Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, Part 1
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
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Stalin's Attack on Shostakovich
In 1936, Joseph Stalin attended a performance of Shostakovich's opera Muddle Instead of Music. He left in disgust with the moral depravity and radical music that he saw and heard on stage. The year 1936 would become a fateful one in Soviet history as it marked the beginning of the Great Terror. If this symphony didn't pass muster with Stalin and the government, Shostakovic was likely to be imprisoned or killed along with his pregnant wife and children.
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