Dmitri shostakovich symphony no. 5

Other musicians have seen worse atrocities. But the most gifted composer to spend almost his entire life within a totalitarian system was Dmitri Shostakovich.

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It was left to him to bear witness to the corruption and cruelty of his age, and its many more subtle privations. Remarkably, he did so not through overt polemic but through satire, a sensitive choice of poetic references and a renewal of so-called ‘absolute music’ in his symphonies and his chamber music.

Working under a censorious and often capricious Soviet regime, Shostakovich was required to write music that would please Party officials. By the same token, anything deemed unsuitable for the popular masses would have to be kept under wraps.

The truth is more complex, however.

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Shostakovich’s beginnings were progressive. He was was brought up in the enlightened city of St Petersburg, where his main teacher was the composer Alexander Glazunov. His astonishingly accomplished First Symphony (–25) won him instant fame.