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Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4

Beethoven Orchester Bonn
Roman Kofman (conductor)


Nikita’s Thaw
For many years Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony was icebound, until the political thaw under Khrushchev made it possible to go ahead with its premiere. Roman Kofman and the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn have recorded this work as Vol. 8 of Shostakovich’s complete symphonies on this MDG (SA)CD demonstrating the brilliance that we have come to expect from them.

Stalin’s Nyet
Shostakovich normally committed his musical ideas to paper without delay, but the distractions caused by the enormous success and sudden prohibition of his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District meant that his work on his Fourth Symphony dragged on for two years. Stalin himself ordered that the composition, which until then had met with enthusiastic acclaim, be condemned in the Pravda party newspaper.

To Tell the Truth
The resounding condemnation in Pravda had hardly faded away when Shostakovich was hit a second time. This time the same party newspaper lashed away at his ballet The Limpid Stream, terming it a ”balletic falsity”. It is hardly surprising that after this double attack the composer added what is a rather bleak finale to his almost finished Fourth Symphony. To make matters worse, the premiere was canceled on short notice; it was alleged that the conductor was incompetent. The truth of the matter was that the secretary of the composers’ union had lodged a complaint and pressured Shostakovich to cancel the premiere out of consideration for the orchestra and its musicians.

Dmitry’s Triumph
The premiere was delayed for twenty-five years. Shostakovich claimed to the censors that he had been working on a new version all along but presented the composition in its original, unrevised form – a masterpiece that inspired ovations among the public and the press.