Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)

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The Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93, by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953. It is not clear when it was written. According to the composer, the symphony was composed between July and October 1953, but Tatiana Nikolayeva stated that it was completed in 1951. Sketches for some of the material date from 1946. [1]

Contents

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for piccolo, two flutes (first flute with B foot extension, second flute doubling piccolo), three oboes (third doubling cor anglais), three clarinets (third doubling E clarinet), three bassoons (third doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, tambourine, tam-tam, xylophone, and strings. [2]

Composition

The symphony has four movements and a duration of approximately 50-60 minutes:

  1. Moderato
  2. Allegro
  3. Allegretto – Largo –Più mosso
  4. Andante – Allegro – L'istesso tempo

I. Moderato

The first and longest movement is a slow movement in rough sonata form. As in his Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich alludes to one of his settings of Pushkin: in the first movement, from the second of his Four Monologues on Verses by Pushkin, entitled "What Does My Name Mean to You?". [3]

II. Allegro

The second movement is a short and loud scherzo with syncopated rhythms and semiquaver (sixteenth note) passages. The book Testimony said:

I did depict Stalin in my next symphony, the Tenth. I wrote it right after Stalin's death and no one has yet guessed what the symphony is about. It's about Stalin and the Stalin years. The second part, the scherzo, is a musical portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking. Of course, there are many other things in it, but that's the basis. [4]

Shostakovich biographer Laurel Fay wrote, "I have found no corroboration that such a specific program was either intended or perceived at the time of composition and first performance." [5] Musicologist Richard Taruskin called the proposition a "dubious revelation, which no one had previously suspected either in Russia or in the West". [6] Elizabeth Wilson adds: "The Tenth Symphony is often read as the composer’s commentary on the recent Stalinist era. But as so often in Shostakovich’s art, the exposition of external events is counter-opposed to the private world of his innermost feelings." [7]

III. Allegretto

The third movement is built around two musical codes: the DSCH theme representing Shostakovich, and the Elmira theme ( listen ):

Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)

At concert pitch one fifth lower, the notes spell out "E La Mi Re A" in a combination of French and German notation. This motif, called out twelve times on the horn, represents Elmira Nazirova  [ de ], a student of the composer with whom he fell in love. The motif is of ambiguous tonality, giving it an air of uncertainty or hollowness. [8]

In a letter to Nazirova, Shostakovich himself noted the similarity of the motif to the ape call in the first movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde , a work which he had been listening to around that time: [9] ( listen )

Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)

The same notes are used in both motifs, and both are repeatedly played by the horn. In the Chinese poem set by Mahler, the ape is a representation of death, while the Elmira motif itself occurs together with the "funeral knell" of a tam tam. [10] Over the course of the movement, the DSCH and Elmira themes alternate and gradually draw closer.

IV. Andante, Allegro

In the fourth and final movement, a slow "Andante" introduction segues abruptly into an "Allegro" wherein the DSCH theme is employed again. The coda effects a transition to E Major and, at in the final measures, several instruments glissando from an E to the next E.

The DSCH-motif is anticipated throughout the first movement of the 10th Symphony: In the 7th bar of the start of the symphony the violins doubled by the violas play a D for 5 bars which is then directly followed by an E; 9 bars before rehearsal mark 29 the violins play the motif in an inverted order D-C-H-S (or D-C-B-E).

Notable recordings

Recordings of this symphony include:

OrchestraConductorRecord CompanyYear of RecordingFormat
New York Philharmonic Orchestra Dimitri Mitropoulos CBS 1954 [11] LP
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra Yevgeny Mravinsky Naxos 1954 (live recording)CD
Czech Philharmonic Karel Ančerl DG 1955LP
USSR Symphony Orchestra Yevgeny Svetlanov Melodiya 1966LP
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Herbert von Karajan DG 1966 [12] LP
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra Kirill Kondrashin Melodiya 1973LP
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra Yevgeny Mravinsky Melodiya 1976 (live recording)LP
London Philharmonic Orchestra Bernard Haitink Decca 1977LP
Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester Kurt Sanderling Berlin Classics 1977LP
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Herbert von Karajan DG 1981 [13] LP
London Philharmonic Orchestra Bernard Haitink LPO 1986 (live recording) [14] CD [15]
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Leonard Slatkin RCA Red Seal Records 1987CD
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Ladislav Slovák Naxos 1989CD
London Symphony Orchestra Mstislav Rostropovich Teldec 1989CD
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Ashkenazy Decca 1990CD
London Symphony Orchestra Maxim Shostakovich Collins Classics1990CD
Cleveland Orchestra Christoph von Dohnányi Decca 1992CD
Philadelphia Orchestra Mariss Jansons EMI Classics 1994CD
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation Valery Polyansky Chandos 1995CD
BBC National Orchestra of Wales Mark Wigglesworth BIS Records 1997CD
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Andrew Litton Delos 2000CD
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi Oleg Caetani Arts 2002-2003 (live recording)SACD
Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne Dmitri Kitayenko Capriccio 2002-2004SACD
WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne Semyon Bychkov Avie Records 2005SACD
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela Gustavo Dudamel 2007 (live recording)CD
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Vasily Petrenko Naxos 2009CD
Mariinsky Orchestra Valery Gergiev Mariinsky2009-2010SACD
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Mariss Jansons RCO Live2009 (live recording)CD
Boston Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons DG 2015 (live recording)CD
Dresden Philharmonic Michael Sanderling Sony Classical 2015CD
Russian National Orchestra Mikhail Pletnev Pentatone 2017SACD
London Symphony Orchestra Gianandrea Noseda LSO Live 2021CD
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Jaap van Zweden Naxos 2022CD

References

  1. Wilson, Elizabeth (1994) p. 262. Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton University Press. ISBN   0-691-04465-1.
  2. "New York Philharmonic | Digital Archives. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No.10 in E minor (ID: 7533)". New York Philharmonic | Digital Archives. Archived from the original on 22 September 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  3. Mishra, Michael (2008). Mishra, Michael (ed.). A Shostakovich Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. pp. 197–198. ISBN   978-0-313-30503-0.
  4. Volkov, Solomon (2004). Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. Limelight Editions. p. 141. ISBN   978-0-87910-998-1 . Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  5. Fay, Laurel E. (2000). Shostakovich: A Life. Oxford University Press. p. 327 note 14. ISBN   978-0-19-513438-4 . Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  6. Taruskin, Richard (2 December 2008). On Russian Music. University of California Press. p. 327. ISBN   978-0-520-94280-6 . Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  7. Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, Elizabeth Wilson, p. 305
  8. Nelly Kravetz, New Insight into the Tenth Symphony, p. 162. In Bartlett, R. (ed) Shostakovich in Context.
  9. Kravetz p. 163.
  10. Kravetz p. 162.
  11. "Shostakovich*, Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra Of New York*, Dimitri Mitropoulos – Symphony No. 10 In E Minor, Op. 93". Discogs. Retrieved 2016-06-02.
  12. "SHOSTAKOVICH 10. Symphonie / Karajan 1966 – 1 LP" . Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  13. "SHOSTAKOVICH 10. Symphonie / Karajan 1981 – CD reissue 2006 / Download – Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft". deutschegrammophon.com. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  14. "Prom 43 – Prom 43". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  15. "Classical CDs of the week reviews: Shostakovich, Schubert and more..." The Daily Telegraph . 23 August 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.