Symphony No.4 in C minor - Dmitri Shostakovich

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko.
I - Allegretto poco moderato (𝅘𝅥 = 92) - (𝅘𝅥 = 54) - (𝅘𝅥 = 138) - (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 60) - (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 108) - Presto (𝅘𝅥 = 168) - (𝅘𝅥 = 184) - (𝅘𝅥 = 92) - (𝅘𝅥 = 108) - (𝅘𝅥 = 72) - (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 69): 0:00
II - Moderato con moto (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 144): 27:13
III - Largo (𝅘𝅥 = 69) - Allegro (𝅗𝅥 = 84) - (𝅘𝅥 = 100) - (𝅘𝅥 = 50): 36:34
Shostakovich's Symphony No.4 was composed between September 1935 and May 1936, it was planned to be premiered on December 11 of 1936, but pressure from soviet authorities forced conductor Fritz Stiedry to drop the piece from the programme. He persuaded Shostakovich to withdraw the symphony altogether. During World War II, the manuscript was lost and the piece had to be reassembled using the orchestral parts that survived from the 1936 rehearsals. It wasn't premiered until December 30 of 1961, performed by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kirill Kondrashin.
In January 1936, an editorial titled "Muddle Instead of Music" was published in the Pravda newspaper, which denounced the composer and his opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk". On February, the articles "Ballet Falsehood" assailed his ballet "The Limpid Stream", and "Clear and Simple Language in Art" again further attacked Shostakovich for "formalism". The composer had been previously attacked, but in 1936 his life and his family were in real danger. Shostakovich saw friends and collaborators disappear, family members being arrested and his music vanished from concert halls. 1936 was the year of the beginning of the "Great Purge", in which over a million people would die by the repression of the soviet state.
Despite all of this, the fourth symphony shows Shostakovich at the height of his powers and it is the key to understand the mature work of the composer. Divided in two large outer movements surrounding a central scherzo, the piece features extreme dissonances and an avant-garde language that raises the histrionic humour and unbound tragic climaxes to nprecedented heights. It also shows the ever-increasing influence of Gustav Mahler, as reflected in orchestration style, musical material and juxtapositions between the banal and the elevated, between the comic and the tragic.
The first movement is very free in form, based on two alternating themes (A-B-A'-B'-A''). It begins with an alarmed fanfare motive on woodwinds and percussion, which evolves into a menacing and grotesque march as the main theme, presented by brass over string staccatos. It is then melodically unfolded in an inverted manner before turning dissonant and reaching a frightening climax. After a diminuendo and an orchestral scream, the second theme appears in the form of a hesitant, wistful waltz on the bassoon, which doesn't fully appear as such until later on. Strings take it as it wanders in a phantasmagoric manner, gradually building towards another sordid climax. The main theme reappears ironically on chattering woodwinds, which is followed by a hellish, demented presto fugue.
It culminates in a wild, deafening climax that slowly evaporates. The second theme then reappears, this time as a clear waltz, if troubled and anxious in expression. After a rarefied, nocturnal passage, the opening of the symphony seems to be reintroduced, but quickly leads to the second theme surrounded by more lyrical motives until taken by solo violin. The main theme reappears once again on solo bassoon over the bass drum beats. It is grotesquely taken by woodwinds, gradually fragmented until the movement ends with a sad, defeated coda without any hint of light.
The second movement is an intermezzo based on two alternating themes (A-B-A'-B'-A''), related to material heard in the first movement. It opens with a slow, melancholic waltz on strings as the main theme, heavily reminiscent of Mahler's ländler-like scherzi. A descending second theme then appears on violins, which would serve as the model for the main theme of the first movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No.5 (1937). The main theme reappears in a more sardonic and twisted manner, being expanded through a fugato on strings. The second theme is reintroduced by horns over woodwinds. The striking final coda, with the faintest wisp of the opening theme unravelling against the whirring clockwork mechanism of castanets, woodblock, and triangle, would be recalled in the coda of the finale of Shostakovich's last symphony, his Fifteenth (1971).
[Musical analysis continued in the comments section].
Picture: Photograph of a starving Ukrainian family taken in 1932.
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/2cktaq34 and tinyurl.com/26nzelmx
To check the score: tinyurl.com/29n8hpqs

The third movement is also very free in form, based on two alternating themes (A-B-A'-B'-A''). It begins with a funeral march introduced by the bassoon, which passes to low woodwinds and strings as it phantasmagorically unfolds. The music grows until reaching a massive climax, then returning to the opening sobriety. A two-note ostinato then appears, leading us to a forceful, toccata-like second theme derived from said ostinato. After a vigorous climax, the funereal theme then returns but twisted as variations of light and ironic music; first a waltz on strings and flutes, a sarcastic polka on bassoon and strings, again a waltz, and finally a frivolous galop on strings.
A trombone solo leads us to the reappearance of the toccata second theme, which then gradually slows down while referencing the previously heard light music. When the funeral march seems to return, a painful and massive climax unleashes with a variation of said funeral theme as a dissonant brass chorale, supported by continuous timpani rolls. The music dies down with great bitterness, only being left a long and hopeless coda with timpani, low strings and celesta with the two-note motive gradually dissolving into a bottomless, indiferent silence.

[@brynjaraamfuglestad]

I'm really into Shostakovich lately. Please keep this coming!

[@BritinIsrael]

Thanks for this great analysis.

[@fransmeersman2334]

Vasily Petrenko's performance with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra of this impressive symphony is really outstanding. Thank you and also for the magnificent sound quality !

[@azaellopezdelprado1734]

No conocía la versión de Petrenko. Creo que es de las mejores que he escuchado de esta sinfonía. Me da auténticos escalofríos. Mil gracias!!!

[@dejanstevanic5408]

TY

[@c05.63]

Petrenko recordings are the modern reference for these, thank you so much this is my favorite Shosty Symphony!

[@vicb4901]

A great masterpiece which made the apparatchiks of the time ask themselves: To ban or not to ban...?

[@BritinIsrael]

This is a brilliant performance of the 4th. After the 8th this is my favourite Shostakovich symphony. ( If it p*ssed Stalin off then it must be good, lol). Petrenko is an excellent D.SCH. conductor.