Symphony X Movement Two (Shostakovich, tr Fisher))

From Wind Repertory Project
Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich (trans. Dennis Fisher)


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This work bears the designation In E minor, Opus 93.


General Info

Year: 1954 / 2010
Duration: c. 4:50
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: Schirmer
Cost: Score and Parts – Rental.


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III

(percussion detail desired)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

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, following the death of Joseph Stalin in March of that year.

The second movement is a short and violent scherzo with syncopated rhythms and endlessly furious semiquaver (sixteenth note) passages. The book Testimony claims:

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.

However, 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." Musicologist Richard Taruskin called the proposition a "dubious revelation, which no one had previously suspected either in Russia or in the West". 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."

- Program Note from Wikipedia


Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 is a “portrait of Stalin” -- frenetic, free-flowing, short but extremely savage. Shostakovich knew that the denizens of the Kremlin would swallow the idea that the music portrayed the late Great Leader’s boundless energy and dynamism. Everybody else, of course, would have understood that Stalin, through his own incessant machinations, spread a deep fear that stifled any ”unauthorized activity" in all others.

- Program Note from University of North Texas Symphonic Band concert program, 20 September 2018


Commercial Discography


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Texas A&M University (College Station) Wind Symphony (Timothy Rhea, conductor) – 24 November 2019
  • University of North Texas (Denton) Wind Symphony (Eugene Migliaro Corporon, conductor) - 14 February 2019 (2019 TMEA Conference, San Antonio)
  • University of North Texas (Denton) Wind Symphony (Dennis W. Fisher, conductor) – 12 February 2019
  • University of North Texas (Denton) Symphonic Band (Dennis W. Fisher, conductor) – 20 September 2018
  • Eastern Wind Symphony (Hamilton, N.J.) (Todd Nicols, conductor) – 18 December 2015


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music

  • Waltz No. 2 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Brown) (post 1956/2021)


All Wind Works


Resources

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