The Classical Music Book

278

The new work was a resounding

success, its triumph at the premiere

on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad

confirmed by a 40-minute ovation,

with many in the audience moved

to tears. Through the symphony’s

series of stark contrasts between

gentle, melancholic music and

louder, faster passages, often in

march-time, Shostakovich had also

managed the delicate balancing act

of preserving his own lyrical voice

while toeing the party line.

The communist authorities,

although at first suspicious of the

work’s rapturous reception, took the

brash, closing movement at face

value, as an optimistic conclusion

using the direct musical language

of which they approved. One Soviet

reviewer described the symphony’s

ending as creating “an enormous

optimistic lift.” Party members had

been encouraged to react in this

way by an article that appeared in

a Moscow newspaper a few days

before the concert. The article was

signed by Shostakovich, but it was

probably written by a journalist

working for the Communist Party.

In the piece, the symphony is

described as “a Soviet artist’s

creative response to justified

criticism”. By putting his name

to these words, the composer was

saying that he had bowed to the

will of the party. For men like

Stalin, whose rule depended on

submission and fear, the fact

that Shostakovich had accepted

criticism in this way was a victory.

Hidden clues

Although Shostakovich seemed

to have caved in to the authorities,

for some listeners the symphony

carried hints of a more subversive

message. It was as though the

lyrical music represented freedom

and self-expression, while the

aggressive outbursts and awkward

dances parodied their ruthless

obliteration by the triumphant

communist state.

MUSIC IN THE SOVIET ERA

When Germany laid siege to

Leningrad in 1941, Shostakovich

decided to stay, working as a fireman

and finishing his Symphony No. 7,

which he dedicated to the city.

Alfred Schnittke

and polystylism

In the 1960s, the Russian

composer Alfred Schnittke

(1934–1998) developed a new

way of writing music. He

mixed various musical styles

in the same piece, such as his

Violin Sonata No. 2 (1968) and

Symphony No. 1 (1969–1972),

and called it “polystylism.”

Shostakovich had achieved

something similar, but in

the works of Schnittke the

contrasts between musical

styles are often more violent

and surprising. His Concerto

Grosso No. 1 (1977), for

example, combines baroque

form, an atonal lament,

a tango, and pieces of the

composer’s own film scores,

to dramatic and even shocking

effect. Schnittke continued to

compose polystylistic music

into the 1980s, including the

String Quartet No. 3 (1983).

He also wrote pieces that are

less obviously polystylistic,

such as Symphony No. 8

(1994), though even this work

contains elements taken from

Liszt, Wagner, and Russian

Orthodox chant.

Schnittke’s music was treated

with suspicion in the Soviet Union,

which he left in 1990 to settle in

the German city of Hamburg.

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