Dmitry Shostakovich's sardonic Symphony No. 4 in C minor (1935-1936) marks an important stage in his career, for it was the last of his early, avant-garde symphonies; because his experimental tendencies provoked hostile criticism in Pravda (most likely written by Stalin to make Shostakovich fear for his life), the symphony was withheld from performance until 1961. As a result of its rather late appearance in the repertoire, it is one of the least familiar of Shostakovich's 15 symphonies, and even though it has received a ...
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Dmitry Shostakovich's sardonic Symphony No. 4 in C minor (1935-1936) marks an important stage in his career, for it was the last of his early, avant-garde symphonies; because his experimental tendencies provoked hostile criticism in Pravda (most likely written by Stalin to make Shostakovich fear for his life), the symphony was withheld from performance until 1961. As a result of its rather late appearance in the repertoire, it is one of the least familiar of Shostakovich's 15 symphonies, and even though it has received a respectable number of performances over the years, it is still less frequently recorded than the perennially popular Symphony No. 5 or the Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad." Yet this is one of Shostakovich's most intellectually stimulating and emotionally challenging scores, for it is crammed with ideas, and its gargantuan form, mordant themes, elaborate developments, and expressive extremes make it comparable to Mahler's symphonies (especially with its pointed references to the Second,...
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