Fear and Terror in the Soviet Union: The Music of Dmitri Shostakovich

I must admit I don't like symphonies in general. I much more prefer concertos, because I somehow enjoy the presence of a soloists - and also, I think many symphonies are too grand. Of course, there are works such as Debussy's La mer, which I think is very enjoyable, but even it suffers somewhat from being too big and heavy (and La mer isn't a symphony, really, but a work for the symphony orchestra).

One exception, though, is the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. The first work by him I heard was the 15th (and last) symphony. I don't know what I was expecting, but from the first sounds I was hooked. Later on I read that in this symphony, Shostakovich uses the symphony orchestra like a chamber music ensemble, which probably attributes a lot to me liking the piece.

I think I like Shostakovich because his symphonies in general sound different to me from most symphonies. I've now taken a liking for even the more "traditional" works. The works are also from a very interesting era. I've had a strange fascination for the ghastly years of WWII (and worlds that no longer exists in general), and also a fascination for the morbid: I once borrowed a book of art about and made on concentration camps. Moreover, I think it has to do with my view of the world and my negative experience. Depression, anxiety, grief, terror, sadness, oppression, hopelessness. (Then again I love Debussy, so I'm not totally depressed.) I really do think that the world can be a pretty cold, lonely place where bad things happen... you just have to deal with it because at the same time life can also be a most interesting experience full of many good things.

Perhaps not so much in communist Russia. I've been listening to the Fifth Symphony, and it surprises me why some people haven't noticed it "subversive" messages, where I could clearly see the irony in it in the first place. The music jeers at Stalin's regime, shows the intense fear and suffering of the people and the way the propaganda machine covers everything up with lies, silences people and forces them into a sort of half-life... Apparently Shostakovich himself was quite depressed most of his life, but with his music he has not only given a voice to the people of communist Russia (which the Russia of today is starting to resemble) and other totalitarian states: he has created something much more universal about the much more mundane struggles people face in their lives, and about the roles we all have to play, sometimes.