THE MAN WHO TOOK ON STALIN AND WON

This is a tale of art versus tyranny.

Stalin: Criminal and Rothschild employee; Mass murderer; Tyrant.

Shostakovich: Pianist; Composer; Firefighter during World War 2.

Dmitri Shostakovich initially supported the revolutions, but quickly saw and disliked the tyranny that Russia turned into. But unlike most people in Soviet Russia, he did something about it. He didn't blow anyone up (like the British-sponsored terrorists tried to do to Alexander II after Alexander supported Abraham Lincoln during the British-engineered US Civil War). He didn't shoot people. He didn't chop anyone's head off with a blunt breadknife. He didn't kidnap anyone and demand a ransom or the release of prisoners or a change in political leadership.

Shostakovich did none of these.

Instead, Shostakovich expressed himself, and the thoughts and feelings of most of Soviet Russia but because Stalin was such a tyrant they were afraid to speak.

Shostakovich wrote music.

In his Symphony No. 5, Shostakovich gained the huge respect of the Russian people but also saved his neck. Many of Shostakovich's musical colleagues were being denounced and/or persecuted and/or being disappeared because of their music. Shostakovich had been publicly criticised by Pravda, i.e. Stalin, for an earlier work, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The people loved it, but Stalin hated it. In response to this criticism from Stalin he wrote Symphony No. 4, but withdrew this, possibly because it was too anti-Stalin. But in Symphony No. 5 he produced a symphony that the people interpreted as expressing their dissatisfaction and oppression but which Stalin and the Russian government interpreted as pro-Soviet, and so Shostakovich survived.

He wrote Symphony No. 7 as the Nazis were invading Russia, as a call to arms to the Russian people. Symphony No. 8, written during World War 2, expressed the true horror of war (Shostakovich lived in Leningrad then Moscow).

But Symphony No. 10 was about Stalin and his tyranny. After World War 2 Stalin was invincible and the artistic oppressions began again. Shostakovich, despite being the people's favourite, was dismissed from the Moscow Conservatoire, and was forced to write minor pieces praising Soviet Russia. Stalin died in 1953. In response to Stalin's death Shostakovich wrote Symphony No. 10.

Stalin was dead. Shostakovich and the rest of Russia rejoiced. Shostakovich had tricked and survived Stalin and his tyranny...through art. Many others had not.

First movement describes Russia under Stalin, and the reaction to Stalin's death; joy and sighs of relief, but who will rule Russia next?
Second movement mimics Stalin during one of his tirades.
Third movement is Shostakovich remembering, rejoicing, dancing on Stalin's grave.
Fourth movement expresses all three previous movements but in a different way.

BRILLIANT!

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 / Dudamel conducting Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra