Music for Two Pianos

There are many examples of major symphonies having complicated premieres but none are more intriguing than the purgatory to which Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony was sentenced back in 1936.

To say his work, when the composer was 30 years old, met with official disapproval is an understatement. The stage was set with the grand success that Shostakovich experienced in 1934 with his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. The work was a proven success until it was denounced by Stalin himself in early 1936. It is generally accepted nowadays that the fear that was implanted in Shostakovich during this episode was the principle reason for the withdrawal of his Fourth Symphony. This kind of grotesquely choreographed dance with the authorities throughout Shostakovich’s life really began with the Pravda condemnation of Lady Macbeth and the charade around the premiere of the Fourth Symphony.

In the intervening years between 1936 and 1961 the full score to Symphony No.4 was lost. The piece ended up in the hands of the conductor Alexander Gauk who presumably lost the manuscript in a suitcase during World War II (along with the manuscripts for Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 as well). Other people believe that the scores were burned for heat during the Siege of Leningrad, the most desperate period during the war. The possibility does remain that the manuscripts still exist locked away in some archive but they have yet to be rediscovered. In the meantime, with his Fourth Symphony in purgatory for more than a quarter century the music only existed in the orchestral parts that had been used in rehearsals, and Shostakovich’s own arrangement heard here for two pianos. From these two sources the piece was reconstructed and given its premiere in Moscow on December 30, 1961.

Shostakovich made his four-hand piano arrangement of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms shortly after its composition in 1930. He thought well enough of his transcription that he personally presented the manuscript to Stravinsky, during his historic 1962 visit to the Soviet Union. Shostakovich’s arrangement reflects his admiration for the work in that it succeeds in preserving both the ecclesiastic ambiance and choral textures of the original. From contemporary accounts, Stravinsky’s reception of the score was unenthusiastic. Shostakovich’s relationship with Stravinsky could be termed as deeply ambivalent. In his own words, “Stravinsky the composer I worship. Stravinsky the thinker I despise.”

Igor Stravinsky:
Symphony of Psalms, arr. Shostakovich

INTERMISSION

Dmitri Shostakovich:
Symphony no. 4, arr. Shostakovich

Click here to download a PDF copy of the program from this concert.

Concert Photos

Concert Photos