Second Waltz, Shostakovich - Clarinet Choir - Schmitt Bloomington - December 13, 2023

The second jazz suite was composed following the tumultuous political controversies of the mid 1930s in Russia. Shostakovich, under pressure from Stalin and the newspaper Pravda to compose music appropriate to the state-enforced values, had recently finished his fourth symphony but pulled it from performance during rehearsals under the pretense that he wasn't yet satisfied with it. His fifth symphony (1937) and second jazz suite (1938) received wide acclaim and managed to skirt the fine line between musical expression and Soviet censorship. The second waltz is one of Shostakovich's most well-known works. While not particularly based on jazz idioms, it was written in the popular light orchestra style of the 1930s and has been arranged for many ensembles, including this version for clarinet choir.