The Symphony No. 5 in D minor (Opus 47) by Dmitri Shostakovich was written between April and July of 1937, and first performed in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, on 21 November that year. The work was a huge success, and is said to have received an ovation of half an hour (or a whole hour, according to Mstislav Rostropovich). It is still one of his most popular works.

The work is approximately 45 minutes in length, and has four movements:

1. Moderato
2. Allegretto
3. Largo
4. Allegro non troppo

The symphony seems something of a compromise: it is not overtly political, either for or against the regime, and it is musically conservative without being simplistic.

The Soviet authorities gave the work the subtitle A Soviet Artist’s Reply to Just Criticism, a reference to the denunciation of the composer in 1936. It was officially interpreted as describing "the making of a man", with an appropriately optimistic conclusion. However, this final movement, often criticized for sounding shrill, is declared in Testimony to be a parody of shrillness, representing "forced rejoicing". It includes a quotation from the composer's song "Rebirth", accompanying the words "A barbarian painter" who "blackens the genius's painting" (Wilson, p. 127). In the song, the barbarian's paint falls away and the original painting is reborn. It has been suggested that the barbarian and the genius are Stalin and Shostakovich respectively. The work is largely sombre despite the composer's official claim that he wished to write a positive work.

Further reading

• Wilson, Elizabeth (1994). Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691044651.

External link

• Information on Shostakovich's fifth symphony