Brussels Philharmonic + Symfomania! workshop [KIDS 10+]

January 1936 marked a radical change in the musical life of the former Soviet Union.

After Stalin’s virulent criticisms of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, the composer began to fear for his life and decided to toe the party line. He gave his Symphony No. 5 the ironic subtitle ‘A Soviet Artist’s Creative Response to Just Criticism’, and devoted his work to a universal theme: the creation of Man. From a stylistic point of view the symphony seems purer, more structured and above all more optimistic than his previous works – an important demand of the composers’ union. Why did the audience, likewise victims of the Stalinist terror, burst into tears during the superb Largo and give the work a resounding ovation? Because they had decoded the hidden message: the authorities clearly thought the composer was finally serving the Communist apparatus, but in reality the symphony celebrated the triumph of a hero who would never give in to the regime.

Flagey, Brussels Philharmonic, Jeugd en Muziek Brussel