For piccolo, flutes I-II, oboes I-III, English horn, Eb clarinet, clarinets I-II, bassoons I-II, contrabassoon; horns I-IV, trumpets I-III, trombones I-III, tuba; timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, tam-tam, xylophone; strings

Composed summer, October 25, 1953, in Komarovo village, Gulf of Finland

First performed December 17, 1953 by the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeni Mravinsky conducting

Published by State Music Publishers (Moscow, 1960)

Duration:  about 50 minutes

Stalin died on March 5, 1953. Finally free from the artistic oppression and censorship of the “iron fist,” Shostakovich composed his Tenth Symphony between July and October, and the symphony had its premiere under Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic on December 17 of the same year.

Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 was premiered under Nikolai Malko in 1926 at the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. The composer was only 20 years old. The premiere was a big success and they encored the scherzo. The symphony was taken up by such luminaries as Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, and Arturo Toscanini, inaugurating an international reputation for the young Shostakovich. Congratulatory messages came from figures as geographically and artistically distant as Alban Berg in Vienna and Darius Milhaud in Paris.

As the foremost composer of the Soviet Union, Shostakovich’s reputation in the West has always been problematic. He was regarded by certain circles as a collaborator; by others, as a symbol of moral resistance. Both his persona and music met with approval and condemnation.

Shostakovich’s first serious crisis came in 1936, over Stalin’s personal and strongly expressed displeasure with the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, which had until then enjoyed successful runs in both Leningrad and Moscow. Following condemnations in the press (the famous Pravda official newspaper) understood to have come from “high up,” that same year the Fourth Symphony was withdrawn during rehearsals. The political climate would not allow for its performance. The Fourth Symphony would not be heard until 1961, and Shostakovich accomplished his “rehabilitation” with the Fifth Symphony, introduced with enormous success in 1937 during the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the 1917 Revolution. It is musically more conservative than his earlier works, and it remains still nowadays as perhaps the most popular of all his works.

In 1948, Shostakovich was denounced again for being a formalist. The Zhdanov cultural doctrine was developed by the Central Committee of the Soviet Union in 1946. The main principle of the Zhdanov doctrine is often referred to by the phrase, “The only conflict that is possible in Soviet culture is the conflict between good and best.” Most of his works were banned, he was forced to publicly repent, and his family had privileges withdrawn. The following years he wrote film music to collect some money, official music to secure an official “rehabilitation,” and serious music “to be kept in the desk drawer,” which include his Violin Concerto No. 1. One important step in 1949 was to write his cantata Song of the Forests, which praised Stalin as the “great gardener.” That same year, the restrictions on Shostakovich’s music and living arrangements were eased. Four years later, that same “great gardener” would be portrayed in the second movement, scherzo, of the Tenth Symphony.

The Tenth was heard in Moscow just 10 days after the Leningrad premiere, and of course it provoked a good deal of discussion. All Shostakovich himself would say about it was, “In this composition I wanted to express human emotions and passions.” In 1954, Shostakovich was given the highest honor the Soviet Union bestowed upon its artists: the title “People’s Artist of the U.S.S.R.”

The music of Mahler and Mussorgsky were deeply influential for Shostakovich throughout his creative career, and this is clearly evident in the Tenth Symphony. One of the main expressive vehicles that Shostakovich uses is the principle of “metamorphosis.” Instead of the traditional use of “variations” of material, Shostakovich uses a quasi-folk-like type of repetition and modification, through which it transforms a theme and yet it is always clearly recognizable. This is a standard procedure in folk music, and it is particularly evident in the very long first movement of the symphony. In this movement, slow lines and lyric moments are iterated and organized in a way that episodes succeeding one another have a sense of inevitability.

The scherzo was described by Shostakovich as “a portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking.” It is extremely fierce and driving, and it is arguably the most concise of all the movements in his symphonies. It presents the listener with an extraordinary contrast between the expansiveness of the first movement, and the introspection and fragility of the following one.

The third movement (Allegretto) is not conventional at all. It functions as the slow movement yet is seasoned by a somewhat timid dance-like quality. We encounter for the first time in the piece Shostakovich’s musical signature in its entirety (it had been implied by the first entrance of the violins in the first movement): D-S-C-H translated musically into D-E-flat-C-B natural. These four notes represent Shostakovich, and throughout the movement this theme interacts with another theme that represents another person: Elmira Nazirova (E-La-Mi-Re-A). She was a student of Shostakovich, and numerous letters document his devotion to her. The opening theme comes back always, giving the sense of a somewhat uncomfortable world, in which both DSCH and Elmira interact with not much success.

The last movement begins with what is one of the longest slow introductions in the symphonic world. Beautiful and melancholic solos are presented by the oboe, flute, piccolo, and bassoon. The clarinet eventually becomes the main star of a much more lighthearted theme at the beginning of the Allegro, almost dancing with the violins. The motive DSCH returns in the last movement, as an omnipresent figure that makes itself recognizable throughout the movement, and concluding with a very demanding timpani part, portraying, of course, Shostakovich himself.