Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony

[azalaisdep]

Today's #happything: having an hour, with the Small People in bed, the must-do chores done and the Resident Geek out with friends so I don't have to argue over the remote control and can watch whatever I want on TV.

Admittedly, the documentary I've chosen - on Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, written during the devastating WW2 siege of that city

Comments

[fawatson]

It is also one of the few pieces of Shostakovich that I really like! (not a fan of his work generally, though there are a few pieces I enjoy).

And yes, the story of its creation is pretty amazing.

[azalaisdep]

The Wikipedia article on it (though it comes with lots of "disputed" flags) suggests, interestingly, that some of the themes/sections which were seen at the time as being so patriotic had actually been written before the German invasion: that the "invasion theme", for example, with its insidious creeping closer and closer of the drums, could be read at least as much as a portrayal of slowly growing totalitarianism, and thus subversively just as anti-Stalin as anti-Nazi. This just makes me think it even more amazing, and we know that Stalin seems to have decided to support this particular work more on political expediency grounds than anything else, and that Shostakovich had already fallen out of favour with the regime once and did again. Music, like writing, is Dangerous Stuff (thank goodness)...