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Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, created against the backdrop of one of Stalin's most infamous purges, is one of Shostakovich's most controversial works. It was Shostakovich's response to criticism that earned him disfavor in the eyes of officials, one that allowed him to regain artistic pride even as he won the approval necessary to regain his livelihood. This book explores this symphony in full and clues readers into secrets about it that took decades to uncover.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- About the Companion Website
- Note on Transliteration
- List of Themes
- Prelude
- Chapter 1. From the Fourth to the Fifth
- "This is Chaos, Not Music"
- (Not) The Fourth Symphony
- The Birth of the Fifth
- Three Streams of Reception
- Chapter 2. Musical Contexts
- Beethoven and Tchaikovsky
- Hindemith and Mahler
- Shostakovich's "Eclecticism"
- Chapter 3. The Phantom Program
- Intelligentsia and Revolution
- "Maturation of Personality"
- Chapter 4. The Faulty Metronome
- Mravinsky vs Bernstein
- Between the Two Poles
- Chapter 5. A Formula for Triumph
- The Great Citizen
- The Triumph Formula
- The Missing Theme
- Chapter 6 The End of the Affair
- A Secret Uncovered
- First Movement
- Second Movement
- Third Movement
- Fourth Movement
- Motto and Monogram
- Other Secrets
- Postlude
- Index
About the author
Marina Frolova-Walker is Professor of Music History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Clare College. She is the author of Russian Music and Nationalism from Glinka to Stalin (2007), Stalin's Music Prize: Soviet Culture and Politics (2016), and co-author of Music and Soviet Power, 1917-32 (2012). Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2014, and the recipient of the RMA Dent Medal for her outstanding contribution to musicology, Professor Frolova-Walker is committed to sharing the insights gained from her research with a wider public through talks, radio and TV appearances, and publications.
Jonathan Walker is a London-based freelance writer and private teacher of advanced piano and composition. He is co-author of Music and Soviet Power (2012). He studied at Edinburgh University, at the Liszt Academy, Budapest, and at Queen's University Belfast, where he defended his PhD dissertation on the musical-work concept. He has taught at Queen's University Belfast and
Cambridge University, performed on BBC2 television, given talks for BBC Radio 4, and published translations from French and Russian.
