The Tenth Symphony, following the death of Stalin, undoubtedly coincided with hopeful whispers among Shostakovich’s friends and colleagues of a relaxation in the political and cultural climate in the USSR. The work was Shostakovich’s first large-scale symphonic composition since he had been denounced for “formalism” in 1948, the second major attack on the composer in the years of the cruelest Stalinist repression.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 01:20:28 +0000