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New release! Companion audio CD to the acclaimed Keeping Score series.
SKU: 7981A
As of 1936 Dmitri Shostakovich faced a cloudy professional future due to the displeasure of the Stalinist government, which had condemned his work as “muddle instead of music.” In the wake of the terrifying purges emanating from Stalin’s dictatorship and the clear message that even Russia’s most prominent composer was not exempt from scrutiny, Shostakovich was compelled to refashion his musical style in an attempt to avoid official censure. He succeeded both politically and artistically in 1937 with his Fifth Symphony, a profoundly moving expression of sorrow that culminates in “an enormous optimistic lift,” as Alexei Tolstoy stated in an early review. While Russian audiences cherished the symphony from its inception, many Western critics derided it as a hollow concession to political pressure. But time and distance have made it abundantly clear that the Fifth panders to nobody and speaks to all people, at all times, and in all places.
This companion concert recording for Keeping Score: Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, as seen on PBS, was recorded live in Davies Symphony Hall in November 2007.
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