaika. But with DDS, development often becomes more meaningful than the actual exposure (this is the antipode of Proc: with DDS it is a theme-process, with Proc it is a theme-actor - i.e., the preponderance of the analytical over the pictorial-theatrical method of thinking). Extraordinary unity of thematic material of the symphonies.

DEVELOPMENT METHODS – synthesis of Russian folk songs and Bach’s polyphony. For later pr-nii - concentration of thematicity, strengthening of intra-thematic variation, repetitions of narrow motives (in the range of intelligence 4, 5).

MELOS specific Speech, narrative intonations - especially in dramatically key moments. The melodiousness of the lyrical plan, but very specific! (objective lyrics).

POLYPHONIC! - Bah. Also from the 1st and 2nd symphonies. Two trends are manifested: the use of polyphonic genres and the polyphonization of fabric. The polyph of form is the sphere of expression of the deepest and most sublime emotions. Passacaglia - middle. thoughts + emotional expression and discipline (only in the 8th symphony there is a real passacaglia, and its “spirit” is in the 13-15th symphonies). Antischematism.

INTERPRETATION OF SONATA FORM. The conflict is not between GP and PP, but between exp and development. Therefore, there are often no modal contrasts within an exp, but only genre contrasts. Refusal to break through inside the PP (like Chaika), on the contrary, is a pastoral idyll. A characteristic technique is the crystallization of new figurative and contrasting intonations on the culmination of the GP in the exhibition. Often sonata forms of 1st movements are slow/moderate, rather than traditionally fast, due to the psychological nature of the internal conflict, rather than external action. The rondo shape is not very characteristic (except from Prok).

IDEAS, TOPICS. The author's commentary and the action itself - often these two areas collide (as in No. 5). The evil beginning is not external force, but as the reverse side of human goodness - this is the difference from Chaika. Objectification of lyrics, its intellectualization is the trend of the times. Music captures the movement of thought - hence the love for passacaglias, because there is the possibility of a long and comprehensive disclosure of the thought-state.

D.D. Shostakovich is one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich's music is distinguished by its depth and richness of figurative content. The inner world of a person with his thoughts and aspirations, doubts, a person fighting against violence and evil, is the main theme of Shostakovich, embodied in many ways in his works.

The genre range of Shostakovich's work is great. He is the author of symphonies and instrumental ensembles, large and chamber vocal forms, musical stage works, music for films and theatrical productions. And yet, the basis of the composer’s work is instrumental music, and above all the symphony. He wrote 15 symphonies.

Indeed, after the classically presented two contrasting themes, instead of development, a new thought appears - the so-called “invasion episode”. According to critics, it is supposed to serve as a musical depiction of Hitler's impending avalanche.

This cartoonish, frankly grotesque theme was for a long time the most popular melody Shostakovich ever wrote. It should be added that a fragment from its middle was used by Bela Bartok in the fourth movement of his Concerto for Orchestra in 1943.

The first part had the greatest impact on the listeners. Its dramatic development was unparalleled in the entire history of music, and the introduction at a certain point of an additional ensemble of brass instruments, which in total gave a gigantic composition of eight horns, six trumpets, six trombones and a tuba, increased the sonority to unheard-of proportions.

Let's listen to Shostakovich himself: “The second movement is a lyrical, very gentle intermezzo. It does not contain programs or any “specific images” like the first part. It has a little humor (I can't live without it!). Shakespeare knew very well the value of humor in tragedy, he knew that it was impossible to keep the audience in suspense all the time.”
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The symphony was a huge success. Shostakovich was hailed as a genius, the Beethoven of the 20th century, and placed in first place among living composers.

The music of the Eighth Symphony is one of the artist's most personal statements, a stunning document of the composer's clear involvement in the affairs of war, protest against evil and violence.

The Eighth Symphony contains a powerful charge of expression and tension. The large-scale first movement, lasting approximately 25 minutes, develops on an extremely long breath, but there is no sense of prolongation in it, there is nothing excessive or inappropriate. From a formal point of view, there is a striking analogy here with the first movement of the Fifth Symphony. Even the opening leitmotif of the Eighth seems to be a variation on the beginning of an earlier work.

In the first movement of the Eighth Symphony, tragedy reaches an unprecedented scale. The music penetrates the listener, evoking a feeling of suffering, pain, despair, and the heartbreaking climax before the reprise takes a long time to prepare and is distinguished by its extraordinary power of impact. In the next two parts, the composer returns to the grotesque and caricature. The first of these is a march, which can be associated with the music of Prokofiev, although this similarity is purely external. For a clearly programmatic purpose, Shostakovich used a theme in it that is a parodic paraphrase of the German foxtrot “Rosamund”. The same theme at the end of the movement is skillfully superimposed on the main, first musical idea.

The tonal aspect of this piece is especially interesting. At first glance, the composer relies on the tonality of Des major, but in reality he uses his own modes, which have little in common with the functional system of major-minor.

The third movement, the toccata, is like a second scherzo, magnificent, full of inner strength. Simple in form, very uncomplicated in musically. The motor ostinato movement of the quarter quarters in the toccata continues continuously throughout the entire movement; Against this background, a separate motive arises, acting as a theme.

The middle section of the toccata contains almost the only humorous episode in the entire work, after which the music again returns to the initial thought. The sound of the orchestra is gaining more and more strength, the number of participating instruments is constantly increasing, and at the end of the movement the climax of the entire symphony comes. After this, the music goes directly into the passacaglia.

Passacaglia moves into the fifth movement of a pastoral character. This finale is built from a number of small episodes and various themes, which gives it a somewhat mosaic character. It has an interesting form, combining elements of a rondo and sonata with a fugue woven into the development, very reminiscent of the then unknown fugue from the scherzo of the Fourth Symphony.

The Eighth Symphony ends pianissimo. The coda, performed by string instruments and a solo flute, seems to put a question mark, and thus the work does not have the unambiguous optimistic sound of Leningradskaya.

The composer seemed to have foreseen such a reaction before the first performance of the Ninth, saying: “Musicians will play it with pleasure, and critics will criticize it.”
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Despite this, the Ninth Symphony became one of the most popular works Shostakovich.

The first part of the Thirteenth Symphony, dedicated to the tragedy of the Jews killed at Babi Yar, is the most dramatic, consisting of several simple, flexible themes, the first of which, as usual, plays the main role. In it one can hear distant echoes of Russian classics, especially Mussorgsky. The music is connected with the text in such a way that it borders on illustrativeness, and its character changes with the appearance of each successive episode of Yevtushenko’s poem.

The second part - “Humor” - is the antithesis of the previous one. In it the composer appears an incomparable expert the coloristic capabilities of the orchestra and choir, and the music fully conveys the caustic character of poetry.

The third part, “In the Store,” is based on poems dedicated to the lives of women standing in lines and doing the hardest work.

From this part grows the next one - “Fears”. A poem with this title concerns the recent past of Russia, when fear completely took over people, when a person was afraid of another person, afraid even to be sincere with himself.

The final “Career” is like a personal commentary by the poet and composer on the entire work, touching on the problem of the artist’s conscience.

The Thirteenth Symphony was banned. True, in the West they released a gramophone record with an illegally sent recording made at a Moscow concert, but in the Soviet Union the score and recording appeared only nine years later, in a version with changed text of the first movement. For Shostakovich, the Thirteenth Symphony was extremely dear.

Fourteenth Symphony. After such monumental works as the Thirteenth Symphony and the poem about Stepan Razin, Shostakovich took a diametrically opposite position and composed the work only for soprano, bass and chamber orchestra, and for the instrumental composition he chose only six percussion instruments, a celesta and nineteen strings. In form, the work was completely at odds with Shostakovich’s previously typical interpretation of the symphony: the eleven small movements that made up the new composition did not in any way resemble a traditional symphonic cycle.

The theme of the texts selected from the poetry of Federico García Lorca, Guillaume Apollinaire, Wilhelm Küchelbecker and Rainer Maria Rilke is death, shown in different guises and in different situations. Small episodes are interconnected, forming a block of five large sections (I, I - IV, V - VH, VHI - IX and X - XI). The bass and soprano sing alternately, sometimes striking up a dialogue, and only in the last part join in a duet.

Quadruple Fifteenth Symphony, written only for orchestra, is very reminiscent of some of the composer's previous works. Especially in the laconic first movement, the joyful and humorous Allegretto, associations arise with the Ninth Symphony, and distant echoes of even earlier works are heard: the First Piano Concerto, some fragments from the ballets “The Golden Age” and “Bolt”, as well as orchestral intermissions from “ Lady Macbeth." Between the two original themes, the composer wove a motif from the overture to William Tell, which appears many times, and has a highly humorous character, especially since here it is not performed by strings, as in Rossini, but by a group of brass, sounding like a fireman's band .

Adagio brings a sharp contrast. This is a symphonic fresco full of thought and even pathos, in which the opening tonal chorale is crossed with a twelve-tone theme performed by a solo cello. Many episodes are reminiscent of the most pessimistic fragments of the symphonies of the middle period, mainly the first movement of the Sixth Symphony. The opening attacca third movement is the shortest of all Shostakovich's scherzos. His first theme also has a twelve-tone structure, both in forward movement and in inversion.

The finale begins with a quotation from Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung” (it will be heard several times in this movement), after which the main theme appears - lyrical and calm, in a character unusual for the finales of Shostakovich’s symphonies.

The side theme is also not very dramatic. The true development of the symphony begins only in the middle section - the monumental passacaglia, the bass theme of which is clearly related to the famous “invasion episode” from the Leningrad Symphony.

Passacaglia leads to a heartbreaking climax, and then the development seems to break down. Familiar themes appear once again. Then comes the coda, in which the concert part is entrusted to the drums.

Kazimierz Kord once said about the finale of this symphony: “This is music incinerated, scorched to the ground...”

The huge scale of content, generality of thinking, the severity of conflicts, the dynamism and strict logic of the development of musical thought - all this determines the appearance of Shostakovich as a symphonic composer. Shostakovich is characterized by exceptional artistic originality. The composer freely uses expressive means that have developed in different historical eras. Thus, the means of polyphonic style play a large role in his thinking. This is reflected in the texture, in the nature of the melody, in the methods of development, in the appeal to classical forms of polyphony. The form of the ancient passacaglia is used in a unique way.

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich, (1906–1975)

Shostakovich is a unique phenomenon in the history of world culture. His work, like no other artist, reflected our complex, cruel, and sometimes phantasmagoric era; the contradictory and tragic fate of humanity; the shocks that befell his contemporaries were embodied. He passed through his heart all the troubles, all the suffering endured by our country in the 20th century and embodied it in works of the highest artistic merit. Like no one else he had the right to utter words

I am every shot child here

((Thirteenth Symphony. Poems by Evg. Yevtushenko))

He experienced and endured as much as a human heart can hardly bear. That is why his path ended prematurely.

Few of his contemporaries, or indeed composers of any time, were as recognized and celebrated during their lifetime as he was. Foreign awards and diplomas were indisputable - and he was an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy, a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR (East Germany), an honorary member of the national Italian Academy "Santa Cecilia", a commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters, a member of the English Royal Academy of Music, honorary doctor of the University of Oxford, laureate of the international Sibelius Prize, honorary member of the Serbian Academy of Arts, corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, honorary doctor of Trinity College (Ireland), honorary doctor of Northwestern University (Evanston, USA), foreign member of the French Academy Fine Arts, was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of England, the Order of the Great Silver Badge of Honor for services to the Republic of Austria, and the Mozart Commemorative Medal.

But it was different with our own, domestic awards and insignia. It seemed that there were also more than enough of them: Laureate of the Stalin Prize, the country’s highest prize in the 30s; People's Artist of the USSR, holder of the Order of Lenin, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, hero of Socialist Labor, etc., etc., up to the title of People's Artist for some reason of Chuvashia and Buryatia. However, these were carrots that were fully balanced by the stick: resolutions of the CPSU Central Committee and editorial articles of its central organ, the newspaper Pravda, in which Shostakovich was literally destroyed, mixed with dirt, and accused of all sins.

The composer was not left to his own devices: he was obliged to follow orders. So, after the notorious, truly historic Decree of 1948, in which his work was declared formalistic and alien to the people, he was sent on a foreign trip, and he was forced to explain to foreign journalists that criticism of his work was deserved. That he actually made mistakes and is being corrected correctly. He was forced to take part in countless forums of “defenders of peace”, and was even awarded medals and certificates for this - while he would prefer not to travel anywhere, but to create music. He was repeatedly elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR - a decorative body that rubber-stamped the decisions of the Politburo of the Communist Party, and the composer had to devote many hours to meaningless work that did not attract him in any way - instead of composing music. But this was due to his status: all the country's major artists were deputies. He was the head of the Union of Composers of Russia, although he did not strive for this at all. In addition, he was forced to join the ranks of the CPSU, and this became one of the strongest moral shocks for him and, perhaps, also shortened his life.

The main thing for Shostakovich was always composing music. He devoted all possible time to it, always composing - at his desk, on vacation, on trips, in hospitals... The composer turned to all genres. His ballets marked the path of quest of the Soviet ballet theater of the late 20-30s and remained the most striking examples of these quests. The operas “The Nose” and “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” opened a completely new page for this genre in Russian music. He also wrote oratorios - a tribute to the times, a concession to power, which otherwise could have crushed him into powder... But vocal cycles, piano works, quartets and other chamber ensembles entered the world treasury of musical art. However, above all, Shostakovich is a brilliant symphonist. It was in the composer's symphonies that the history of the 20th century, its tragedy, its suffering and storms was primarily embodied.

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich was born on September 12 (25), 1906 in St. Petersburg into an intelligent family. His father, an engineer who graduated from St. Petersburg University, was an employee of the great Mendeleev. My mother had a musical education and at one time thought about devoting herself to music professionally. The boy's talent was noticed quite late, since his mother fundamentally considered it impossible to begin musical training before the age of nine. However, after the start of classes, the successes were rapid and stunning. Little Shostakovich not only mastered pianistic skills phenomenally quickly, but also showed extraordinary talent as a composer, and already at the age of 12 his unique quality manifested itself - an instant creative response to current events. Thus, one of the first plays composed by the boy were “Soldier” and “Funeral March in Memory of Shingarev and Kokoshkin” - ministers of the Provisional Government who were brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

The young composer greedily perceived his surroundings and responded to them. And the time was terrible. After the October Revolution of 1917 and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, real chaos began in the city. Residents were forced to form self-defense groups to protect their homes. Food stopped flowing to large cities, and famine began. In Petrograd (as St. Petersburg was patriotically renamed after the outbreak of World War) there was not only no food, but also no fuel. And in such a situation, young Shostakovich in 1919 (he was 13 years old) entered the Petrograd Conservatory at the departments of special piano and composition.

You had to get there on foot: trams - the only surviving form of transport - rarely ran and were always overcrowded. People hung in clusters from the running boards and often fell off, and the boy preferred not to take risks. I went regularly, although many, both students and teachers, preferred to skip classes. It was a real feat to get to the conservatory, and then study hard for several hours in an unheated building. So that the fingers could move and they could study fully, “potbelly stoves” were installed in the classrooms - iron stoves that could be heated with any kind of wood chips. And they brought fuel with them - some logs, some an armful of wood chips, some a chair leg or scattered sheets of books... There was almost no food. All this led to tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands, which had to be treated for a long time, with difficulty raising money for the trips to the Black Sea necessary for treatment. There, in Crimea, in the resort village of Gaspra in 1923, Shostakovich met his first love, Muscovite Tatyana Glivenko, to whom he dedicated the piano trio he soon wrote.

Despite all the difficulties, Shostakovich graduated from the conservatory in the piano class of Professor Nikolaev in 1923, and in the composition class of Professor Steinberg in 1925. His graduation work, the First Symphony, brought the 19-year-old young man international recognition. However, he still did not know what to devote himself to - composing or performing. His success in this field was so great that in 1927 he was sent to the international Chopin competition in Warsaw. There he took fifth place and received an honorary diploma, which was regarded by many musicians and the public as a clear injustice - Shostakovich played superbly and deserved a much higher rating. Subsequent years are marked as quite extensive concert activities, as well as the first experiments in various genres, including theatrical ones. The Second and Third Symphonies, the ballets “The Golden Age” and “Bolt”, the opera “The Nose”, and piano works appeared.

The meeting and beginning of friendship with the outstanding cultural figure I. Sollertinsky (1902–1944), which occurred in the spring of 1927, acquired enormous significance for the young Shostakovich. Sollertinsky, in particular, introduced him to the work of Mahler and thereby determined the future path of the composer-symphonist. Acquaintance with the major theater figure, the innovative director V. Meyerhold, in whose theater Shostakovich worked for some time as head of the musical department, also played a significant role in his creative development - in search of income, the young musician had to move to Moscow for some time. The peculiarities of Meyerhold's productions were reflected in Shostakovich's theatrical works, in particular, in the structure of the opera “The Nose”.

The musician and his feelings for Tatiana were drawn to Moscow, but it turned out that the young people did not unite their destinies. In 1932, Shostakovich married Nina Vasilyevna Varzar. The opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” is dedicated to her - one of the most remarkable creations of music of the 20th century, which had a tragic fate. The piano concerto written in the same year is the last work, full of cheerfulness, sparkling fun and enthusiasm - qualities that, under the influence of life's realities, later left his music. The editorial article of the main party printed organ of the newspaper Pravda, “Confusion instead of music,” published in January 1936 and shamefully, vilely defamed “Lady Macbeth,” which had previously had enormous success not only in our country, but also abroad, brought charges against its author on the verge of a political denunciation, sharply turned the creative fate of Shostakovich. It was after this that the composer abandoned genres associated with words. From now on, the main place in his work is occupied by symphonies in which the composer reflects his vision of the world and the destinies of his native country.

This began with the Fourth Symphony, unknown to the public for many years and first performed only in 1961. Its implementation then, in 1936, was impossible: it could entail not just criticism, but repression - no one was immune from them. Following this, throughout the 30s, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were created. Works in other genres also appear, in particular, the Piano Quintet, for which Shostakovich was awarded the Stalin Prize - apparently, somewhere “at the very top” it was decided that the stick had played its role, and now it was necessary to resort to the carrot. In 1937, Shostakovich was invited to the conservatory - he became a professor of composition and orchestration classes.

In 1941, after the outbreak of World War II, Shostakovich began work on the Seventh Symphony. At this time, he already had two children - Galina and Maxim, and, worried about their safety, the composer agreed to be evacuated from the besieged city, which since 1924 has been called Leningrad. The composer finishes the symphony dedicated to the heroism of his native city in Kuibyshev (formerly and now Samara), where he was evacuated in the fall of 1941. There he is destined to stay for two years, grieving for his friends, scattered by military fate throughout the vast country. In 1943, the government provided Shostakovich with the opportunity to live in the capital - he allocated an apartment and helped with the move. The composer immediately begins to make plans on how to transfer Sollertinsky to Moscow. He was evacuated to Novosibirsk as part of the Leningrad Philharmonic, whose artistic director he was for many years. However, these plans were not destined to come true: in February 1944, Sollertinsky died suddenly, which was a terrible blow for Shostakovich. He wrote: “There is no longer a musician of enormous talent among us, there is no longer a cheerful, pure, benevolent comrade, I no longer have my closest friend...” Shostakovich dedicated the Second Piano Trio to the memory of Sollertinsky. Even before that, he created the Eighth Symphony, dedicated to the remarkable conductor, the first performer of his symphonies, starting with the Fifth, E. A. Mravinsky.

From that time on, the composer's life was connected with the capital. In addition to composing, he is engaged in pedagogy - at the Moscow Conservatory, at first he only has one graduate student - R. Bunin. To earn money to support a large family (besides his wife and children, he helps his long-widowed mother, there are au pairs in the house), he writes music for many films. Life seems to be more or less settled. But the authorities are preparing a new blow. It is necessary to suppress the freedom-loving thoughts that arose among part of the intelligentsia after the victory over fascism. After the destruction of literature in 1946 (defamation of Zoshchenko and Akhmatova), the party resolution on theater and film policy, in 1948 a resolution “On the opera “The Great Friendship” by Muradeli” appeared, which, despite the name, again dealt the main blow to Shostakovich. He is accused of formalism, of being out of touch with reality, of opposing himself to the people, and is called upon to understand his mistakes and reform. He is fired from the conservatory: an inveterate formalist cannot be trusted to educate the young generation of composers! For some time, the family lives only on the earnings of the wife, who, after many years devoted to the home and providing a creative environment for the composer, goes to work.

Literally a few months later, Shostakovich was sent, despite repeated attempts to refuse, on foreign trips as part of delegations of peace defenders. His long-term forced social activities. For several years he has been “rehabilitating himself” - he writes music for patriotic films (this is his main income from for many years), composes the oratorio “Song of the Forests” and the cantata “The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland.” However, “for myself”, while still “on the table”, a stunning autobiographical document is being created - the First Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, which gained fame only after 1953. At the same time, in 1953, the Tenth Symphony appeared, which reflected the composer’s thoughts in the first months after Stalin’s death. And before that, a lot of attention was paid to quartets, the vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry” and the grandiose piano cycle Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues appeared.

The mid-50s was a time of great personal loss for Shostakovich. In 1954, his wife, N.V. Shostakovich, died, and a year later the composer buried his mother. The children grew up, they had their own interests, and the musician felt increasingly lonely.

Gradually, after the beginning of the “thaw” - as they used to call the reign of Khrushchev, who exposed Stalin’s “cult of personality” - Shostakovich again turned to symphonic creativity. The programmatic Eleventh and Twelfth symphonies seem at first glance to be purely opportunistic. But many years later, researchers discovered that the composer put into them not only the meaning that was announced in the official program. And later large vocal symphonies with socially significant texts appeared - the Thirteenth and Fourteenth. In time, this coincides with the composer’s last marriage (before that there was a second, unsuccessful and, fortunately, short-lived) - to Irina Antonovna Supinskaya, who became a faithful friend, assistant, and constant companion of the composer in recent years, who managed to brighten up his difficult life.

A philologist by training, she brought into the house an interest in poetry and new literature, she stimulated Shostakovich’s attention to textual works. This is how, after the Thirteenth Symphony based on Yevtushenko’s verses, the symphonic poem “The Execution of Stepan Razin” based on his own verses appears. Then Shostakovich creates several vocal cycles - based on texts from the magazine “Crocodile” (a humorous magazine of the Soviet era), on poems by Sasha Cherny, Tsvetaeva, Blok, Michelangelo Buonarotti. The grandiose symphonic circle is completed again by the textless, non-programmatic (although, I think, with a hidden program) Fifteenth Symphony.

In December 1961, Shostakovich's teaching activities resumed. He teaches a class of graduate students at the Leningrad Conservatory and regularly comes to Leningrad to teach students until October 1965, when they all take their graduate exams. In recent months, they themselves have had to come to classes at the House of Creativity, located 50 kilometers from Leningrad, in Moscow, or even to a sanatorium, where their mentor must stay for health reasons. The difficult trials that befell the composer could not help but affect him. The 60s passed under the sign of a gradual deterioration of his condition. A disease of the central nervous system appears, Shostakovich suffers two heart attacks.

Increasingly, he has to spend long periods in the hospital. The composer tries to lead an active lifestyle, even traveling between hospitals a lot. This is due to the performances in many cities of the world of the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, which is now more often called “Katerina Izmailova”, and to the performances of other works, to participation in festivals, to the receipt of honorary titles and awards. But with each passing month, such travel becomes more and more tiring.

He prefers to take a break from them in the resort village of Repino near Leningrad, where the House of Composers’ Creativity is located. Music is mainly created there, since the working conditions are ideal - no one and nothing distracts from creativity. Shostakovich came to Repino for the last time in May 1975. He moves with difficulty, records music with difficulty, but continues to compose. Almost until the last moment he was creating - he corrected the manuscript of the Sonata for viola and piano in the hospital. Death overtook the composer on August 9, 1975, in Moscow.

But even after death, the omnipotent power did not leave him alone. Contrary to the will of the composer, who wanted to find a resting place in his homeland, in Leningrad, he was buried at the “prestigious” Moscow Novodevichy Cemetery. The funeral, originally scheduled for August 13, was postponed to the 14th: foreign delegations did not have time to arrive. After all, Shostakovich was an “official” composer, and he was seen off officially - with loud speeches from representatives of the party and government, which had suffocated him for so many years.

Symphony No. 1

Symphony No. 1, F minor, op. 10 (1923–1925)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, bells, piano, strings.

History of creation

The idea of ​​a symphony, with which he was supposed to complete the conservatory composition course, arose from Shostakovich in 1923. However, the young man, who had recently lost his father (he died of pneumonia in 1922), had to earn money and entered the Light Ribbon cinema. He played to movies for several hours a day. But if this could somehow be combined with the preparation of a concert program (he wittily included excerpts from the works he was studying into his film improvisations, thus improving their technical performance), then for composing this work was deadly. It was exhausting, didn’t give me the opportunity to go to concerts, and, finally, was poorly paid. Over the next year, only individual sketches began to appear, and a general plan was thought out. However, there was still a long way to go before systematic work on it.

In the spring of 1924, composition classes were postponed indefinitely, as relations with Professor Steinberg became very difficult: a supporter of the academic direction, he was afraid of the musical “leftism” of the rapidly developing student. The disagreements were so serious that Shostakovich even had the idea of ​​transferring to the Moscow Conservatory. There were friends there who supported the work of the young composer, and there was also a teacher there - Yavorsky, who deeply understood him. Shostakovich even successfully passed the exams and was enrolled, but his mother, Sofya Vasilievna, sharply opposed his son’s departure. She was afraid of her son’s early independence, afraid that he would get married: his fiancee, Tatyana Glivenko, lived in Moscow, whom he met while undergoing treatment in the Crimea.

Under the influence of Moscow's success, the attitude of teachers in Leningrad towards Shostakovich changed, and in the fall he resumed classes. In October, the second part of the symphony, the scherzo, was written. But the writing was interrupted again: the need to earn a living by playing in cinemas remained. The service took up all my time and all my energy. At the end of December, the opportunity for creativity finally arose, and the first part of the symphony was written, and in January - February 1925 the third. I had to go to the cinema again, and the situation became more complicated again. “The finale has not been written and is not being written,” the composer said in one of his letters. - I ran out of steam with three parts. Out of grief, I sat down to orchestrate the first movement and did a decent amount of instrumentation.”

Realizing that it was impossible to combine work in cinema with composing music, Shostakovich quit the Piccadilly cinema and went to Moscow in March. There, in a circle of musician friends, he showed the three parts he had written and separate parts of the finale. The symphony made a huge impression. Muscovites, among whom were composer V. Shebalin and pianist L. Oborin, who became friends for many years, were delighted and even amazed: the young musician showed rare professional skill and genuine creative maturity. Inspired by the warm approval, Shostakovich, returning home, set about the finale with renewed vigor. It was completed in June 1925. The premiere took place on May 12, 1926, in the final concert of the season, conducted by Nikolai Malko. It was attended by relatives and friends. Tanya Glivenko arrived from Moscow. The listeners were amazed when, after a storm of applause, a young man, almost a boy with a stubborn crest on his head, came on stage to bow.

The symphony brought unprecedented success. Malko performed it in other cities of the country, and it soon became widely known abroad. In 1927, Shostakovich's First Symphony was performed in Berlin, then in Philadelphia and New York. The world's leading conductors have included it in their repertoire. This is how the nineteen-year-old boy entered the history of music.

Music

Brief original introduction It’s like lifting the curtain on a theatrical performance. The interplay of muted trumpet, bassoon, and clarinet creates an intriguing atmosphere. “This introduction immediately marks a break with the high, poetically generalized structure of content inherent in classical and romantic symphonism” (M. Sabinina). The main part of the first movement is distinguished by clear, as if chanted sounds, and a collected marching gait. At the same time, she is restless, nervous and anxious. It concludes with a familiar trumpet call from the introduction. The side note is an elegant, slightly capricious flute melody in the rhythm of a slow waltz, light and airy. In development, not without the influence of the gloomy and anxious coloring of the opening motives, the nature of the main themes changes: the main one becomes convulsive, confused, the secondary one becomes harsh and rude. At the conclusion of the part, the melodies of the introductory section sound, returning the listener to the initial mood.

Second part, a scherzo, takes the musical narrative to a different plane. The lively, bustling music seems to paint a picture of a noisy street with its continuous movement. This image is replaced by another - a poetic, gentle melody of flutes in the spirit of Russian folk song. A picture emerges of complete calm. But gradually the music becomes filled with anxiety. And the continuous movement and bustle return again, even more fervent than at the beginning. The development unexpectedly leads to the simultaneous contrapuntal sound of both main themes of the scherzo, but the calm, lullaby-like melody is now powerfully and loudly intoned by horns and trumpets! The complex form of the scherzo (musicologists interpret it differently - both as a sonata without development, and as a two-part with a frame, and as a three-part) is completed by a coda with sharp measured piano chords, a slow introduction theme for the strings and a trumpet signal.

Slow third part immerses the listener in an atmosphere of reflection, concentration, and anticipation. The sounds are low, swaying, like the heavy waves of a fantastic sea. They either grow like a menacing wave, or fall. From time to time, fanfares cut through this mysterious haze. There is a feeling of wariness, anxious forebodings. As if the air thickens before a thunderstorm, it becomes difficult to breathe. Soulful, touching, deeply humane melodies collide with the rhythm of a funeral march, creating tragic collisions. The composer repeats the form of the second movement, but its content is fundamentally different - if in the first two movements the life of the conventional hero of the symphony unfolded in apparent prosperity and carefreeness, here the antagonism of two principles is manifested - subjective and objective, forcing one to recall similar collisions of Tchaikovsky's symphonies.

Stormy dramatic final begins with an explosion, the anticipation of which permeated the previous part. Here, in the last and largest, grandiose section of the symphony, the full intensity of the struggle unfolds. Dramatic sounds, full of enormous tension, are replaced by moments of oblivion, rest... The main part “conjures up the image of a crowd pouring in in panic at the distress signal - the signal of muted trumpets, given in the introduction to the part” (M. Sabinina). Fear and confusion appear, and the theme of rock sounds menacingly. The side party barely covers the colossal raging tutti. The solo violin intones its melody tenderly and dreamily. But during development, the side track also loses its lyrical character, it becomes involved in the general struggle, sometimes reminiscent of the theme of the funeral procession from the third part, sometimes it turns into an eerie grotesque, sometimes it sounds powerful in the brass, drowning out the sound of the entire orchestra... After the climax, which breaks the intensity of the development, again sounds soft and gentle on a solo cello with a mute. But that's not all. A new wild burst of energy occurs in the coda, where the secondary theme takes over all the upper voices of the orchestra at an extremely powerful sound. Only in the last bars of the symphony is affirmation achieved. The final conclusion is still optimistic.

Symphony No. 2

Symphony No. 2, dedication to “October” in B major, op. 14 (1927)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, factory whistle, bells, strings; in the final section there is a mixed choir.

History of creation

At the beginning of 1927, having returned from the international Chopin competition, in which he took fifth place, Shostakovich immediately went to the operating table. Actually, the appendicitis that tormented him was, along with the obvious bias of the jury, one of the reasons for the competitive failure. Immediately after the operation, the composition of piano “Aphorisms” began - the young composer missed creativity during the forced break caused by intensive preparation for competitive performances. And after the piano cycle was completed in early April, work on a completely different plan began.

The propaganda department of the State Publishing House music sector ordered Shostakovich a symphony dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. The official order testified to the recognition of the creative authority of the twenty-year-old musician, and the composer accepted it with satisfaction, especially since his earnings were casual and irregular, mainly from performing activities.

While working on this symphony, Shostakovich was absolutely sincere. Let us remember: the ideas of justice, equality, and brotherhood have possessed the best minds of mankind for centuries. Many generations of Russian nobles and commoners made sacrifices at the altar of service to them. To Shostakovich, brought up in these traditions, the revolution still seemed like a cleansing whirlwind, bringing justice and happiness. He was inspired by an idea that may seem youthfully naive - to create a symphonic monument for each of the significant dates of the young state. The first such monument was the Second Symphony, which received the program name symphonic dedication to “October”.

This is a one-part work, constructed in free form. In its creation, and in the general concept of the series of “musical monuments,” the impressions of the “street” played a large role. In the first post-revolutionary years, mass propaganda art appeared. It went out onto city streets and squares. Remembering the experience of the Great French Revolution of 1789, artists, musicians, and theater workers began to create grandiose “actions” dedicated to the new Soviet holidays. For example, November 7, 1920 on central squares and the Neva embankments of Petrograd, a grandiose staging of “The Capture of the Winter Palace” was played out. The performance was attended by military units, cars, and was supervised by a combat staging staff; the design was created by prominent artists, including Shostakovich’s good friend Boris Kustodiev.

The fresco design, the flashiness of the scenes, the chanting of rally calls, various sound and noise effects - the whistle of artillery shots, the noise of car engines, the crackle of gunfire - all this was used in the productions. And Shostakovich also made extensive use of sound and noise techniques. In an effort to convey a generalized image of the people who made the revolution, he even used in the symphony such a previously unheard of “musical instrument” as a factory whistle.

He worked on the symphony in the summer. It was written very quickly - on August 21, at the invitation of the publishing house, the composer went to Moscow: “The music sector called me by telegram to demonstrate my revolutionary music,” Shostakovich wrote to Sollertinsky from Tsarskoye Selo, where he was resting in those days and where a new chapter of his personal life began - the young man met the Varzar sisters there, one of whom, Nina Vasilievna, became his wife a few years later.

Apparently the show was a success. The symphony was accepted. Its first performance took place in a solemn ceremony on the eve of the Soviet holiday on November 6, 1927 in Leningrad under the direction of N. Malko.

Music

Critics defined the first section of the symphony as “an alarming image of devastation, anarchy, chaos.” It begins with the dull sound of low strings, gloomy, unclear, merging into a continuous hum. It is cut through by distant fanfares, as if giving a signal to action. An energetic marching rhythm emerges. Struggle, striving forward, from darkness to light - this is the content of this section. What follows is a thirteen-voice episode, to which criticism has assigned the name fugato, although in the exact sense the rules by which fugato is written are not observed in it. There is a sequential entry of voices - solo violin, clarinet, bassoon, then sequentially other wooden and string instruments, connected with each other only metrically: there is no intonation or tonal connection between them. The meaning of this episode is a huge build-up of energy leading to the climax - the solemn fortissimo calls of four horns.

The sound of battle fades away. The instrumental part of the symphony ends with a lyrical episode with an expressive solo of clarinet and violin. The factory whistle, supported by percussion, precedes the conclusion of the symphony, in which the choir chants the slogan verses of Alexander Bezymensky:

We walked, we asked for work and bread,
Hearts were squeezed in the grip of melancholy.
Factory chimneys stretched to the sky,
Like hands powerless to clench fists.
The name of our snares was scary:
Silence, suffering, oppression...

((A. Bezymensky))

The music of this section is distinguished by a clear texture - chordal or imitative-subvocal, a clear sense of tonality. The chaos of the previous, purely orchestral sections completely disappears. Now the orchestra simply accompanies the singing. The symphony ends solemnly and affirmatively.

Symphony No. 3

Symphony No. 3, E-flat major, op. 20, Pervomayskaya (1929)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, strings; in the final section there is a mixed choir.

History of creation

In the spring of 1929, Shostakovich worked on the music for the film New Babylon, which he submitted to the film studio in March. The work done fascinated him with the unusual nature of the task: to write music for a silent film, music that would be performed instead of the usual improvisations of a pianist sitting in the cinema hall. In addition, he continued to do odd jobs, and a good fee from the film factory (as the later famous Lenfilm was called in those days) was not at all out of place. Immediately after this, the composer began creating the Third Symphony. By August it was completed, a fee was also received for it, and for the first time the composer could afford to go on vacation to the south. He visited Sevastopol, then stopped in Gudauta, from where he wrote to Sollertinsky, in particular, about his desire for Gauk to conduct the May Day Symphony.

In his own annotation, Shostakovich reported: “The May Day Symphony was composed in the summer of 1929. The symphony is part of a cycle of symphonic works dedicated to the revolutionary Red Calendar. The first part of the planned cycle is a symphonic dedication to “October”, the second part is the “May Day Symphony”. Both “October” and “May Day Symphony” are not works of a purely programmatic type. The author wanted to convey the general character of these holidays. If the dedication to “October” reflected the revolutionary struggle, then the “May Day Symphony” reflects our peaceful construction. This, however, does not mean that in the “May Day Symphony” the music is entirely of an apotheotic, festive nature. Peaceful construction is an intense struggle, with the same battles and victories as civil war. The author was guided by such considerations when composing the “May Day Symphony.” The symphony is written in one movement. It begins with a bright, heroic melody on the clarinet, which turns into an energetically developing main part.

After a large build-up flowing into the march, the middle part of the symphony begins - the lyrical episode. The lyrical episode is followed without a break by the scherzo, which again turns into a march, only more lively than at the beginning. The episode ends with a grandiose recitative from the entire orchestra in unison. After the recitative, the finale begins, consisting of an introduction (trombone recitative) and a final chorus based on the poems of S. Kirsanov.”

The premiere of the symphony took place on November 6, 1931 in Leningrad under the baton of A. Gauk. The music was figuratively concrete and evoked direct visual associations. Contemporaries saw it as “the image of the spring awakening of nature intertwined with images of revolutionary May Days... There is an instrumental landscape that opens the symphony, and a flying rally with oratorical upbeat intonations. The symphonic movement takes on the heroic character of struggle...” (D. Ostretsov). It was noted that the “May Day Symphony” is “almost a single attempt to birth a symphony from the dynamics of revolutionary oratory, oratorical atmosphere, oratorical intonations” (B. Asafiev). Apparently, a significant role was played by the fact that this symphony, unlike the Second, was created after the writing of film music, after the creation of the opera “The Nose,” which was also largely “cinematic” in its techniques. Hence the entertainment, the “visibility” of the images.

Music

The symphony opens with a serenely light introduction. The duet of clarinets is permeated with clear, song-like, melodic turns. The joyful call of the trumpet leads to a quick episode that has the function of a sonata allegro. A cheerful bustle and festive ebullience begins, in which invocation, declamation, and chanting episodes are discernible. A fugato begins, almost Bachian in the precision of its imitative technique and the prominence of its theme. It leads to a climax that breaks suddenly. A marching episode begins, with the beating of the drum, the singing of horns and trumpets - as if the pioneer detachments are going out for a May rally. In the next episode, the march is performed by woodwind instruments alone, and then a lyrical fragment floats in, into which, like distant echoes, wedge in the sounds of a brass band, then snatches of dances, then a waltz... This is a kind of scherzo and a slow movement within a one-movement symphony. Further musical development, active, varied, leads to an episode of a rally, where loud recitatives and “appeals” to the people are heard in the orchestra (tuba solo, trombone melody, trumpet calls), after which the choral conclusion begins on the poems of S. Kirsanov:

On the first of May
Thrown into its former glory.
Fanning the spark into the fire,
Flames covered the forest.
Ears of drooping Christmas trees
The forests listened
In May days still young
Rustles, voices...

((S. Kirsanov))

Symphony No. 4

Symphony No. 4, C minor, op. 43 (1935–1936)

Orchestra composition: 4 flutes, 2 piccolo flutes, 4 oboes, cor anglais, 4 clarinets, piccolo clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 trumpets, 8 horns, 3 trombones, tuba, 6 timpani, triangle, castanets , wooden block, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, xylophone, bells, celesta, 2 harps, strings.

History of creation

The fourth symphony marks a qualitatively new stage in the work of Shostakovich the symphonist. The composer began writing it on September 13, 1935, and its completion is dated May 20, 1936. Many serious events occurred between these two dates. Shostakovich has already gained worldwide fame. This was facilitated not only by numerous performances of the First Symphony abroad, the creation of the opera “The Nose” based on Gogol, but also by the staging of the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” on the stages of both capitals, which critics rightly ranked among the best creations of this genre.

On January 28, 1936, the central organ of the ruling Communist Party, the newspaper Pravda, published an editorial “Confusion Instead of Music,” in which the opera, which Stalin and his henchmen did not like, was subjected not only to devastating criticism, but to rude, obscene defamation. A few days later, on February 6, the article “Ballet Falsity” was published there - about Shostakovich’s ballet “The Bright Stream”. And the frantic persecution of the artist began.

Meetings were held in Moscow and Leningrad at which musicians criticized the composer, beat their chests and repented of their mistakes if they had previously praised him. Shostakovich was left practically alone. Only his wife and his faithful friend Sollertinsky supported him. However, it was no easier for Sollertinsky: he, a prominent musical figure, a brilliant polymath who promoted the best works of our time, was called the evil genius of Shostakovich. In the terrible conditions of the time, when there was only one step from aesthetic to political accusations, when not a single person in the country could be protected from the nightly visit of the “black raven” (as people called the gloomy closed vans in which the arrested were taken away), Shostakovich’s position was very serious. Many were simply afraid to greet him and crossed to the other side of the street if they saw him coming towards him. It is not surprising that the work turned out to be covered in the tragic breath of those days.

Something else is also important. Even before all these events, after the outwardly theatrical one-movement compositions of the Second and Third, enriched by the experience of writing his second opera, Shostakovich decided to turn to creating a philosophically significant symphonic cycle. A huge role was played by the fact that Sollertinsky, who had been the composer’s closest friend for several years, infected him with his boundless love for Mahler, a unique humanist artist who created, as he himself wrote, “worlds” in his symphonies, and did not simply embody this or that other musical concept. Sollertinsky, back in 1935, at a conference dedicated to symphony, urged his friend to create a conceptual symphony, to move away from the methods of the two previous experiments in this genre.

According to the testimony of one of Shostakovich’s younger colleagues, composer I. Finkelstein, who was Shostakovich’s assistant at the conservatory at that time, during the composition of the Fourth, the composer’s piano always had the notes of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony on it. The influence of the great Austrian symphonist was reflected in the grandeur of the concept, and in the monumentality of forms previously unprecedented in Shostakovich, and in the heightened expression of musical language, in sudden sharp contrasts, in the mixture of “low” and “high” genres, in the close interweaving of lyricism and grotesque, even in the use of Mahler's favorite intonations.

The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Stidri, was already practicing the symphony when its performance was cancelled. Previously, there was a version according to which the composer himself canceled the performance because he was not satisfied with the work of the conductor and orchestra. In recent years, another version has appeared - that the performance was prohibited “from above,” from Smolny. I. Glikman in the book “Letters to a Friend” says that, according to the composer himself, the symphony was “filmed on the urgent recommendation of Renzin (then director of the Philharmonic), who did not want to use administrative measures and begged the author to refuse to perform it himself...” It seems , in the circumstances of those years, this recommendation essentially saved Shostakovich. There were no “sanctions,” but they certainly would have been if such a symphony had sounded so soon after the ever-memorable article “Confusion Instead of Music.” And it is unknown how this could end for the composer. The premiere of the symphony was postponed for many years. This composition was first performed only on December 30, 1961, under the baton of Kirill Kondrashin.

It was a great symphony. Then, in the mid-30s, it was impossible to fully understand it. Only many decades later, having learned about the crimes of the leaders of the “party of a new type,” as the Bolsheviks called themselves; about genocide against his own people, about the triumph of lawlessness, listening again to Shostakovich’s symphonies, starting with the Fourth, we understand that he, most likely not knowing about what was happening in full, foresaw all this with the genius instinct of a musician and expressed it in his music, equal which, in terms of the power of embodiment of our tragedy, does not exist and, perhaps, will no longer exist.

Music

First part The symphony begins with a laconic introduction, followed by a huge main part. The hard march-like first theme is filled with evil, indomitable power. It is replaced by a more transparent episode that seems somehow unstable. March rhythms break through the vague wanderings. Gradually they conquer the entire sound space, reaching enormous intensity. The side part is deeply lyrical. The monologue of the bassoon, supported by strings, sounds restrained and mournful. The bass clarinet, solo violin, and horns enter with their “statements.” Sparing, muted colors and strict coloring give this section a slightly mysterious sound. And again, grotesque images gradually penetrate, as if a devilish obsession is replacing an enchanted silence. The huge development opens with a caricatured puppet dance, in the outlines of which the contours of the main theme are recognizable. Its middle section is a whirlwind fugato of strings, developing into the menacing tread of a rapid march. The development concludes with a fantastic waltz-like episode. In the reprise, the themes sound in the reverse order - first a secondary one, sharply intonated by the trumpet and trombone against the backdrop of clear string strikes and softened by the calm timbre of the English horn. The violin solo ends it with its leisurely lyrical melody. Then the bassoon gloomily sings the main theme, and everything fades into a wary silence, interrupted by mysterious screams and splashes.

Second part- scherzo. In moderate movement, meandering melodies flow non-stop. They have an intonation relationship with some themes of the first part. They are being rethought and re-intoned. Grotesque images, disturbing, broken motifs appear. The first theme is dance-elastic. Its presentation by the violas, intertwined with many subtle echoes, gives the music a ghostly, fantastic flavor. Its development occurs in an increasing manner to an alarming climax in the sound of the trombones. The second theme is a waltz, slightly melancholic, slightly capricious, framed by a thundering timpani solo. These two themes are repeated, thereby creating a double two-part form. In the coda, everything gradually melts away, the first theme seems to dissolve, only the ominous dry tapping of castanets can be heard.

Final. In the frame of this funeral procession, various paintings succeed one another: a heavy, sharply accented scherzo, imbued with anxiety, a pastoral scene with bird chirping and a light naive melody (also in the spirit of Mahler’s pastorals); a simple-minded waltz, rather even his village older brother Ländler; a playful polka song with a solo bassoon, accompanied by comic orchestral effects; a cheerful youthful march... After a long preparation, the tread of the majestic funeral procession returns. The march theme, sounding successively among the woodwinds, trumpets and strings, reaches an extreme level of tension and suddenly ends. The coda of the finale is an echo of what happened, a slow dissipation in a long chord of strings.

Symphony No. 5

Symphony No. 5, D minor, op. 47 (1937)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, piccolo clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, military drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tam, bells, xylophone, celesta, 2 harps, piano, strings.

History of creation

In January and February 1936, the press launched an unprecedented scale of persecution of Shostakovich, then already a recognized composer of international stature. He was accused of formalism and being out of touch with the people. The seriousness of the charges was such that the composer seriously feared arrest. The fourth symphony, which he completed in the following months, remained unknown for many years - its performance was postponed for a quarter of a century.

But the composer continued to create. Along with film music, which had to be written, since this was the only source of income for the family, the next one, the Fifth Symphony, was written over the course of several weeks in 1937, the content of which largely overlapped with the Fourth. The nature of the theme was similar, and the concept was similar. But the author made a colossal step forward: the strict classicality of forms, the precision and accuracy of the musical language made it possible to encrypt the true meaning. The composer himself, when asked by critics what this music was about, answered that he wanted to show “how through a series of tragic conflicts, a great internal struggle, optimism is established as a worldview.”

The fifth symphony was performed for the first time on November 21 of the same year in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic under the baton of E. Mravinsky. An atmosphere of sensationalism reigned at the premiere. Everyone was worried about how the composer responded to the terrible accusations brought against him.

It is now clear how accurately the music reflected its time. A time when a huge country during the day seemed to be seething with enthusiasm to the cheerful lines “Should we stand still, in our daring we are always right,” and at night it lay awake, gripped by horror, listening to street noises, waiting every minute for footsteps on the stairs and fatal knock on the door. This is exactly what Mandelstam wrote about then:

I live on the black stairs and to the temple
A bell torn out with meat hits me,
And all night long I wait for my dear guests,
Moving the shackles of the door chains...

((Mandelshtam))

This is exactly what Shostakovich’s new symphony was about. But his music was without words, and it could be interpreted by performers and understood by listeners in different ways. Of course, when working with Mravinsky, Shostakovich, who was present at all rehearsals, strove to ensure that the music sounded “optimistic.” It probably worked. In addition, apparently, “at the top” it was decided that the punitive action against Shostakovich was temporarily over: the principle of carrots and sticks was in effect, and now it was time for carrots.

“Public recognition” was organized. It is no coincidence that articles on the Fifth Symphony were commissioned not only from musicians, in particular Mravinsky, but also from Alexei Tolstoy, officially recognized as one of the best Soviet writers, and from the famous pilot Mikhail Gromov. Of course, the latter would not speak out on the pages of the press according to at will. The composer himself wrote: “...The theme of my symphony is the formation of personality. It was the man with all his experiences that I saw at the center of the concept of this work, lyrical in its tone from beginning to end. The finale of the symphony resolves the tragically tense moments of the first movements in a cheerful, optimistic way. We sometimes have questions about the legitimacy of the tragedy genre itself in Soviet art. But at the same time, true tragedy is often confused with doom and pessimism. I think that Soviet tragedy as a genre has every right to exist..."

However, listen to the finale: is everything there as uniquely optimistic as the composer declared? A subtle connoisseur of music, philosopher, essayist G. Gachev writes about the Fifth: “... 1937 - to the howl of the demonstrating masses, marching and demanding the execution of the “enemies of the people”, the guillotine machine of the State tosses and turns - and this is in the finale of the Fifth Symphony...” And further: “The USSR is at a construction site - just who knows what, a happy future or the Gulag?..”

Music

First part The symphony unfolds as a narrative filled with personal pain and, at the same time, philosophical depth. The persistent “questions” of the initial bars, tense as a tense nerve, are replaced by the melody of the violins - unstable, searching, with broken, indefinite contours (researchers most often define it as Hamletian or Faustian). Next is a side part, also in the clear timbre of the violins, enlightened, chastely tender. There is no conflict yet - only different sides of an attractive and complex image. Other intonations burst into development - harsh, inhumane. At the top of the dynamic wave, a mechanical march appears. It seems that everything is suppressed by the soulless heavy movement under the harsh beat of the drum (this is how the image of an alien oppressive force, which originated in the first part of the Fourth Symphony, which will pass through practically the entire symphonic work of the composer, emerging with the greatest force in the Seventh Symphony), is for the first time powerfully manifested. But “from under it” the initial intonations and “questions” of the introduction still make their way through; they make their way in disarray, having lost their former fortitude. The reprise is overshadowed by previous events. The secondary theme no longer sounds in the violins, but in the dialogue between the flute and the horn - muffled, darkened. In conclusion, also by the flute, the first theme sounds in circulation, as if turned inside out. Its echoes go up, as if enlightened by suffering.

Second part according to the laws of the classical symphonic cycle, it temporarily removes you from the main conflict. But this is not ordinary detachment, not simple-minded fun. The humor is not as good-natured as it may initially seem. In the music of the three-movement scherzo, unsurpassed in grace and filigree skill, there is a subtle smile, irony, and sometimes some kind of mechanicalness. It seems that the sound is not an orchestra, but a giant wind-up toy. Today we would say that these are robot dances... The fun feels unreal, inhuman, and at times there are ominous notes in it. Perhaps the clearest continuity here is with Mahler’s grotesque scherzos.

Third part concentrated, detached from everything external and random. This is thinking. Deep reflection of the artist-thinker about himself, about time, about events, about people. The flow of music is calm, its development is slow. Heartfelt melodies replace one another, as if one were born from the other. Lyrical monologues and a brief chorale episode are heard. Perhaps this is a requiem for those who have already died and for those who still await death lurking in the night? Excitement, confusion, pathos appear, cries of mental pain are heard... The form of the piece is free and fluid. It interacts with various compositional principles, combines sonata, variation, and rondo features that contribute to the development of one dominant image.

Final symphonies (sonata form with an episode instead of a development) in a decisive, purposeful marching movement seem to sweep away everything unnecessary. It moves forward - faster and faster - life itself, as it is. And all that remains is to either merge with it or be swept away by it. If you wish, you can interpret this music as optimistic. It contains the noise of a street crowd, festive fanfare. But there is something feverish in this jubilation. The whirlwind movement is replaced by solemn and hymn sounds, which, however, lack genuine chant. Then there is an episode of reflection, an excited lyrical statement. Again - reflection, comprehension, departure from the environment. But we have to return to it: ominous bursts of drumming are heard from afar. And again the official fanfare begins, sounding under the ambiguous - either festive or mournful - timpani beats. The symphony ends with these hammering blows.

Symphony No. 6

Symphony No. 6, B minor, op. 54 (1939)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, piccolo clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, military drum , triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, xylophone, celesta, harp, strings.

History of creation

In the mid-thirties, Shostakovich worked a lot. Usually - over several essays at once. Almost simultaneously, music was created for Afinogenov’s play “Salute, Spain!”, commissioned by the Pushkin Theater (former and now Alexandria), romances based on Pushkin’s poems, music for the films “Maxim’s Youth”, “The Return of Maxim”, “Vyborg Side”. Essentially, except for a few romances, everything else was done to earn money, although the composer always worked very responsibly, not allowing orders to be taken lightly. The wound inflicted by the editorial article “Confusion Instead of Music,” published on January 28, 1936 in the central party organ, the Pravda newspaper, did not heal. After the defamation that Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and indeed the composer’s entire creative direction, was subjected to in the press, he was afraid to take on opera again. Various proposals appeared, he was shown the libretto, but Shostakovich invariably refused. He vowed not to write an opera until Lady Macbeth was staged again. Therefore, only instrumental genres remained accessible to him.

The First String Quartet, written throughout 1938, became an outlet among the imposed works and at the same time a test of oneself in a new genre. This was only the third, after the youthful Trio and the Sonata for cello and piano written in 1934, to turn to the chamber instrumental genre. The creation of the quartet was long and difficult. Shostakovich reported in detail about all stages of his composition in letters to his beloved friend, the outstanding musical figure Sollertinsky, who was in the hospital in those months. Only in the fall did the composer, with his characteristic humor, announce: “I finished... my quartet, the beginning of which I played for you. In the process of composing, I changed my mind on the fly. The 1st part became the last, the last - the first. There are 4 parts of all. It didn't turn out so well. But, by the way, it is difficult to write well. You have to be able to do this."

After the end of the quartet, a new symphonic idea arose. The Sixth Symphony was created over several months in 1939. It is significant that about a year before its premiere, in newspaper interviews, Shostakovich said that he was attracted by the idea of ​​a symphony dedicated to Lenin - large-scale, using Mayakovsky’s poems and folk texts (obviously pseudo-folk, glorifying leaders, poems that were created in large quantities and were presented as folk art), with the participation of a choir and solo singers. We will no longer know whether the composer really thought about such a composition, or whether it was a kind of camouflage. Perhaps he felt it necessary to write such a symphony to confirm his loyalty: reproaches for formalism, for the alienness of his work to the people, although they were not as aggressive as two years ago, continued to appear. And the political situation in the country has not changed at all. Arrests continued in the same way, people also suddenly disappeared, including Shostakovich’s close acquaintances: the famous director Meyerhold, the famous Marshal Tukhachevsky. In this situation, the Lenin Symphony was not at all out of place, but... it didn’t work out. The new composition turned out to be a complete surprise for the listeners. Everything was unexpected - three movements instead of the usual four, the absence of a fast sonata allegro at the beginning, the second and third movements were similar in terms of images. A symphony without a head - some critics called the Sixth.

The symphony was first performed in Leningrad on November 5, 1939 under the baton of E. Mravinsky.

Music

Rich string sound at the beginning first part immerses you in the atmosphere of typically Shostakovich intense thought - inquisitive, searching. This is music of amazing beauty, purity and depth. The piccolo flute solo - a touchingly lonely melody, somehow unprotected - floats out of the general flow and goes back into it. You can hear the echoes of a funeral march... Now it seems that this is a sad, and at times tragic, attitude of a person who finds himself in unimaginable circumstances. Didn't what was happening around give grounds for such feelings? Everyone’s personal grief combined with many personal tragedies, turning into the tragic fate of the people.

Second part, the scherzo is some kind of mindless whirling of masks, not living images. The fun of the doll carnival. It seems that the bright guest from the first movement appeared for a moment (the piccolo flute reminds us of her). And then - ponderous moves, fanfare sounds, timpani of the “official” holiday... The mindless whirling of deathly masks returns.

Final- This is, perhaps, a picture of life that goes on as usual, day after day in the usual routine, without giving either time or opportunity for reflection. The music, as almost always with Shostakovich, is not scary at first, almost deliberately in its slightly exaggerated joy, gradually acquires menacing features, turns into a revelry of forces - extra- and anti-human. Everything is mixed here: classicist musical themes, Haydn-Mozart-Rossini, and modern intonations of youth, cheerfully optimistic songs, and pop-dance rhythmic intonations. And all this merges into universal rejoicing, leaving no room for reflection, feeling, or manifestation of personality.

Symphony No. 7

Symphony No. 7, C major, op. 60, Leningradskaya (1941)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, alto flute, piccolo flute, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, piccolo clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 5 timpani, triangle , tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, xylophone, 2 harps, piano, strings.

History of creation

It is not known exactly when, in the late 30s or in 1940, but in any case, even before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Shostakovich wrote variations on an unchanging theme - the passacaglia, similar in concept to Ravel's Bolero. He showed it to his younger colleagues and students (since the autumn of 1937, Shostakovich taught composition and orchestration at the Leningrad Conservatory). The theme, simple, as if dancing, developed against the background of the dry knock of a snare drum and grew to enormous power. At first it sounded harmless, even somewhat frivolous, but it grew into a terrible symbol of suppression. The composer shelved this work without performing or publishing it.

On June 22, 1941, his life, like the lives of all people in our country, changed dramatically. The war began, previous plans were crossed out. Everyone began to work for the needs of the front. Shostakovich, along with everyone else, dug trenches and was on duty during air raids. He made arrangements for concert brigades sent to active units. Naturally, there were no pianos on the front lines, and he rearranged accompaniments for small ensembles and did other necessary work, as it seemed to him. But as always, this unique musician-publicist - as was the case since childhood, when momentary impressions of the turbulent revolutionary years were conveyed in music - a major symphonic plan began to mature, dedicated directly to what was happening. He began writing the Seventh Symphony. The first part was completed in the summer. He managed to show it to his closest friend I. Sollertinsky, who on August 22 was leaving for Novosibirsk with the Philharmonic, whose artistic director he had been for many years. In September, already in blockaded Leningrad, the composer created the second part and showed it to his colleagues. Started working on the third part.

On October 1, by special order of the authorities, he, his wife and two children were flown to Moscow. From there, half a month later, he traveled further east by train. Initially it was planned to go to the Urals, but Shostakovich decided to stop in Kuibyshev (as Samara was called in those years). The Bolshoi Theater was based here, there were many acquaintances who initially took the composer and his family into their home, but very quickly the city leadership allocated him a room, and in early December, a two-room apartment. It was equipped with a piano, loaned by the local music school. It was possible to continue working.

Unlike the first three parts, which were created literally in one go, work on the final progressed slowly. It was sad and anxious at heart. Mother and sister remained in besieged Leningrad, which experienced the most terrible, hungry and cold days. The pain for them did not leave for a minute. It was bad even without Sollertinsky. The composer was accustomed to the fact that a friend was always there, that one could share one’s innermost thoughts with him - and this, in those days of universal denunciation, became the greatest value. Shostakovich wrote to him often. He reported literally everything that could be entrusted to censored mail. In particular, about the fact that the ending “is not written.” It is not surprising that the last part took a long time to come through. Shostakovich understood that in the symphony dedicated to the events of the war, everyone expected a solemn victorious apotheosis with a choir, a celebration of the coming victory. But there was no reason for this yet, and he wrote as his heart dictated. It is no coincidence that the opinion later spread that the finale was inferior in importance to the first part, that the forces of evil were embodied much stronger than the humanistic principle opposing them.

On December 27, 1941, the Seventh Symphony was completed. Of course, Shostakovich wanted it to be performed by his favorite orchestra - the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mravinsky. But he was far away, in Novosibirsk, and the authorities insisted on an urgent premiere: the performance of the symphony, which the composer called Leningrad and dedicated to the feat of his native city, was given political significance. The premiere took place in Kuibyshev on March 5, 1942. The Bolshoi Theater Orchestra conducted by Samuil Samosud played.

It is very interesting what the “official writer” of that time, Alexey Tolstoy, wrote about the symphony: “The seventh symphony is dedicated to the triumph of the human in man. Let us try (at least partially) to penetrate the path of Shostakovich’s musical thinking - in the menacing dark nights of Leningrad, under the roar of explosions, in the glow of fires, it led him to writing this frank work.<…>The Seventh Symphony arose from the conscience of the Russian people, who without hesitation accepted mortal combat with the black forces. Written in Leningrad, it has grown to the size of great world art, understandable at all latitudes and meridians, because it tells the truth about man in an unprecedented time of his misfortunes and trials. The symphony is transparent in its enormous complexity, it is both stern and masculinely lyrical, and all flies into the future, revealing itself beyond the victory of man over the beast.

...The violins talk about stormless happiness - trouble lurks in it, it is still blind and limited, like that bird that “walks merrily along the path of disasters”... In this well-being, from the dark depths of unresolved contradictions, the theme of war arises - short, dry, clear , similar to a steel hook.

Let’s make a reservation: the man of the Seventh Symphony is someone typical, generalized, and someone beloved by the author. Shostakovich himself is national in the symphony, his Russian enraged conscience is national, bringing down the seventh heaven of the symphony on the heads of the destroyers.

The theme of war arises remotely and at first looks like some kind of simple and eerie dance, like learned rats dancing to the tune of the rat catcher. Like a rising wind, this theme begins to sway the orchestra, it takes possession of it, grows, and becomes stronger. The rat catcher, with his iron rats, rises from behind the hill... This is war moving. She triumphs in the timpani and drums, the violins answer with a cry of pain and despair. And it seems to you, squeezing the oak railings with your fingers: is it really, really everything has already been crushed and torn apart? There is confusion and chaos in the orchestra.

No. Man is stronger than the elements. The string instruments begin to struggle. The harmony of violins and human voices of bassoons is more powerful than the rumble of a donkey skin stretched over drums. With the desperate beating of your heart you help the triumph of harmony. And the violins harmonize the chaos of war, silence its cavernous roar.

The damned rat catcher is no more, he is carried away into the black abyss of time. Only the thoughtful and stern human voice of the bassoon can be heard - after so many losses and disasters. There is no return to stormless happiness. Before the gaze of a person, wise in suffering, is the path traveled, where he seeks justification for life.

Blood is shed for the beauty of the world. Beauty is not fun, not delight and not festive clothes, beauty is re-creation and arrangement wildlife hands and genius of man. The symphony seems to touch with a light breath the great heritage of the human journey, and it comes to life.

The middle (third - L.M.) part of the symphony is a renaissance, the revival of beauty from dust and ashes. It is as if the shadows of great art, great goodness were evoked before the eyes of the new Dante by the force of stern and lyrical reflection.

The final movement of the symphony flies into the future. Before the listeners... A majestic world of ideas and passions is revealed. This is worth living for and worth fighting for. The powerful theme of man now speaks not about happiness, but about happiness. Here - you are caught up in the light, you are as if in a whirlwind of it... And again you are swaying on the azure waves of the ocean of the future. With increasing tension you wait... for the completion of a huge musical experience. The violins pick you up, you can’t breathe, as if on mountain heights, and together with the harmonic storm of the orchestra, in unimaginable tension, you rush into a breakthrough, into the future, towards the blue cities of a higher order...” (“Pravda”, 1942, February 16).

Now this insightful review is read with completely different eyes, just as the music is heard differently. “Stormless happiness”, “blind and limited” - it is very accurately said about life full of optimism on the surface, under which the Gulag archipelago is freely located. And “the pied piper with his iron rats” is not only war.

Is this a terrible march of fascism across Europe, or did the composer interpret his music more broadly - as an attack of totalitarianism on the individual?.. After all, this episode was written earlier! Actually, this duality of meaning can be seen in the lines of Alexei Tolstoy. One thing is clear - here, in a symphony dedicated to the hero city, the martyr city, the episode turned out to be organic. And the entire gigantic four-part symphony became a great monument to the feat of Leningrad.

After the Kuibyshev premiere, the symphonies were held in Moscow and Novosibirsk (under the baton of Mravinsky), but the most remarkable, truly heroic one took place under the baton of Carl Eliasberg in besieged Leningrad. To perform the monumental symphony with a huge orchestra, musicians were recalled from military units. Before the start of rehearsals, some had to be admitted to the hospital - fed and treated, since all ordinary residents of the city had become dystrophic. On the day the symphony was performed - August 9, 1942 - all the artillery forces of the besieged city were sent to suppress enemy firing points: nothing should have interfered with the significant premiere.

And the white-columned hall of the Philharmonic was full. Pale, exhausted Leningraders filled it to hear music dedicated to them. The speakers carried it throughout the city.

The public around the world perceived the performance of the Seventh as an event of great importance. Soon, requests began to arrive from abroad to send the score. Competition broke out between the largest orchestras in the Western Hemisphere for the right to perform the symphony first. Shostakovich's choice fell on Toscanini. A plane carrying precious microfilms flew across a war-torn world, and on July 19, 1942, the Seventh Symphony was performed in New York. Her victorious march across the globe began.

Music

First part begins in a clear, light C major with a wide, sing-song melody of an epic nature, with a pronounced Russian national flavor. It develops, grows, and is filled with more and more power. The side part is also songlike. It resembles a soft, calm lullaby. The conclusion of the exhibition sounds peaceful. Everything breathes the calm of peaceful life. But then, from somewhere far away, the beat of a drum is heard, and then a melody appears: primitive, similar to the banal couplets of a chansonette - the personification of everyday life and vulgarity. This begins the “invasion episode” (thus, the form of the first movement is a sonata with an episode instead of a development). At first the sound seems harmless. However, the theme is repeated eleven times, increasingly intensifying. It does not change melodically, only the texture becomes denser, more and more new instruments are added, then the theme is presented not in one voice, but in chord complexes. And as a result, she grows into a colossal monster - a gnashing machine of destruction that seems to erase all life. But opposition begins. After a powerful climax, the reprise comes darkened, in condensed minor colors. The melody of the side part is especially expressive, becoming melancholy and lonely. A most expressive bassoon solo is heard. It's no longer a lullaby, but rather a cry punctuated by painful spasms. Only in the coda for the first time does the main part sound in a major key, finally affirming the so hard-won overcoming of the forces of evil.

Second part- scherzo - designed in soft, chamber tones. The first theme, presented by the strings, combines light sadness and a smile, slightly noticeable humor and self-absorption. The oboe expressively performs the second theme - a romance, extended. Then others come in wind instruments. The themes alternate in a complex tripartite, creating an attractive and bright image, in which many critics see a musical picture of Leningrad with transparent white nights. Only in the middle section of the scherzo do other, harsh features appear, and a caricatured, distorted image is born, full of feverish excitement. The reprise of the scherzo sounds muffled and sad.

Third part- a majestic and soulful adagio. It opens with a choral introduction, sounding like a requiem for the dead. This is followed by a pathetic statement from the violins. The second theme is close to the violin theme, but the timbre of the flute and a more songlike character convey, in the words of the composer himself, “the rapture of life, admiration for nature.” The middle episode of the part is characterized by stormy drama and romantic tension. It can be perceived as a memory of the past, a reaction to the tragic events of the first part, aggravated by the impression of enduring beauty in the second. The reprise begins with a recitative from the violins, the chorale sounds again, and everything fades into the mysteriously rumbling beats of the tom-tom and the rustling tremolo of the timpani. The transition to the last part begins.

At the beginning finals- the same barely audible timpani tremolo, the quiet sound of muted violins, muffled signals. There is a gradual, slow gathering of strength. In the twilight darkness the main theme arises, full of indomitable energy. Its deployment is colossal in scale. This is an image of struggle, of popular anger. It is replaced by an episode in the rhythm of a saraband - sad and majestic, like a memory of the fallen. And then begins a steady ascent to the triumph of the conclusion of the symphony, where the main theme of the first movement, as a symbol of peace and impending victory, sounds dazzling from the trumpets and trombones.

Symphony No. 8

Symphony No. 8, C minor, op. 65 (1943)

Orchestra composition: 4 flutes, 2 piccolo flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets, piccolo clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, xylophone, strings.

History of creation

With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Shostakovich was evacuated to Kuibyshev - that’s what Samara was then called - a city in the Middle Volga. Enemy planes did not fly there; in October 1941, when Moscow began to face the immediate danger of invasion, all government institutions, embassies, and the Bolshoi Theater were evacuated. Shostakovich lived in Kuibyshev for almost two years, where he completed the Seventh Symphony. It was performed there for the first time by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra.

Shostakovich languished in Kuibyshev. He felt bad without friends, mainly he missed his closest friend, Sollertinsky, who, together with the Leningrad Philharmonic, of which he was the artistic director, was at that time in Novosibirsk. I also yearned for symphonic music, which was practically non-existent in the city on the Volga. The fruit of loneliness and thoughts about friends were romances based on poems by English and Scottish poets, written in 1942. The most significant of them, Shakespeare's 66th sonnet, was dedicated to Sollertinsky. The composer dedicated a piano sonata to the memory of Shostakovich's piano teacher L. Nikolaev, who died in Tashkent (the Leningrad Conservatory was temporarily located there). I began writing the opera “The Players” based on the full text of Gogol’s comedy.

At the end of 1942 he became seriously ill. He was struck down by typhoid fever. Recovery was painfully slow. In March 1943, for a final correction, he was sent to a sanatorium near Moscow. By that time, the military situation had become more favorable, and some began to return to Moscow. Shostakovich also began to think about moving to the capital for permanent residence. A little more than a month later he was already settling down in Moscow, in the apartment he had just received. There he began working on his next, the Eighth Symphony. Basically, it was created in the summer in the House of Composers' Creativity near the city of Ivanovo.

It was officially believed that its theme was a continuation of the Seventh - showing the crimes of fascism on Soviet soil. In fact, the content of the symphony is much deeper: it embodies the theme of the horrors of totalitarianism, the confrontation between man and the anti-human machine of suppression, destruction, no matter what it is called, in what guise it appears. In the Eighth Symphony, this theme is explored in a multifaceted, generalized manner, on a high philosophical level.

At the beginning of September Mravinsky arrived in Moscow from Novosibirsk. This was the conductor whom Shostakovich trusted most of all. Mravinsky performed the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies for the first time. He worked with Shostakovich’s native ensemble, the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, in direct contact with Sollertinsky, who understood his friend like no one else and helped the conductor in correct interpretation his writings. Shostakovich showed Mravinsky the not yet fully recorded music, and the conductor was fired up with the idea of ​​immediately performing the work. At the end of October he came to the capital again. By that time the composer had completed the score. Rehearsals have begun with the State symphony orchestra USSR. Shostakovich was so pleased with the impeccable work of the conductor and the orchestra that he dedicated the symphony to Mravinsky. The premiere under his direction took place in Moscow on November 4, 1943.

The Eighth Symphony is the culmination of tragedy in Shostakovich's work. Its truthfulness is merciless, emotions are heated to the limit, the intensity of expressive means is truly colossal. The symphony is unusual. The usual proportions of light and shadow, tragic and optimistic images are violated in it. A harsh color prevails. Among the five movements of the symphony, there is not a single one that plays the role of an interlude. Each of them is deeply tragic.

Music

First part the largest one lasts about half an hour. Almost as much as the other four combined. Its content is multifaceted. This is a song about suffering. There is thought and concentration in it. The inevitability of grief. Crying for the dead - and the torment of questions. Scary questions: how? Why? how could all this happen? Creepy, nightmarish images emerge in the development, reminiscent of Goya's anti-war etchings or Picasso's paintings. Piercing exclamations of woodwind instruments, dry clicking of strings, terrible blows, as if of a hammer crushing all living things, metallic grinding. And above everything is a triumphant, ponderous march, reminiscent of the invasion march from the Seventh Symphony, but devoid of its specificity, even more terrible in its fantastic generality. The music tells the story of Satan terrible force, bringing death to all living things. But it also causes colossal opposition: a storm, a terrible tension of all forces. In the lyrics - enlightened, soulful - comes resolution from the experience.

Second part- an ominous military march-scherzo. Its main theme is based on the haunting sound of a segment of the chromatic scale.

“The brass and some of the wooden instruments respond to the heavy, victorious tread of the unison melody with loud exclamations, like a crowd shouting enthusiastically at a parade” (M. Sabinina). Its rapid movement gives way to a ghostly toy gallop (a side theme of the sonata form). Both of these images are deathly, mechanical. Their development gives the impression of an inexorably approaching catastrophe.

Third part- toccata - with a terrible movement in its inhuman inexorability, suppressing everything with its gait. This is a monstrous machine of destruction moving, mercilessly cutting up all living things. The central episode of a complex three-part form is a kind of Danse macabre with a mockingly dancing melody, an image of death dancing its terrible dance on mountains of corpses...

The culmination of the symphony is the transition to the fourth movement, a majestic and mournful passacaglia. The strict, ascetic theme, which enters after a general pause, sounds like a voice of pain and anger. It is repeated twelve times, unchanged, as if enchanted, in the low registers of the bass, and against its background other images unfold - hidden suffering, meditation, philosophical depth.

Gradually, to the beginning finals, following the passacaglia without interruption, as if pouring out of it, enlightenment occurs. It was as if, after a long and terrible night filled with nightmares, the dawn had broken. In the calm strumming of the bassoon, the carefree chirping of the flute, the chant of the strings, the bright calls of the horn, a landscape is painted, filled with warm soft colors - a symbolic parallel to the rebirth of the human heart. Silence reigns on the tormented earth, in the tormented soul of man. Pictures of suffering emerge several times in the finale, as a warning, as a call: “Remember, don’t let this happen again!” The coda of the finale, written in a complex form, combining the features of a sonata and a rondo, paints a picture of the desired, hard-won peace full of high poetry.

Symphony No. 9

Symphony No. 9, E-flat major, op. 70 (1945)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bells, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, strings.

History of creation

In the first post-war months, Shostakovich worked on his new symphony. When the newspapers reported about the upcoming premiere of the Ninth, both music lovers and critics expected to hear a monumental work, written in the same plan as the two previous grandiose cycles, but full of light, glorifying victory and the victors. The premiere, which took place according to established tradition in Leningrad under the direction of Mravinsky, on November 3, 1945, surprised everyone and disappointed some. The work was presented as a miniature (less than 25 minutes long), elegant, somewhat reminiscent of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, in some ways echoing Mahler's Fourth... Outwardly unpretentious, classical in appearance - the principles of the Viennese symphony of Haydn and Mozart are clearly visible in it - it evoked the most contradictory opinions. Some believed that the new opus appeared “at the wrong time,” others that the composer “responded to the historical victory of the Soviet people,” that it was “a joyful sigh of relief.” The symphony was defined as “a lyric-comedy work, not devoid of dramatic elements that highlight the main line of development” and as a “tragic-satirical pamphlet.”

The composer, who was the artistic conscience of his time, was never characterized by serene joy and joyful play of sounds. And the Ninth Symphony, with all its grace, lightness, even external brilliance, is far from a problem-free composition. Her fun is not at all simple-minded and balances on the brink of the grotesque; lyricism is intertwined with drama. It is no coincidence that the concept of the symphony, and some of its intonations, make us recall Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.

It could not be that Shostakovich, who had so recently lost his closest friend (Sollertinsky died in February 1944), did not turn to the deceased’s favorite composer, Mahler. This wonderful Austrian artist, who spent his entire life, by his own definition, writing music on the theme “how can I be happy if somewhere a living creature is suffering,” created musical worlds, in each of which he tried again and again to resolve “damned questions” : why does a person live, why does he have to suffer, what is life and death... At the turn of the century, he created the amazing Fourth, about which he later wrote: “This is a persecuted stepson who has so far seen very little joy... I know now that the humor of such of a kind, probably different from wit, a joke or a cheerful whim, is not often understood at best.” In his understanding of humor, Mahler proceeded from the teaching of the comic by Jean-Paul, who considered humor as a protective laughter: it saves a person from contradictions that he is powerless to eliminate, from the tragedies that fill his life, from the despair that inevitably overwhelms him when he looks at his surroundings seriously... The naivety of Mahler's Fourth does not come from ignorance, but from the desire to avoid “damned questions”, to be content with what we have, and not to seek or demand more. Having abandoned his characteristic monumentality and drama, Mahler in the Fourth turns to lyricism and the grotesque, with them expressing the main idea - the collision of the hero with a vulgar, and sometimes terrible, world.

All this turned out to be very close to Shostakovich. Is this where his concept of the Ninth comes from?

Music

First part outwardly simple-minded, cheerful and reminiscent of the sonata allegro of the Viennese classics. The main party is cloudless and carefree. It is quickly replaced by a secondary theme - a dancing piccolo flute theme, accompanied by pizzicato string chords, timpani and drums. It seems perky, almost buffoonish, but listen: there is a clearly noticeable kinship in it with the theme of the invasion from the Seventh! At first, it also seemed like a harmless, primitive melody. And here, in the development of the Ninth, its not at all harmless features appear! The themes are subject to grotesque distortion, the motif of the vulgar, once popular polka “Oira” invades. In the reprise, the main theme can no longer return to its former lightheartedness, and the side theme is completely absent: it goes into the coda, ending the part ironically, ambiguously.

Second part- lyrical moderate. The clarinet solo sounds like a sad reflection. It is replaced by excited phrases of the strings - a secondary theme of the sonata form without development. Throughout the piece, sincere, soulful romance intonations dominate; it is laconic and collected.

In contrast to her scherzo(in the usual complex three-part form for this part) flies by like a swift whirlwind. At first carefree, with a never-ending pulsation of a clear rhythm, the music gradually changes and moves to a real revelry of whirlwind movement, which leads to the heavy-sounding Largo that enters without interruption.

Mourning intonations Largo, and especially the mournful monologue of the solo bassoon, interrupted by exclamations of the brass, remind of the tragedy that is always invisibly nearby, no matter how naive fun reigns on the surface. The fourth part is laconic - it is just a short reminder, a kind of improvisational introduction to the finale.

IN final the element of official joy reigns again. About the bassoon solo, which just, in the previous movement, sounded sincere and soulful, and now starts an awkwardly dancing theme (the main part of a sonata form with features of a rondo), I. Nestyev writes: “The fiery orator, who has just delivered a funeral speech, suddenly turns into a playfully winking, laughing comedian." More than once during the finale this image returns, and in the reprise it is no longer clear whether this is a spontaneous celebration spilling over the edge, or a triumphant mechanistic, inhuman force. At maximum volume, the coda sounds a motif almost identical to the theme of “heavenly living” - the finale of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.

Symphony No. 10

Symphony No. 10, E minor, op. 93 (1953)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo flute, 3 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, piccolo clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, xylophone, strings.

History of creation

The Tenth Symphony, one of Shostakovich's most personal, autobiographical works, was composed in 1953. The previous one, the Ninth, was created eight years ago. It was expected as the apotheosis of victory, but what they got was something strange, ambiguous, which caused bewilderment and dissatisfaction among critics. And then there was a party resolution in 1948, in which Shostakovich’s music was recognized as formalistic and harmful. They began to “re-educate” him: they “worked him through” at numerous meetings, he was fired from the conservatory - it was believed that a complete formalist could not be trusted with the education of young musicians.

For several years the composer became isolated in himself. To earn money, he wrote music for films, mainly glorifying Stalin. He composed the oratorio “Song of the Forests”, the cantata “The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland”, choral poems based on poems by revolutionary poets - works that were supposed to assure the authorities of his complete loyalty. The composer expressed his true feelings in the Violin Concerto, unique in its sincerity, depth and beauty. Its implementation was impossible for many years. The vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry” was also written “on the table” - a work completely unthinkable in the atmosphere of official anti-Semitism that prevailed after the start of the “case of murderous doctors”, inspired by the Kremlin, and the frenzied campaign against cosmopolitanism.

But March 1953 came. Stalin died. The "Doctors' Case" was terminated. Victims of repression gradually began to return from the camps. There was a whiff of something new, or at least different.

It was not yet clear to anyone what lay ahead. Shostakovich’s thoughts were probably contradictory. For so many years the country lived under the terrible heel of a tyrant. So many dead, so much violence against souls...

But there was a glimmer of hope that the terrible time was over, that changes for the better were coming. Isn’t this what the music of the symphony is about, which the composer wrote in the summer of 1953, the premiere of which took place on December 17, 1953 in Leningrad under the baton of Mravinsky?

Reflections on the past and present, sprouts of hope are at the beginning of the symphony. The subsequent parts can be perceived as an understanding of time: the terrible past in anticipation of the Gulag, and for some, the past in the Gulag itself (second); the present is a turning point, still completely unclear, standing as if on the brink of time (third); and the present, looking towards the future with hope (final). (This interpretation reveals a distant analogy with the compositional principles of Mahler’s Third Symphony.)

Music

First part It begins mournfully, sternly. The main part is extremely lengthy, the long development of which undoubtedly has mournful intonations. But the gloomy thought goes away and a bright theme cautiously appears, like the first timid sprout reaching towards the sun. Gradually, the rhythm of a waltz appears - not the waltz itself, but a hint of it, like the first glimmer of hope. This is a side part of the sonata form. It is small and goes away, replaced by the development of the original - mournful, full of heavy thoughts and dramatic outbursts - thematicism. These sentiments dominate throughout the entire piece. Only in the reprise does the timid waltz return, and then it brings some enlightenment.

Second part- a scherzo not quite traditional for Shostakovich. Unlike the completely “evil” similar movements in some of the previous symphonies, it contains not only an inhuman march, fanfares, and an inexorable movement that sweeps away everything. Opposing forces also appear - struggle, resistance. It is no coincidence that the oboes and clarinets sing a melody that almost verbatim repeats the motif from the introduction to Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov.” There are people alive who have had to endure so much. A fierce battle breaks out, involving all three sections of the three-part scherzo form. The incredible tension of the struggle leads to the beginning of the next part.

Third part, which seemed mysterious for many years, becomes quite logical in the proposed interpretation. This is not philosophical lyrics, not reflection, as is usual for the slow movements of previous symphonies. Its beginning is like a way out of chaos (the shape of the part is built according to the scheme A - BAC - A - B - A - A/C[development] - code). For the first time in the symphony, an autograph theme appears, based on the monogram D - Es - C - H (the initials D. Sh. in Latin transcription). These are his, the composer's, thoughts at a historical crossroads. Everything fluctuates, everything is unstable and unclear. The calls of the horns bring to mind Mahler's Second Symphony. There the author has a remark “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Isn't it the same here? Are these the trumpets of the Last Judgment? In any case, it is the breath of a turning point. A question of questions. The dramatic outbursts and reminiscences of the inhuman movement are not accidental. And the theme-monogram, the theme-autograph runs through everything. It is he, Shostakovich, who relives again and again, rethinks what he had previously experienced. The part ends with a lonely, abrupt repetition of D-Es - C - H, D - Es - C - H...

Final It also begins unconventionally - with deep thought. Monologues of solo wind instruments replace each other. Gradually, within the slow introduction, the future theme of the finale is formed. At first it sounds questioning and uncertain. But finally, she, having perked up, comes into her own - like an affirmative conclusion after long doubts. It could still be good. “A distant trumpet signal gives rise to the main theme of the finale, airy, light, swift, murmuring like cheerful spring streams” (G. Orlov). The lively motor theme gradually becomes more and more impersonal; the side part does not contrast with it, but continues the general flow, gaining even more power in development. The thematicism of the scherzo is woven into it. Everything ends at the climax. After a general pause, the autograph theme is heard. It no longer leaves: it sounds after the reprise - it becomes decisive and wins in the coda.

Symphony No. 11

Symphony No. 11, G minor, op. 93, "1905" (1957)

Orchestra composition: 3 flutes, piccolo, 3 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum , tom-tom, xylophone, celesta, bells, harps (2–4), strings.

History of creation

In 1956, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, which reigned supreme in the country, took place. At this congress, Stalin's crimes were discussed for the first time. It seemed that now life would change. There was a breath of freedom, albeit still very relative. The attitude towards Shostakovich’s work also changed. Previously condemned, considered the pillar of anti-folk art - formalism, now it is less criticized. There is even an article that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Prominent musicologist I. Nestyev writes: “In recent years, we have had a scanty, petty-bourgeois understanding of the work of D. Shostakovich... The wretched scheme according to which Shostakovich spent his whole life “rebuilding” like a soldier in training looks unconvincing: according to this scheme it turned out that the composer first fell into formalism ("The Nose", Second and Third Symphonies), then "rebuilt" (Fifth Symphony), then fell into formalism again (Eighth Symphony) and again "rebuilt" ("Song of the Forests"). Some opponents of the Tenth Symphony and the Violin Concerto were already expecting a new repetition of the usual cycle, reminiscent of the temperature curve of tropical malaria...” Fortunately, these times are over. However, writing everything that was in your heart openly and directly expressing your opinion was still dangerous. And works “with a double bottom” continued to appear, with subtext that everyone could understand differently.

The year 1957 was approaching - the fortieth anniversary of Soviet power, which had to be celebrated magnificently and solemnly. As before, official art prepared its gifts for the anniversary: ​​works that glorified the regime, glorifying the CPSU - “the guiding and directing force.” Shostakovich could not help but respond to this date: despite all the changes in domestic policy, he would not be forgiven for this. And a strange symphony appears. Having the programmatic subtitle “1905”, it was created in 1957. Formally written for the fortieth anniversary of Soviet power, it is dedicated, even in full accordance with the program title, by no means to the glorification of the “Great October”. Shostakovich addresses the same topic that has always worried him. Personality and power. Man and the anti-human forces opposing him. Grief for the innocent dead. But now, both in accordance with the program plan and under the influence of time, or rather, because time itself inspired such a plan, the symphony calls for counteraction, for the fight against the forces of evil.

Performed in Moscow on October 30, 1957 under the baton of Nathan Rakhlin, the symphony, for the first time since the First, aroused unanimous critical approval. But, apparently, it was no coincidence that foreign critics heard in it the crackle of machine guns, the roar of cannons... This did not happen on Palace Square on January 9, 1905, but it happened quite recently in Hungary, where in 1956 Soviet troops “restored order”, suppressing the impulse of the Hungarian people towards freedom. And the content of the symphony, as always with Shostakovich, turned out to be - was it unconscious? - much broader than the announced official program and, as always, deeply modern (in particular, one of the most interesting researchers of the great composer’s work, Genrikh Orlov, writes about this).

The four movements of the symphony follow one after another without interruption, each with a programmatic subtitle. The first part is “Palace Square”. The sound picture created by Shostakovich is amazingly impressive. This is a dead and soulless, government city. But this is not only Palace Square, as the program tells the listener. This is an entire huge country where freedom is stifled, life and thought are oppressed, human dignity is trampled. The second part is “The Ninth of January”. The music depicts a popular procession, prayers, lamentations, a terrible massacre... The third part - “ Eternal memory" - a requiem for the dead. The finale - “Alarm” - is a picture of popular anger. For the first time in a symphony, Shostakovich makes extensive use of quotation material, building on it a monumental symphonic canvas. It is based on revolutionary songs.

Music

First part is based on the songs “Listen” and “Prisoner”, which in the process of development are perceived as the main and secondary themes of the sonata form. However, the sonata here is conditional. Researchers find in the first part features of a concentric shape (A - B - C - B - A). In terms of its role within the cycle, it is a prologue that creates the setting of the scene of action. Even before the song's theme appears, the chained, ominously numb sounds create an image of suppression, of life under oppression. Against the unsteady background one can hear either church chants or dull bell strikes. Through this deathly music the melody of the song “Listen!” breaks through. (Like the matter of treason, like the conscience of a tyrant / The autumn night is dark. / Darker than that night, a prison rises from the fog / A dark vision.) It passes several times, is split up, divided into separate short motives, according to the laws of development of the composer’s own symphonic themes. It is replaced by the melody of the song “Prisoner” (The night is dark, seize the minutes). Both themes are pursued repeatedly, but everything is subordinated to the original image - suppression, oppression.

Second part becomes a battlefield. Its two main themes are melodies from choral poems written by Shostakovich several earlier on the texts of revolutionary poets - “January 9” (Goy, you, Tsar, our father!) and the harsh, choral chant “Bare your heads!” The movement consists of two sharply contrasting episodes, vivid in their concrete visibility - the “procession scene” and the “execution scene” (as they are usually called in the literature about this symphony).

Third part- “Eternal Memory” - slow, mournful, begins with the song “You have fallen as a victim” in the stern, measured rhythm of a funeral procession, in a particularly expressive timbre of violas with mutes. Then the melodies of the songs “Glorious Sea, Sacred Baikal” and “Bravely, comrades, keep up” sound. In the middle section of the complex three-part form, the lighter theme “Hello, free speech” appears. A wide movement leads to a climax, at which the “Bare your heads” motif from the previous movement appears, like a call. A turning point occurs in development, which leads to a swift finale, like a hurricane sweeping away everything.

Part four- “Alarm”, written in free form, begins with the decisive phrase of the song “Rage, tyrants.” Against the backdrop of the stormy movement of strings and woodwinds, sharp drum beats, the melodies of both the first song and the next one rush by - “Boldly, comrades, in step.” The climax is reached, at which, as in the previous part, the motive “Bare your heads” sounds. The middle section is dominated by “Varshavyanka”, which is joined by the festive one, light melody from Sviridov’s operetta “Sparks”, intonationally related to the themes of “Varshavyanka” and “Boldly, comrades, in step.” In the coda of the finale, powerful sounds of the alarm bell bring to the surface the theme “Hey, you, king, our father!” and “Bare your heads!”, sounding menacing and affirming.

Symphony No. 12

Symphony No. 12, D minor, op. 112, "1917" (1961)

Orchestra composition: 3 flutes, piccolo flute, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, strings.

History of creation

September 29, 1960, speaking in the radio magazine " Musical life Russian Federation", Shostakovich spoke about his new symphony, which is dedicated to the image of Lenin. According to the composer, her idea arose many years ago. Back in the 1930s, newspaper reports appeared that Shostakovich was working on the Lenin Symphony. It was supposed to use Mayakovsky's poems. But then, instead of this programmatic one, the Sixth appeared.

Brilliant composer was completely sincere. He was a man of his time, a hereditary intellectual, brought up on the ideas of freedom, equality, and brotherhood of all people. The slogans proclaimed by the communists could not help but attract him. In those years, the crimes of the authorities were not yet associated with the name of Lenin - they were explained precisely by deviations from the Leninist line, by the “cult of personality” of Stalin. And Shostakovich, perhaps, really sought to embody the image of the “leader of the world proletariat.” But... the work did not work out. It is indicative how much the artistic nature manifested itself, in addition to conscious aspirations: for Shostakovich, an unsurpassed master of form, who was able to create canvases of colossal length that never left the listener indifferent for a moment, this symphony seems drawn out. But it is one of the shortest by the composer. It was as if the usual brilliant mastery of his art had betrayed the Master here. The superficiality of the music is also obvious. It is not for nothing that the work seemed cinematic to many, that is, illustrative. One must think that the composer himself understood that the symphony did not turn out to be fully “Leninist,” that is, embodying precisely this image as it was presented by official propaganda. That’s why its name is not “Lenin”, but “1917”.

In the mid-90s, after the fall of the communist regime, other points of view on the Twelfth Symphony emerged. Thus, the Japanese researcher of Shostakovich’s work Fumigo Hitotsunayagi believes that one of the leading motifs of the symphony contains the initials of I.V. Stalin. Composer Gennady Banshchikov points out that “several consecutive codes, absolutely identical in meaning, but different in music, in the finale of the symphony are unforgettable endless party congresses. This is how I explain dramaturgy to myself.<…>because otherwise it is absolutely impossible to understand it. Because for normal logic this is complete absurdity.”

The symphony was completed in 1961 and was first performed on October 15 of the same year in Moscow under the baton of K. Ivanov.

Music

The four movements of the symphony have programmatic subtitles.

First part- “Revolutionary Petrograd” - begins solemnly and sternly. After a short introduction, a sonata allegro full of raging energy follows. The main part is written in the character of a dynamic, energetic march, the side chant is light. Motifs of revolutionary songs are being developed. The conclusion of the movement echoes the beginning - the majestic chords of the introduction appear again. The sonority gradually subsides, silence and concentration sets in.

Second part- “Spill” - a musical landscape. The calm, unhurried movement of the low strings leads to the appearance of a melody-monologue of the violins. The solo clarinet brings new colors. In the middle section of the movement (its form combines the signs of a complex tripartite and variations), light melodies of flute and clarinet appear, giving a touch of pastoralism. Gradually the color thickens. The climax of the movement is the trombone solo.

Third part dedicated to the events of that memorable October night. The dull beats of the timpani sound warily and alarmingly. They are replaced by sharply rhythmic pizzicato strings, sonority increases and decreases again. Thematically, this part is connected with the previous ones: it first uses the motif from the middle section of “Razliv”, then appears in magnification, in the powerful sound of trombones and tuba, which are then joined by other instruments, a side theme of “Revolutionary Petrograd”. The general culmination of the entire symphony is the shot of “Aurora” - a thunderous drum solo. In the reprise of the three-part form, both of these themes are heard simultaneously.

Finale of the symphony- “The Dawn of Humanity.” Its form, free and not amenable to unambiguous interpretation, is considered by some researchers as double variations with a coda. The main theme, a solemn fanfare, is reminiscent of similar melodies from films with Shostakovich’s music, such as “The Fall of Berlin,” glorifying the victory, the leader. The second theme is waltz-like, in the transparent sound of the strings, recalling the fragile images of youth. But its outline is close to one of the themes of “Spill,” which creates figurative unity. The symphony ends with a victorious apotheosis.

M. Sabinina considers the entire cycle as a gigantically expanded three-part form, where the middle, contrasting section is “Spill,” and the third part serves as a link leading to the reprise and coda in “The Dawn of Humanity.”

Symphony No. 13

Symphony No. 13, B-flat minor, op. 113 (1962)

Performers: 2 flutes, piccolo, 3 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets, piccolo clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, castanets, tambourine , wooden block, snare drum, whip, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, bells, bells, xylophone, 4 harps, grand piano, strings (including five-string double basses); voices: bass solo, bass choir.

History of creation

In the mid-50s, dramatic changes occurred in the USSR. At the XX and XXII Congresses of the ruling Communist Party, the personality cult of Stalin, the tyrant who held a huge country in numb fear for several decades, was officially condemned. A period began which, according to the apt symbolic title of I. Ehrenburg’s story, began to be called the Thaw. The creative intelligentsia embraced this time with enthusiasm. It seemed that I could finally write about everything that hurt me and that was getting in the way of my life. And general denunciation also interfered: they said that if three people gather, one of them will certainly turn out to be a seksot - a secret employee of the Soviet secret police; and the position of women who were “liberated” to such an extent that they found themselves employed in the most difficult jobs - in the fields, in road construction, at machines, and after a hard day of work they had to stand in endless queues at stores to get something to feed family. And another sore point is anti-Semitism, which was state policy in the last years of Stalin’s life. All this could not help but worry Shostakovich, who always responded very keenly to the events of the time.

The idea for the symphony dates back to the spring of 1962. The composer was attracted by the poems of Evg. Yevtushenko, dedicated to the tragedy of Babyn Yar. This was in September 1941. Fascist troops occupied Kyiv. A few days later, under the pretext of evacuation, all the Jews of the city were gathered on its outskirts, near a huge ravine called Babi Yar. On the first day, thirty thousand people were shot. The rest waited their turn. For several days in a row, nearby residents heard machine-gun fire. Two years later, when the time came to retreat from the captured land, the Nazis began feverishly destroying traces of the crime. Huge ditches were dug in the ravine, where corpses were dumped in stacks, several rows at a time. Bulldozers were working, hundreds of prisoners were building huge ovens where the corpses were burned. The prisoners knew that then their turn would come: what they saw was too terrible for them to be allowed to survive. Some decided on a desperately daring escape. Of the several hundred people, four or five managed to escape. They told the world about the horrors of Babyn Yar. Yevtushenko's poems are about this.

Initially, the composer intended to write a vocal-symphonic poem. Then the decision came to expand the scope of the work to a five-movement symphony. The following parts, also written on Yevtushenko’s poems, are “Humor”, “In the Store”, “Fears” and “Career”. For the first time in a symphony, the composer sought to express his idea absolutely specifically, not only with music, but also with words. The symphony was created in the summer of 1962. Its first performance took place in Moscow on December 18, 1962 under the baton of Kirill Kondrashin.

The further fate of the symphony was difficult. Times were changing, the peak of the “thaw” was already behind us. The authorities thought that they had given too much freedom to the people. The creeping restoration of Stalinism began, and state anti-Semitism was revived. And of course, the first part caused the displeasure of high officials. Shostakovich was asked to replace some of the most powerful lines of Babi Yar. So, instead of lines

It seems to me that now I am a Jew,
Here I am wandering along ancient Egypt,
But here I am on the cross, crucified, dying,
And I still have nail marks on me...

the poet had to offer others, much “softer”:

I’m standing here, as if at a spring,
Giving me faith in our brotherhood.
Here Russians and Ukrainians lie,
They lie with the Jews in the same land...

Another sharp spot was also replaced. Instead of lines

And I myself am like a continuous silent scream
Over thousands of thousands buried,
I am every old man here who was shot,
I am every executed child here...

the following appeared:

I think about the feat of Russia,
Fascism has blocked the way.
Until the tiniest drop of dew
Close to me with all my essence and destiny.

But despite these changes, the symphony continued to arouse the suspicion of the authorities. For many years after the premiere it was not allowed to be performed. Only in our time has the unspoken ban lost its force.

Music

First part- “Babi Yar” is full of tragedy. This is a requiem for the dead. The mournful sounds in it are replaced by a wide chant, deep sadness is combined with pathos. The main theme-symbol is repeated again and again at the “junctions” of episodes, when the narrator’s narration gives way to showing vivid concrete pictures: the massacre of Dreyfus, the boy in Bialystok, Anne Frank... The musical narrative unfolds in accordance with the logic of the poetic text. The usual patterns of symphonic thinking are combined with vocal and operatic ones. The features of the sonata form can be traced, but implicitly - they are in the wave-like development, in the contrasts of the exposition of images and a certain, relatively speaking, developmental section (some researchers interpret the first movement as a rondo with three contrasting episodes). The striking result of the part is the accented words underlined by music:

There is no Jewish blood in my blood,
But hated with calloused malice
I am like a Jew to all anti-Semites,
And that’s why I’m a real Russian!

Second part- “Humor” is mocking, full of ebullient energy. This is the praise of humor, the flagellant of human vices. The images of Till Eulenspiegel, Russian buffoons, and Hadji Nasreddin come to life in it.

A somewhat ponderous scherzo, grotesqueness, sarcasm, and buffoonery predominates. Shostakovich's mastery of orchestration is revealed in all its brilliance: the solemn chords of tutti - and the "smirking" melody of the piccolo clarinet, the capriciously broken melody of the solo violin - and the ominous unison of the bass male choir and tuba; an ostinato motif of a cor anglais with a harp, creating a “horny” background on which the woodwinds imitate a whole orchestra of pipes - a folk buffoon scene. The middle episode (in part the features of a rondo sonata can be traced) is based on the music of the romance “MacPherson before his execution” with a menacing procession to the place of execution, the ominous rhythm of the timpani, and military signals brass instruments, tremolo and trills of wood and strings. All this leaves no doubt about what kind of humor we are talking about. But true folk humor cannot be killed: the carefree motive of flutes and clarinets seems to slip out from under a terrifying oppression and remain undefeated.

Third part, dedicated to Russian women, is a classic slow movement of the symphony with a slowly unfolding melody, concentrated, full of nobility, and sometimes even pathetic. It consists of vocal-instrumental monologues with free development, depending on the logic of the poetic text (M. Sabinina also finds in it the features of a rondo). The main character of the sound is enlightened, lyrical, with a predominance of violin timbre. Sometimes an image of a procession appears, which is framed by the dry sounds of castanets and a whip.

Part four again slow, with features of a rondo and varied couplets. It’s as if Shostakovich’s usual lyrical-philosophical state “stratified.” Here, in “Fears,” there is depth of thought, concentration. The beginning is in unsteady sonority, where the dull tremolo of the timpani is superimposed on the low, barely audible notes of the strings. In the peculiar hoarse timbre of the tuba, an angular theme appears - a symbol of fear lurking in the shadows. She is answered by the psalmody of the choir: “Fears are dying in Russia...” Accompanied by the choir, in instrumental episodes - pathetic melodies of the horn, alarming trumpet fanfares, rustling strings. The character of the music gradually changes - the gloomy scenes go away, and a bright melody of violas appears, reminiscent of a cheerful marching song.

Finale of the symphony- “Career” is a lyrical-comedy rondo. It tells about career knights and true knights. The vocal stanzas sound humorous, and the instrumental episodes alternating with them are full of lyricism, grace, and sometimes pastoral. The lyrical melody flows widely throughout the coda. The crystal tints of the celesta ring, the bells vibrate, as if bright, inviting distances are opening up.

Symphony No. 14

Symphony No. 14, op. 135 (1969)

Performers: castanets, wooden block, 3 tomtoms (soprano, alto, tenor), whips, bells, vibraphone, xylophone, celesta, strings; soprano solo, bass solo.

History of creation

Shostakovich had long thought about questions of life and death, the meaning of human existence and its inevitable end - even in those years when he was young and full of strength. So in 1969 he turned to the topic of death. Not just the end of life, but a violent, premature, tragic death.

In February 1944, having received news of the sudden, in the prime of life, death of his closest friend I. Sollertinsky, the composer wrote to his widow: “Ivan Ivanovich and I talked about everything. They also talked about the inevitable that awaits us at the end of life, that is, death. We were both afraid of her and didn't want her. We loved life, but we knew that... we would have to part with it..."

Then, in the terrible thirties, they certainly talked about premature death. After all, at the same time, they gave their word to take care of their relatives - not only children and wives, but also mothers. Death walked nearby all the time, carried away loved ones and friends, could knock on their houses... Perhaps in the part of the symphony “Oh, Delvig, Delvig”, the only one where we are not talking about violence, but still so premature, unfair to talent death, Shostakovich remembers his untimely departed friend, the thought of whom, according to the testimony of the composer’s relatives, did not leave him until the last hour. “Oh, Delvig, Delvig, it’s so early...” “Talent has its delight among villains and fools...” - these words echo Shakespeare’s memorable 66th sonnet, dedicated to his beloved friend. But the conclusion now sounds brighter: “So our union, free, joyful and proud, will not die...”

The symphony was created in the hospital. The composer spent more than a month there, from January 13 to February 22. This was a “planned event” - the composer’s health condition required a periodically repeated course of treatment in a hospital, and Shostakovich went there calmly, stocking up with everything he needed - music paper, notebooks, writing stand. I worked well and calmly in solitude. After being discharged from the hospital, the composer handed over the completely finished symphony for correspondence and study. The premiere took place in Leningrad on September 29, 1969 and was repeated in Moscow on October 6. The performers were G. Vishnevskaya, M. Reshetin and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by R. Barshai. Shostakovich dedicated the fourteenth symphony to B. Britten.

This is an amazing symphony - for soprano, bass and chamber orchestra based on poems by Federico García Lorca, Guillaume Apollinaire, Wilhelm Küchelbecker and Rainer Maria Rilke. Eleven movements - eleven scenes in the symphony: a rich, multifaceted and changeable world. Sultry Andalusia, tavern; a lonely rock in a bend of the Rhine; French prison cell; Pushkin's Petersburg; trenches over which bullets whistle... The heroes are just as diverse - Lorelei, the bishop, knights, a suicide, the Cossacks, a woman who has lost her lover, a prisoner, Death. The general mood of the music is mournful, ranging from restrained and focused to frantically, frantically tragic. Its essence is a protest against everything that breaks human destinies, souls, lives, against oppression and tyranny.

Music

The parts of the symphony follow one after another almost without interruption; they are connected by the logic of musical dramaturgy, connecting different poets, poems that differ sharply in theme, genre, and style.

The monologue “One hundred ardent lovers fell asleep in an age-old sleep” (De profundis) is lyrical and philosophical, with a lonely-sounding sad melody of violins in a high register - a kind of slow introduction to a sonata allegro.

It is opposed by the tragic dance “Malagueña”, hard, fast, with atonal harmonies. It is scherzosen, but this is only the second episode of the introduction, leading to a movement that can be considered an analogue of a sonata allegro.

It is “Lorelei” - a romantic ballad about the clash of beauty with fanaticism. The most acute conflict arises between the images of a beautiful, pure girl and a cruel bishop with his implacable guards. Beginning with the blows of a whip, the ballad includes a stormy dialogue between the bishop and Lorelei (the main part), and then - her lyrical statement (the side part), then - her condemnation, exile, fall into the waves of the Rhine - filled with drama, effective, including expressive arioso, and whirlwind five-voice fugato, and sound-depicting moments.

The mournful elegy “Suicide” is an analogue of the slow part of the symphony, its lyrical center. This is a deeply emotional statement in which the vocal element comes to the fore. The orchestra only emphasizes the most expressive moments with the brightness of its colors. The unity of the symphonic cycle is emphasized by the similarity of the intonations of this movement with the melody of the initial section of the symphony and the figurative world of Lorelei.

The harsh grotesque march “On the Lookout” develops the darkly militant moments of “Lorelei”, echoes “Malagena”, being both in character and in meaning a scherzo symphony. In its rhythm there are clear associations with those characteristic themes of Shostakovich, the pinnacle of which was the theme of invasion from the Seventh Symphony. “This is a lively military tune, a march of “good soldiers”, and a procession and onslaught of a deadly force that plays with a person like a cat with a mouse” (M. Sabinina).

The sixth part is a bitterly ironic and sad duet “Madam, look, you have lost something. “Oh, nonsense, this is my heart...” - transition to the development of the symphony, which takes place in the following parts - “In Sante’s Prison” - the prisoner’s monologue, detailed, musically and emotionally rich, but tragically hopeless, leading to the climax - “Response of the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan,” full of sarcasm, anger, bitterness and merciless ridicule. It is dominated by unbridled, almost spontaneous movement, harsh, chopped motifs, vocal recitation, internally excited, but not turning into genuine singing. In the orchestral interlude, a dance rhythm appears, evoking associations with “Humor” from the Thirteenth Symphony.

The artist's palette changes dramatically in the following parts. “Oh, Delvig, Delvig” is beautiful, sublimely noble music. It is somewhat stylized, absolutely devoid of an ironic attitude towards Kuchelbecker’s poems, which stand out in style from all the poetic material of the symphony. Rather, it is a longing for an irretrievably departed ideal, an eternally lost harmony. The melody, close to Russian romances, in their usual verse form, is at the same time free, fluid, and changeable. Unlike other parts, it is accompanied by accompaniment, and not by an independent orchestral part, figuratively independent of the text and voice. This is how the semantic center of the symphony, prepared by the previous symphonic development, is embodied - the affirmation of a high ethical principle.

“The Death of a Poet” plays the role of a reprise, a thematic and constructive return to the initial images of the symphony. It synthesizes the main thematic elements - the instrumental turns of “De profundis”, which also appear in the middle parts of the symphony, chanting recitatives from the same place, and the expressive intonations of the fourth movement.

The last part is “Conclusion” (Death is omnipotent) - an afterword that completes the moving poem about life and death, the symphonic coda of the work. A marching clear rhythm, dry beats of castanets and tomtoms, fragmented, intermittent vocal - not a line - a dotted line begin it. But then the colors change - a sublime chorale sounds, the vocal part unfolds like an endless ribbon. The code returns a hard march. The music fades away gradually, as if receding into the distance, allowing one to glimpse the majestic building of the symphony.

Symphony No. 15

Symphony No. 15, op. 141(1971)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, castanets, wooden block, whip, tomtom (soprano), military drum, cymbals , bass drum, tom-tom, bells, celesta, xylophone, vibraphone, strings.

History of creation

After the premiere of the Fourteenth Symphony in the fall of 1969, 1970 began quite stormily for Shostakovich: on January 4, the Eighth Symphony, one of the most difficult, was performed. This was always associated with great anxiety for the composer. Then it was necessary to travel from Moscow to Leningrad several times - at Lenfilm, director Kozintsev, whose collaboration began in the 20s, worked on the film “King Lear”. Shostakovich wrote music for it. At the end of February, I had to fly to Kurgan - the city where the country-famous doctor Ilizarov worked, who treated the composer. Shostakovich spent more than three months in his hospital - until June 9. The Thirteenth Quartet was written there, similar in figurative structure to the recently created symphony. In the summer, the composer was forced to live in Moscow, as he was going another competition named after Tchaikovsky, which he traditionally presided over. In the fall, I had to undergo treatment again with Ilizarov, and only at the beginning of November Shostakovich returned home. Even this year, a cycle of ballads “Fidelity” appeared on the verses of E. Dolmatovsky for an unaccompanied male choir - these were the creative results of the year, overshadowed, like all recent ones, by constant ill health. The next year, 1971, the Fifteenth Symphony appeared - the result of the creative path of the great symphonist of our days.

Shostakovich wrote it in July 1971 in the Repino House of Composers' Creativity near Leningrad - his favorite place where he always worked especially well. Here he felt at home, in the climate familiar from childhood.

In Repin, in just one month, a symphony appeared, which was destined to become the result of Shostakovich’s entire symphonic work.

The symphony is distinguished by its strict classicism, clarity, and balance. This is a story about eternal, enduring values, and at the same time - about the most intimate, deeply personal. The composer refuses in it programmaticity, from the introduction of words. Again, as was the case from Fourth to Tenth, the content of the music is, as it were, encrypted. Once again, she is most associated with Mahler's paintings.

Music

First part the composer called it “Toy Store”. Toys... Maybe puppets? The fanfare and roll of the beginning of the first movement are like before the start of the performance. Here flashed a side theme from the Ninth (subtly similar to the “invasion theme” of the Seventh!), then a melody from the piano prelude, about which Sofronitsky once said: “What soulful vulgarity!” Thus, the figurative world of the sonata allegro is quite clearly characterized. Rossini's melody - a fragment of the overture to the opera "William Tell" - is organically included in the musical fabric.

Second part opens with mournful chords and mournful sounds. The cello solo is a melody of amazing beauty, covering a colossal range. The brass choir sounds like a funeral march. The trombone, as in Berlioz's Funeral and Triumphal Symphony, performs a mournful solo. What are they burying? era? ideals? illusion?.. The march reaches a gigantic dark climax. And after it - wariness, concealment...

Third part- a return to the puppet theater, to the given, schematic thoughts and feelings.

Mysterious final, opening with the doom leitmotif from Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung. After a typical Shostakovich lyrical theme, as if enlightened by suffering, after an equally characteristic pastoral, the passacaglia unfolds. Its theme, running through the pizzicato cellos and double basses, is reminiscent of both the invasion theme and the passacaglia theme from the First Violin Concerto. (A thought arises: perhaps for the composer the strict, verified form of the passacaglia with its unchanging, steady repetition of the same melody, the form to which he turned so many times on his creative path, is a symbol of the “cage” in which he is enclosed in a totalitarian state, the human spirit? A symbol of the lack of freedom from which everyone suffered in the USSR - and the creator more than others? Is it not by chance that the melodies of these passacaglias, the symbolism of which is so exposed in the Seventh, are close?) The tension increases more and more with each performance of the melody, the passacaglia reaches a colossal level. climax. And - recession. Lightweight dance theme completes the symphony, the last bars of which are the dry clatter of a xylophone and tomtom.

The creative path of Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich (1906-1975) is inextricably linked with the history of the entire Soviet artistic culture and was actively reflected in the press (even during his lifetime, many articles, books, essays, etc. were published about the composer). On the pages of the press he was called a genius (the composer was only 17 years old at the time):

“Shostakovich’s playing...has the joyful, calm confidence of a genius. My words apply not only to Shostakovich’s exceptional playing, but also to his compositions” (W. Walter, critic).

Shostakovich is one of the most original, original, bright artists. His entire creative biography is the path of a true innovator, who made a number of discoveries in the field of both figurative and genres and forms, modal and intonation. At the same time, his work organically absorbed the best traditions of musical art. Creativity played a huge role for him, the principles of which (opera and chamber-vocal) the composer brought to the sphere of symphony.

In addition, Dmitry Dmitrievich continued the line of Beethoven's heroic symphonism, lyric-dramatic symphonism. The life-affirming idea of ​​his work goes back to Shakespeare, Goethe, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky. By artistic nature

“Shostakovich is a “man of the theater,” he knew and loved him” (L. Danilevich).

At the same time, his life path as a composer and as a person is connected with the tragic pages of Soviet history.

Ballets and operas by D. D. Shostakovich

The first ballets – “The Golden Age”, “Bolt”, “Bright Stream”

The collective hero of the work is a football team (which is no coincidence, since the composer was fond of sports, professionally understood the intricacies of the game, which gave him the opportunity to write reports on football matches, was an active fan, and graduated from the school of football referees). Next comes the ballet “Bolt” on the theme of industrialization. The libretto was written by a former cavalry soldier and in itself, from a modern point of view, was almost a parody. The ballet was created by the composer in the spirit of constructivism. Contemporaries recalled the premiere differently: some say that the proletarian audience did not understand anything and booed the author, others recall that the ballet received a standing ovation. The music of the ballet “Bright Stream” (premiere – 01/04/35), which takes place on a collective farm, is full of not only lyrical, but also comic intonations, which also could not but affect the fate of the composer.

Shostakovich composed a lot in his early years, but some of his works were destroyed with his own hands, such as the first opera “Gypsies” based on Pushkin.

Opera "The Nose" (1927-1928)

It caused fierce controversy, as a result of which it was removed from the theater repertoire for a long time, and later it was resurrected again. In Shostakovich's own words, he:

“...was least of all guided by the fact that opera is primarily a musical work. In “The Nose” the elements of action and music are equal. Neither one nor the other occupies a predominant place.”

In an effort to synthesize music and theatrical performance, the composer organically combined his own creative individuality and various artistic trends in the work (“The Love for Three Oranges”, “Wozzeck” by Berg, “Jumping Over the Shadow” by Kshenek). The theatrical aesthetics of realism had a huge influence on the composer. In general, “The Nose” lays the foundations, on the one hand, of the realistic method, and on the other, of the “Gogolian” direction in Soviet operatic dramaturgy.

Opera “Katerina Izmailova” (“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”)

It was marked by a sharp transition from humor (in the ballet Bolt) to tragedy, although tragic elements were already evident in The Nose, constituting its subtext.

This - “...the embodiment of the tragic feeling of the terrible nonsense of the world depicted by the composer, in which everything human is trampled under foot, and people are pathetic puppets; His Excellency Nose rises above them” (L. Danilevich).

In these kinds of contrasts, researcher L. Danilevich sees their exceptional role in the creative activity of Shostakovich, and more broadly in the art of the century.

The opera “Katerina Izmailova” is dedicated to the wife of the composer N. Varzar. The original plan was large-scale - a trilogy depicting the fate of a woman in different eras. “Katerina Izmailova” would be its first part, depicting the heroine’s spontaneous protest against the “dark kingdom”, which pushes her onto the path of crime. The heroine of the next part should have been a revolutionary, and in the third part the composer wanted to show the fate of a Soviet woman. This plan was not destined to come true.

From the assessments of the opera by contemporaries, the words of I. Sollertinsky are indicative:

“It can be stated with full responsibility that in the history of Russian musical theater after “ Queen of Spades“There has never been a work of such scale and depth as Lady Macbeth.”

The composer himself called the opera a “tragedy-satire,” thereby combining the two most important aspects of his work.

However, on January 28, 1936, the newspaper Pravda published an article “Confusion Instead of Music” about the opera (which had already received high praise and recognition from the public), in which Shostakovich was accused of formalism. The article turned out to be the result of a misunderstanding of the complex aesthetic issues raised by the opera, but as a result the composer's name was sharply identified in a negative way.

During this difficult period, the support of many colleagues turned out to be invaluable for him and, who publicly stated that he greeted Shostakovich with the words of Pushkin about Baratynsky:

“He is original with us - because he thinks.”

(Although Meyerhold’s support in those years could hardly have been just support. Rather, it created a danger to the composer’s life and work.)

To top it all off, on February 6, the same newspaper published an article “Ballet Falsity”, which actually crossed out the ballet “Bright Stream”.

Because of these articles, which dealt a severe blow to the composer, his activities as an opera and ballet composer ended, despite the fact that they constantly tried to interest him in various projects over the years.

Symphonies of Shostakovich

In his symphonic work (the composer wrote 15 symphonies), Shostakovich often uses the technique of figurative transformation, based on a deep rethinking of musical thematics, which, as a result, acquires a plurality of meanings.

• ABOUT First Symphony An American music magazine wrote in 1939:

This symphony (thesis work) completed the period of apprenticeship in the composer’s creative biography.

• Second Symphony- this is a reflection of the composer’s contemporary life: it is called “October”, commissioned for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution by the propaganda department of the Music Sector of the State Publishing House. Marked the beginning of the search for new paths.

• Third Symphony marked by democracy and songfulness of the musical language in comparison with the Second.

The principle of montage dramaturgy, theatricality, and the visibility of images begins to be clearly visible.

• Fourth Symphony- a tragedy symphony, marking a new stage in the development of Shostakovich’s symphony.

Like “Katerina Izmailova”, she suffered temporary oblivion. The composer canceled the premiere (which was supposed to take place in 1936), believing that it would be “at the wrong time.” Only in 1962 was the work performed and enthusiastically received, despite the complexity, sharpness of the content and musical language. G. Khubov (critic) said:

“In the music of the Fourth Symphony, life itself seethes and bubbles.”

• Fifth Symphony often compared with the Shakespearean type of drama, in particular with Hamlet.

“must be permeated with a positive idea, like, for example, the life-affirming pathos of Shakespeare’s tragedies.”

So, about his Fifth Symphony he said:

“The theme of my symphony is the formation of personality. It was the man with all his experiences that I saw at the center of the concept of this work.”

• Truly iconic Seventh Symphony (“Leningrad”), written in besieged Leningrad under the direct impression of the terrible events of World War II.

According to Koussevitzky, his music

“immense and humane and can be compared with the universal humanity of the genius of Beethoven, who, like Shostakovich, was born in an era of world upheaval...”.

The premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place in besieged Leningrad on 08/09/42 with the concert broadcast on the radio. Maxim Shostakovich, the composer’s son, believed that this work reflected not only the anti-humanism of the fascist invasion, but also the anti-humanism of Stalin’s terror in the USSR.

• Eighth Symphony(premiere 04.11.1943) - the first culmination of the tragic line of the composer’s work (the second culmination is the Fourteenth Symphony), the music of which caused controversy with attempts to belittle its significance, but it is recognized as one of the outstanding works of the twentieth century.

• In the Ninth Symphony(completed in 1945) the composer (there is such an opinion) responded to the end of the war.

In an effort to get rid of the experience, he attempted to appeal to serene and joyful emotions. However, in the light of the past, this was no longer possible - the main ideological line is inevitably shaded by dramatic elements.

• Tenth Symphony continued the line laid down in symphony No. 4.

After it, Shostakovich turned to a different type of symphony, embodying the folk revolutionary epic. Thus, a dilogy appears - symphonies Nos. 11 and 12, bearing the names “1905” (symphony No. 11, dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution) and “1917” (symphony No. 12).

• Symphonies Thirteenth and Fourteenth are also marked by special genre characteristics (features of oratorio, influence of the opera theater).

These are multi-part vocal-symphonic cycles, where the tendency towards the synthesis of vocal and symphonic genres is fully manifested.

The symphonic work of the composer Shostakovich is multifaceted. On the one hand, these are works written under the influence of fear of what is happening in the country, some of them were written on order, some to protect themselves. On the other hand, these are truthful and deep reflections on life and death, personal statements of a composer who could speak freely only in the language of music. This is Fourteenth Symphony. This is a vocal-instrumental work in which poems by F. Lorca, G. Apollinaire, W. Kuchelbecker, R. Rilke are used. The main theme of the symphony is reflection on death and man. And although Dmitry Dmitrievich himself said at the premiere that this is music and life, the musical material itself speaks of the tragic path of man, of death. Truly, the composer rose here to the heights of philosophical reflection.

Shostakovich's piano work

The new style direction in piano music of the 20th century, denying in many ways the traditions of romanticism and impressionism, cultivated graphic (sometimes deliberate dryness) presentation, sometimes emphasized sharpness and sonority; special meaning acquired clarity of rhythm. Prokofiev played an important role in its formation, and many things are characteristic of Shostakovich. For example, he widely uses different registers and compares contrasting sonorities.

Already in his children's work, he tried to respond to historical events (the piano piece “Soldier”, “Hymn to Freedom”, “Funeral March in Memory of the Victims of the Revolution”).

N. Fedin notes, recalling the young composer’s conservatory years:

“His music talked, chatted, sometimes quite mischievously.”

The composer destroyed some of his early works and, with the exception of “Fantastic Dances,” did not publish any of the works written before the First Symphony. “Fantastic Dances” (1926) quickly gained popularity and became firmly established in the musical and pedagogical repertoire.

The “Preludes” cycle is marked by the search for new techniques and paths. The musical language here is devoid of pretentiousness and deliberate complexity. Certain features of the individual composer's style are closely intertwined with typical Russian melodies.

Piano Sonata No. 1 (1926) was originally called "October" and represents a daring challenge to convention and academicism. The work clearly shows the influence of Prokofiev's piano style.

The character of the cycle of piano pieces “Aphorisms” (1927), consisting of 10 pieces, on the contrary, is marked by intimacy and graphic presentation.

In the First Sonata and in “Aphorisms” Kabalevsky sees “an escape from external beauty.”

In the 30s (after the opera “Katerina Izmailova”) 24 preludes for piano (1932-1933) and the First Piano Concerto (1933) appeared; in these works those features of Shostakovich’s individual piano style are formed that will later be clearly identified in the Second Sonata and the piano parts of the Quintet and Trio.

In 1950-51 the cycle “24 Preludes and Fugues” op. 87, which in its structure refers to Bach's HTC. In addition, none of the Russian composers created such cycles before Shostakovich.

The second piano sonata (op. 61, 1942) was written under the impression of the death of L. Nikolaev (pianist, composer, teacher) and dedicated to his memory; at the same time it reflected the events of the war. Not only the genre, but also the dramaturgy of the work is marked by intimacy.

“Perhaps nowhere else was Shostakovich so ascetic in the field of piano texture as here” (L. Danilevich).

Chamber creativity

The composer created 15 quartets. By his own admission, he began work on the First Quartet (op. 40, 1938) “without any special thoughts or feelings.”

However, Shostakovich’s work not only captivated him, but grew into the idea of ​​creating a cycle of 24 quartets, one for each key. However, life decreed that this plan was not destined to come true.

The landmark work that completed his pre-war line of creativity was the Quintet for two violins, viola, cello and piano (1940).

This is “the kingdom of calm reflections, covered in lyrical poetry. Here is a world of lofty thoughts, restrained, chastely clear feelings, combined with festive fun and pastoral images” (L. Danilevich).

Later, the composer could no longer find such peace in his work.

Thus, the Trio in Memory of Sollertinsky embodies both the memories of a departed friend and the thoughts of everyone who died in terrible wartime.

Cantata-oratorio creativity

Shostakovich created a new type of oratorio, the features of which lie in the widespread use of song and other genres and forms, as well as journalism and posters.

These features were embodied in the sunny, bright oratorio “Song of Forests,” which was created “hot on the heels of events” related to the intensification of “green construction” - the creation of forest shelterbelts. Its content is revealed in 7 parts

(“When the war ended”, “Let’s dress the Motherland in forests”, “Memories of the past”, “Pioneers plant forests”, “Stalingraders come forward”, “Future walk”, “Glory”).

Close to the style of the oratorio is the cantata “The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland” (1952) on lyrics. Dolmatovsky.

In both the oratorio and the cantata there is a tendency towards a synthesis of the song-choral and symphonic lines of the composer’s work.

Around the same period, a cycle of 10 poems for a mixed choir without accompaniment appeared, based on the words of revolutionary poets of the turn of the century (1951), which is an outstanding example of a revolutionary epic. The cycle is the first work in the composer’s work where there is no instrumental music. Some critics believe that works created to the words of Dolmatovsky, mediocre, but who occupied a large place in the Soviet nomenklatura, helped the composer to engage in creativity. Thus, one of the cycles based on the words of Dolmatovsky was created immediately after the 14th symphony, as if in opposition to it.

Film music

Film music plays a huge role in Shostakovich’s work. He is one of the pioneers of this kind of musical art, realizing his eternal desire for everything new and unknown. At that time, cinema was still silent, and film music was seen as an experiment.

When creating music for films, Dmitry Dmitrievich sought not to actually illustrate the visuals, but to have an emotional and psychological impact, when the music reveals the deep psychological subtext of what is happening on the screen. In addition, work in cinema prompted the composer to turn to previously unknown layers of national folk art. Music for films helped the composer when his main works were not performed. Just as translations helped Pasternak, Akhmatova, and Mandelstam.

Some of the films with Shostakovich's music (these were different films):

“The Youth of Maxim”, “The Young Guard”, “The Gadfly”, “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, etc.

The composer's musical language often did not correspond to established norms and largely reflected his personal qualities: he valued humor and witty words, and was himself distinguished by his wit.

“Seriousness in him was combined with liveliness of character” (Tyulin).

However, it should be noted that Dmitry Dmitrievich’s musical language became increasingly darker over time. And if we talk about humor, then with full confidence we can call it sarcasm (vocal cycles based on texts from the magazine “Crocodile”, on poems by Captain Lebyadkin, the hero of Dostoevsky’s novel “Demons”)

A composer, pianist, Shostakovich was also a teacher (professor at the Leningrad Conservatory), who trained a number of outstanding composers, including G. Sviridov, K. Karaev, M. Weinberg, B. Tishchenko, G. Ustvolskaya and others.

For him, the breadth of his horizons was of great importance, and he always felt and noted the difference between the externally spectacular and the deeply internal emotional side of music. The composer's merits received the highest appreciation: Shostakovich was among the first laureates of the USSR State Prize and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (which was at that time achievable only for very few composers).

However, the very human and musical fate of the composer is an illustration of the tragedy of genius in.

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