10th Symphony (Shostakovich)

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The 10th Symphony in E minor op. 93 by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Yevgeny Maravinsky on December 17, 1953. It is not possible to determine exactly when this symphony was written. According to the composer's letter, the work was written between July and October 1953.

The symphony is divided into four movements :

Duration: approx. 52 minutes.

occupation

Piccolo , 2 flutes (2nd also piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd also English horn ), 3 clarinets (3rd also in Eb), 3 bassoons (3rd also contrabassoon ), 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , Timpani , triangle , tambourine , cymbals , snare drum , bass drum , tam-tam , xylophone , I. and II. Violins , viola , violoncello , double bass

Emergence

It was Shostakovich's first symphonic work since 1945 and since his humiliation as a result of the "anti-formalist" purges of 1948, in which he was removed from his teaching posts in Moscow and Leningrad . In the period between 1945 and the death of Josef Stalin on March 5, 1953, he represented the Soviet Union in a series of so-called "international peace congresses". By March 1953, a considerable number of serious works had piled up in Shostakovich's drawers, waiting either to be premiered or to be rehabilitated. Solomon Volkov wrote in his book “Witness Statement” that the 10th Symphony was about “Stalin and the Stalin Years”. However, this theory is still hotly debated today.

layout

First sentence

In the first sentence, the focus is on personal suffering. This is the most complex and most carefully composed of all Shostakovich's symphonic first movements to date. The main theme of personal identity is taken up again in the third and fourth movements. The first movement begins with a cello and double bass unison in E minor. The musical formulas Shostakovich uses all show a similar, tragic impression, whereby the Tempo Moderato brings the negative atmosphere to good effect. Except for the middle section, where the music grows to noisy chords, this movement is kept rather calm.

The musicologist Bernd Feuchtner described the first movement as a picture of madness.

Second sentence

The second movement is a short and brutal Scherzo , in Volkov's words it is "roughly a musical portrait of Stalin". Furthermore, a direct relationship between the opening theme and the beginning of the opera " Boris Godunow " by Modest Mussorgsky , which Shostakovich himself re-orchestrated, can be proven. The movement begins with violent chord beats, after which Shostakovich, according to Kurt Sanderling, sets the Stalin theme from number 71, bar 7 to number 73, bar 1, initially as a woodwind quartet, then as a quintet. This theme contains marching dots and distinctive rhythms with sixteenth notes, which are then repeated as a drum solo (Kb. 0:22).

Third sentence

Shostakovich begins the third movement with a deformation of his initials, namely CD Es H, which he notates in analogy to the BACH cross symbol with German note names. In number 104, bar 5, his original initials D Es C H are shown. For harmonic reasons he chose C minor, since B serves as the leading tone for C. The Stalin theme reappears below, but as an imitation, with Shostakovich translating his initials as well-ordered quarter notes on the flute as staccato whistles. It is formed mainly of two motives: the DSCH motif represents the composer himself (the notes D-Es-CH stand for the initials D mitri Sch ostakowitsch), and the Elmira motif ( E-La-MI-Re-A in a German-Italian combination of note names). This motif is played twelve times on the horn; With him Shostakovich pays homage to the Azerbaijani composition student Elmira Nəzirova , his muse at the time, confidante and object of his unrequited affection. The DSCH and Elmira motifs change in the course of the third movement and finally unite over time. The initial theme can be heard six times at the end of the sentence from point 142. The last appearance of his initials appears as an augmentation.

Fourth sentence

The fourth and last movement of this symphony is divided into an andante and an allegro. The Andante begins in number 144, bar 8, with a theme that is played first by the oboe. In bar 18 the theme turns away from the idyllic character and shows an aggressive sound, which Shostakovich achieves through chromatics and a dissonant HC F sharp chord of the strings. The theme repeats this turn several times, each time creating a strange impression.

In the second part of the movement from number 153 (Allegro) the pessimistic mood is finally broken, and happy dance music can be heard. The gloom at the beginning of the last movement is apparently dispelled by a carefree clarinet and carefree violins , which, however, are again accompanied in the middle part of the movement by the brutal, increasingly stronger theme of the scherzo. This then briefly wins the upper hand before it is crushed by the entire orchestra with a decisive DSCH in three fortees (item 184). After a short period of reflection, in which the rather uncertain DSCH sounds are embedded in the subdued mood of the Andante part of the finale, the positive dancing mood sets in (gradually starting with the bassoon (number 191) and then expanded again by the clarinet (Item 194)) and culminates - introduced by the horns (from Item 202) - in a triple DSCH , triumphantly as unison of almost the entire orchestra as half notes in forte fortissimo (from Item 203). In the very last bars (from number 206) the timpani hammers the DSCH several times into the score like a stamp. (The latter can be heard particularly drastically in the congenial recording of the piano version for four hands with Shostakovich and Weinberg at the piano (Melodiya 1954).)

literature

  • David Fanning: Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10 in E minor . German translation by Bernd Müller. CD booklet HLD 7511
  • Michael Koball: Pathos and the grotesque - The German tradition in the symphonic work of Dmitri Shostakovich. Kuhn, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-928864-50-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Solomon Wolkow, Dmitri Schostakowitsch: The Memoirs of Dmitri Schostakowitsch. List, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-548-60335-1 .
  2. ↑ Details. December 12, 2018, accessed June 21, 2019 .
  3. ↑ About the Elmira motif of the 10th Symphony - Article by Peter Laki on kennedycenter.org (English)