program notes {
tonal, more melodic, and more pleasing in
its instrumental sonorities.
Nevertheless, in the fierce drama of its
first movement, the biting sarcasm of its
second, the emotionally wrenching sorrow
of its third, and the complex “triumph”
of its finale, the Fifth is as uncompromisingly outspoken as any of Shostakovich’s
works. In Testimony, the controversial
memoirs purportedly dictated to Solomon
Volkov, the composer vehemently denied
there was any real triumph at all. “I never
thought about any exultant finales, for
what exultation could there be? … The
rejoicing is forced, created under threat, as
in [Mussorgsky’s opera] Boris Godunov. It’s
as if someone were beating you with a stick
and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your
business is rejoicing,’ and you rise, shaky,
and go marching off, muttering, ‘Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.’ ”
First movement: One of the most
powerful of symphonic openings launches the work. Played in canon between
lower and upper strings, this rugged
theme is the seedbed of the movement.
Contained in it are two important motives: descending three-note twists and
the initially gentle repeated notes at the
end. Both will be developed with great
power, and the repeated notes will dominate the entire symphony. From this,
Shostakovich builds a long melancholy
melody sung by first violins. A second
major theme also appears: a very hushed
sustained melody high in the violins over
a pulsing rhythmic accompaniment.
Baleful horns and an aggressive piano
hammering out the second theme announce the development section, and the
music accelerates into vigorous but slightly
mechanical activity. Military snare drums
Shostakovich
propel a brash march. The music builds
to great intensity, and the opening theme
returns at a frenzied, driven tempo. But
this manic energy eventually dies out into a
quiet, haunting coda.
A sardonic sense of humor has saved Russian sanity throughout a brutal history, and
it animates the second-movement scherzo
with its insolent trills, satirical slides, and
crude brass outbursts. This is a rough peasant dance in the style of one of Shostakovich’s favorite composers, Gustav Mahler.
Bright, shrill scoring, tongue-in-cheek
pizzicato strings, and a tipsy solo violin leading the middle trio section suggest defiant
mockery—perhaps a jibe at Stalin himself.
The magnificent third-place slow movement is as sincere and heartfelt as its predecessor was flippant. Shostakovich once said,
“The majority of my symphonies are tombstones,” and this may be a requiem for the
many Russians who died in the purges. At
the Fifth’s premiere, audiences wept openly
during this music. The strings dominate;
they seem the voices of communal mourning. In the middle section, solo woodwinds
raise their plaintive voices, expressing
individual loss. The music reaches an extraordinary climax of pain as the strings rise
to a chorus of repeated notes, intensified by
the xylophone. The great Russian soprano
Galina Vishnevskaya, Shostakovich’s friend
and Rostropovich’s wife, described this as
“like nails being pounded into one