May 4, 2017 Program Notes: Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Shostakovich two significant premieres. Any new to the enthusiastic reception of his Shostakovich became an official (1906-1975) Shostakovich symphony was bound Fifth Symphony in 1937, Shostakovich member of the Communist Party— to be a high-profile event, but the became a national hero with the for reasons that remain passionately Symphony No. 13 in B-flat unveiling of his Thirteenth Symphony morale-boosting triumph of his debated. His Twelfth Symphony minor, Op. 113 (Babi Yar) was fraught with even more than Seventh Symphony (Leningrad) (while carried on from the Eleventh to the usual political tension. For the in the West he was also lionized, memorialize the Revolution of 1917 Dmitri Shostakovich was born on first time since his Third (1930), the even appearing on the cover of (in a score that is widely considered September 25, 1906, in Saint Petersburg, composer was including voices in one TIME). But that didn’t spare him from to be the weakest of his symphonies). Russia and died on August 9, 1975, in of his symphonies, and the texts he having to endure yet another official Seen in this context, the Thirteenth Moscow. Shostakovich composed his had chosen to set for the Thirteenth denunciation after the Second World Symphony took a notably subversive Symphony No. 13 in B-flat minor in 1962, were by the highly controversial War. turn by addressing what was the setting texts by the young Russian poet young poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. taboo topic of anti-Semitism. Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The genre of the symphony in general Born in 1932 in Siberia, Yevtushenko remained a potentially dangerous Shostakovich had been deeply remained a lightning rod in the Soviet First performance: December 18, 1962, undertaking, even when no text moved by Yevtushenko’s Babi Yar cultural landscape but eventually with soloist Vitali Gromadsky andKirill was involved. Then came another when it was published in the fall of settled in the United States (and died Kondrashin conducting the Moscow rebound. The enormous success of 1961. The poem’s title refers to the just last month in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Philharmonic Orchestra and the the Eleventh Symphony of 1957—a site (in present-day Ukraine) where where he had for many years taught Republican State and Gnessin Institute paean to the Russian Revolution the Nazis murdered about 34,000 at the University). Choirs. In addition to solo bass and bass of 1905—had recently enhanced of Kiev’s Jewish men, women, and chorus, the Symphony No. 13 is scored for The other premiere in the works Shostakovich’s standing, and by children, a few months after Hitler’s 2 flutes and piccolo, 3 oboes (3rd doubling involved his ill-fated opera, now 1959, as the biographer Laurel Fay invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. No monument to the victims had English horn), 3 clarinets (2nd doubling revived and retitled in an officially observes, he had been assured that been allowed: it was official Soviet E-flat clarinet, 3rd doubling bass clarinet), approved version. Katerina Izmailova his opera would be rehabilitated policy to suppress the fact that the 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), was Shostakovich’s revision of his (though there were still more delays massacre had specifically targeted 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, second opera, Lady Macbeth of the before this came to pass in January Jews and was in fact an early phase timpani, triangle, castanets, slapstick, Mtsensk District, which, in 1936, at 1963, more than a quarter century in the Holocaust. Yevtushenko’s wood block, tambourine, snare drum, the height of its success, had been after Lady Macbeth’s condemnation). poem triggered a backlash for daring bass drum, cymbals, bells, tam-tam, denounced in Pravda as an offense to Nikita Khrushchev’s denunciation of to confront the Soviet Union’s own glockenspiel, xylophone, 2 harps good Soviet principles. Stalin ushered in a so-called “thaw” anti-Semitism and for pointing (minimum), celesta, piano and strings. that allowed artists a cautious (and At least the composer had survived out that it was hardly confined to Duration: approximately 65 minutes. short-lived) feeling of hope for that attack—during the height of the unenlightened past but still relaxed restrictions. Stalinist terror—but it derailed the flourished in the self-proclaimed n December 1962—just two months opera career of one of the century’s All of these developments had a Socialist Paradise. The reaction from I after the Cuban Missile Crisis— most brilliantly gifted writers for the direct bearing on the composer’s critics, all too familiar from similar Dmitri Shostakovich was preoccupied stage. After managing to reinstate frame of mind when he composed responses to such current efforts as with the last-minute details for himself into official favor thanks his Thirteenth Symphony. In 1960 the Black Lives Matter movement, May 4, 2017 May 4, 2017 was that non-Jews had been victims poems and thus to fashion a choral The composer’s great friend Isaak choral symphony. Beethoven’s Ninth as well and that Yevtushenko was symphony. He went so far as to ask Glikman reported a tumultuous had its imitators, but there were far inciting ethnic conflict. (In fact the the poet to write a brand-new poem success: “At the end of the finale, the fewer precedents for a symphony first monument was not built until for this purpose (which serves as the audience rose up as one and erupted employing chorus from beginning to after Shostakovich’s death, in 1976— fourth movement, “Fears”). in tempestuous applause. It seemed end. Mahler, one of Shostakovich’s and that was directed only to Soviet to go on forever.” Yet the official idols, wrote such a work in his Eighth This was dangerously provocative citizens and POWs.) Soviet press essentially ignored the Symphony. Even more, the chorus material, and the premiere in Thirteenth (aside from a small notice in question is strictly male, and for “In the entire legal postwar Soviet December 1962 was highly anticipated. that refused to mention the title of basses only, who are mostly given literature, this was virtually the There are conflicting reports of what the first movement, referring only unison lines to sing. Shostakovich’s first attempt to remove the taboo actually happened at the event, but in to a “mournful requiem”). There was experiences re-orchestrating the from the subject of anti-Semitism,” the lead-up, Shostakovich had to deal epic operas Boris Godunov and writes Levon Hakobian in The Music no actual ban, but Yevtushenko was with two singers dropping out and Khovanshchina by his predecessor of the Soviet Era. Around the time Bob required to emend the text of his Babi thus a last-minute replacement for Modest Mussorgsky also left their Dylan was recording his first album Yar poem to mention Russians and the bass soloist—and the composer mark. for Columbia Records, Yevtushenko Ukrainians as equal victims alongside had been especially concerned emerged as the voice of a new the Jews. The first recording used this At first glance, the use of poems about getting the casting for that generation in the Soviet Union. “After version, to the composer’s chagrin. that are so far-ranging in topic and part just right. Even more hurtfully, the stifling fear of the Stalin years,” tone (even though by the same poet) the conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky, His music per se was not viewed as writes Eric Roseberry, “Yevtushenko’s might suggest a composition more long a champion of Shostakovich, problematic: “It was the words,” unprecedented denunciation of the in the spirit of an orchestral-choral turned down his invitation to unveil Laurel Fay points out. “On its own, evils in Soviet society (in this case, song cycle. Yet even if the composer the new symphony—allegedly on Shostakovich’s music defied no anti-Semitism) was representative himself harbored doubts as to the grounds that he didn’t feel up to stylistic taboos and was hardly of a younger generation in whom whether the work truly constituted handling a choral symphonic score, controversial.” the fear of the State was less deeply a symphony, he resorted to unifying but political pressure seems likely to ingrained and who were desperate for Despite—or precisely because of— devices and cross-references within have played a role. A rift ensued that political change.” these tribulations, the Thirteenth his large canvas. “In the Thirteenth was never healed. In his place, Kirill Symphony held special significance Symphony I dealt with the problem Shostakovich, a passionate opponent Kondrashin—who had led the belated for Shostakovich. For the rest of his of civic, precisely civic,’’ morality,” of anti-Semitism, was so taken by premiere of the long-suppressed life, he celebrated the anniversary Shostakovich declared. What linked Babi Yar that he commenced writing Fourth Symphony a year before, in of its completion (July 20, 1962) the poems, according to Fay, was a single-movement setting for 1961—accepted the task. with his new wife, Irina Supinskaya, “their bold engagement with social orchestra, bass soloist, and men’s whom he also married that year. Did and political ills in contemporary chorus. When he met with the On top of all this, Khrushchev had he associate it with some kind of Soviet life.” young poet to request permission embarked on a new campaign for personal catharsis? Shostakovich to set the poem, reports Laurel “ideological purity” in the arts and The most important unifying motif would battle numerous health Fay, Shostakovich admitted to had recently flared up at Yevtushenko. is stated at the outset of the five- ailments during the years he had Yevtushenko that the music The possibility that the performance movement work, which begins remaining, and worked on the was already a fait accompli.