Symphony No. 15 (Shostakovich)

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The Symphony No. 15 in A major (Opus 141), Dmitri Shostakovich's last, was written in a little over a month during the summer of 1971 in Repino. It was first performed in Moscow on 8 January 1972 by the All-Union Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra under Maxim Shostakovich.

Though written for a large orchestra, the symphony is sparingly scored, almost like chamber music, with a large battery of percussion adding to the unusual colorings. The symphony is filled with cryptic allusions to Shostakovich's own music as well as the music of Gioacchino Rossini (the William Tell Overture), Richard Wagner, Mikhail Glinka, and Gustav Mahler; the composer said in conversation with his friend, Isaak Glikman, that, "I don't myself quite know why the quotations are there, but I could not, could not, not include them". (Glikman p. 315).

The work has four movements:

  1. Allegretto
  2. Adagio - Largo (attacca)
  3. Allegretto
  4. Adagio - Allegretto

The symphony is notable for many things, among them its eerie coda on a sustained pedal point in the strings supporting an astonishing percussion toccata featuring castanets, snare drum, wood block, xylophone, and triangle; this recalls the final moments of the scherzo from the Fourth Symphony, as well as those of a much more recent and similarly morbid work, the Second Cello Concerto. Through this fascinating melee the timpani plays the movement's main passacaglia idea, which may stem from the "invasion" theme from the Seventh Symphony. Finally the glockenspiel and celesta strike a single, sustained, C# to close on an A-major chord, thus ending the symphony.

It is also worth noting that Shostakovich, as he often does in his late scores, includes certain aspects of twelve-tone writing in the music. He is not interested in the structural implications of the technique, he just constructs some melodies in this style.

Shostakovich utilizes several modern techniques for the percussionist that include striking the rim of the snare drum, in addition to the drum head. Also, he has the snare drummer play several instruments at once: wood block, castanets and snare drum. This technique of scoring multiple percussion instruments at once is now considered a standard method of writing in modern orchestral, solo, and ensemble literature.

[edit] Recordings

Recordings of the work include:

[edit] References

  • Shostakovich, Dmitri and Glikman, Isaak (2001). Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman. Cornell Univ Press. ISBN 0-8014-3979-5.
Symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 1 | Symphony No. 2 | Symphony No. 3 | Symphony No. 4 Symphony No. 5 | Symphony No. 6 | Symphony No. 7 | Symphony No. 8 Symphony No. 9 | Symphony No. 10 | Symphony No. 11 | Symphony No. 12 | Symphony No. 13 | Symphony No. 14 | Symphony No. 15
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