Symphony No. 11 in G Minor

The premiere of Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony in 1957 was a huge success, not least with the Soviet authorities. Composed for the 40th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, it appeared to fill its official brief handsomely. The 11th Symphony’s title and profoundly elegiac tone pointed to the failed uprising of 1905, horrifically put down by Tsarist troops. Here was a good socialist theme: The suffering people rise up against their imperialist oppressor, and although their action fails horribly, the determination that will lead to the successful revolution 12 years later is now unshakeable. The prominent use of revolutionary songs from the period in all four movements apparently underlines that message. But others heard something different. Privately it was noted that workers’ songs expressed despair and rage against dictatorship, but no consoling hope. It is said that Shostakovich hinted that he was also thinking of the recent Hungarian uprising, this time crushed by the Soviet army. Whatever the case, the 11th Symphony depicts fear, heroism, violence and furious defiance with cinematic urgency and directness. Shostakovich’s long experience as composer of film scores really tells here—as, for instance, when the second movement’s climactic depiction of the soldiers’ brutality suddenly cuts to a depiction of the human devastation that follows. This is music that can speak truth to tyrannical power in any time or place.