Apparently the most-performed 20th century symphony after Sibelius 2. Which may be also part of the reason I have now heard this symphony live 3 times in 20 months by 3 different orchestras in 3 different cities. And, of the three performances, I enjoyed this one, by the BBC Phil and Vasiliy Sinaisky, the most. Notably I totally followed the sonata of the first movement - and how very turbulent the development is. I also realised how much Shostakovich's writing at this time affected his move to the more intimate medium of the string quartet.
Shostakovich called this symphony: "a Soviet artist's response to just criticism." I would call it a magnificent and ambiguous work. The slow movement and the climax are utterly chilling, rather than any expression of "socialist realism."
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