The document provides background information on the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, focusing on his early life and works including his First, Second, and Third Symphonies as well as his controversial opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. It discusses Shostakovich's youth and early success in the 1920s during a period of relative artistic freedom in the Soviet Union. It then examines how the rise of Stalinism in the 1930s led to increased censorship and the imposition of Socialist Realism, negatively impacting works like Lady Macbeth which was initially praised but then condemned for formalism. The document also provides plot summaries and musical analysis of the three symphonies and opera.

1. Dmitri Shostakovich
(1906-1975)
Lady Macbeth, Formalism and
Symphonies 2-3
Week 2 20

2. First Symphony Success at 19
‘First composer of the
revolution’

3. Books on Shostakovich
l Fairclough, Pauline (2008) Cambridge
Guide to Shostakovich
l Norris, Christopher (1982) Shostakovich,
The Man and his Music
l Roseberry, Eric (1986) Shostakovich, His
Life and Times
l Volkoff, Solomon (1979) Testimony
l Elizabeth Wilson (1994) Shostakovich: A
life Remembered
l MacDonald, Ian (1990), The New
Shostakovich

4. Soviet Unionl Read Alexander
Solzenitsen’s books:-
l Day in the Life of Ivan
Denizovitch
l Gulag Archipelago
l Recent books of
Simon Sebag
Montefiori e.g. The
Red Tzar, The
Whisperers.

5. Shostakovich’s Youth and
First Success
l St Petersburg – the revolution – mother
taught him the piano
l Glazunov and conservatoire years
l Early Work in early 20s, cinema pianist
l Family was committed to the revolution
l First Symphony – a student work and a
great success

6. Early years – up to 1930
l Comparative freedom of expression at first,
allowing toleration of experimentalism in
the arts. Kandinsky, Meyerhold,
Mayakovsky
l Career of a concert pianist in his 20s.
l Popular and critical acclaim both at home
and abroad as a result of first symphony.
l One of 3 great composers of the Soviet era
– with Prokofiev and Khachaturian – host of
lesser composers. All doing important work
in the 1920s and 30s.

7. 1924 Lenin Dies –

8. This Changes Everything
l Bolshevics ruthless in getting power. Used
any means to do so.
l Stalin was however a real killer – used
terror to control the population.
l Quotas of people to be killed.
l Picked on all sorts of groups, ethnic groups,
Kulak, but also elites – generals, doctors,
political wives, composers.
l A psychospath and worse than Hilter?
l Famine and forced movement of villages.

9. Stalin takes over 1926
l From 1924 Stalin gradually rises to power –
Trotsky his great rival.
l Civil War still ongoing and widespread
unrest caused by economic policies – period
up to 1928 not so bad as after 1930 (NEP).
l Peasants at first are given land and some do
well under the New Economic Policy
l By the end of the 20s economic problems
take hold and the economy stagnates.
l Stalin responds -1930s era of
collectivisation, 5 year plans, repression,
terror

10. Second Symphony 1927
l Conceived as a symphonic poem –
Dedicated to October Revolution.
l In one long movement it is non-thematic
and challenging.
l Contrasting tempi, ever-changing textures,
extreme dynamics, linearity, - organised
chaos. Uses revolutionary spectacles of the
day – tableaux –
l Reflects involvement with theatre and film.

11. Second Symphony
l ‘at first there is obscure chaos symbolising
the unenlightened past of the working class;
then the awakening of protest, the ripening
of rvolutionary consciousness, and finally,
glorification of the October Victory’
l Marina Sabinina in Cambridge Guide to
Shostakovich p.15.

12. A challenging work?
l 4 main episodes – but through composed.
l Composed for the 10th anniversary of the
October Revolution of 1917 – poet
Alexander Bezimensky.
l Somewhat programmatic – darkness to
light.
l Palindronic shape, - parallels with 12-tone
music. True modernism in music.

13. Third Symphony 1929
l A tableaux of filmic images. Like a film
score.
l Celebration of the First of May.
l ‘I tried to convey only the general mood of
the international Workers Day Festival. I
wished to portray beautiful construction in
the USSR. I would point out that the
element of of struggle, energy and ceaseless
work runs through the whole symphony like
a thread.’ letter to Isaac Glikman.

14. The start
l ‘Shostakovich wrote his “First of May” on his own initiative, without
a commission or particular performance in mind. May 1st was always
a major day of celebration in the Soviet Union, not because it was an
anniversary of any event (Kirsanov’s fourth and fifth stanzas should
not be read to imply that the Tsar was deposed in May 1917—it
happened in March), but because it had been designated a labor
holiday by the Second Socialist International in 1889. In 1929,
Shostakovich wrote in his post-graduate report to the Leningrad
Conservatory, “While in the [Second Symphony] the main content is
struggle, the “May First” expresses the festive spirit of peaceful
construction, if I may put it that way. To make the main idea clearer
for the listeners, I introduced a chorus to words by the poet Kirsanov at
the end.”

15. First Mvt: Allegretto

16. Second Movement: Piu mosso

17. Andante

18. Allegro

19. Moderato (last movement)

20. Text of Last Movement
l Today on this gleaming May festival let our
sun resound … `before in the gloomy years
we went timidly and afraid …. When the
Winter was gray, and shooting still was
heard on the field of war, an army of
workers and peasants stormed the palace of
the tsar. Daringly the step was taken ..
Onward our path leads us.

21. Background
l In 1930 Shostakovich together with the
young writer Alexander Pries wrote the
libretto for Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk
District from a short story of the same title
by Nikolia Leskov.
l The plot follows of the story of
Shakespeares’ Macbeth but with many
differences – above all in the setting.

22. 1930s
1930-32 a time of galloping industrialisation under
the 5-year plans. Collectivisation of farming and
deportation of Kulaks (land owning small
farmers).
In the arts the former plurality of artistic groups was
being replaced by the stranglehold of proletarian
organisations.
Now all artistic expression had to be politically
relevant.
Appeared in an atmosphere of disinformation –
censorship and fear.
Leskov already known and deemed progressive.

23. More background
l Early 1930s a period one happiness for
Shostakovich – lots of work and prosperity –
courtship of Nina Varzar who he married in 1932.
l Shostakovich altered the tale to ‘leave behind the
impression of Katerina as a positive personality’.
Her musical personality is the most lyrical. The
others are all parodys developed from music-hall
and cabaret entertainments.
l Low-art verses high-art. A tragedy/satire – all
directed at the evils of the hated bourgeois past. Is
it a feminist work?

24. Goodall on Lady MacBeth

25. Socialist Realism
l The new mantra for all arts – after Maxim Gorky’s
speech at the ‘All Union Congress of Soviet
Writers’ in 1934.
l The satire on the security services perceived in the
police station scene was seen by all – including
Stalin who thought the police chief was him.
l Also power of love and passion was upper most in
his mind – dedicated to Nina. A tale of love
overpowering social norms.

26. Changes
l The opera is full of risque characters, ruggedness,
rough language, erotic illusions, etc., and music
that matched – expressive stridencies,
exaggerations in part writing , dissonances,
syncopations, etc.
l All these supposed ‘crudities’ were removed in
many re-writes over 30 years.
l Although first performed in 1932 it was not
published until 1935 and by then censorship had
got to work on it.

27. Lady MacBeth

28. Lots of Versions
l There is the impulsive original that caused the
scandal, and several later versions including the
published version of 1935 (in Vienna, Universal
Editions and Moscow).
l For example the string passacaglia between the
fourth and fifth scenes was replaced by a moderate
version played by the organ.
l In 1963 the composer submitted a completely new
revision - calling the work Katerina Ismailova in
order to have it performed again in Russia.
l The productions are very different and many
different interpretations are possible.

29. Characters
l It takes place in a small provincial town in the
1860s in Russia.
Katerina is the bored, young wife a provincial
merchant – Zinovi – she hates her husband, has no
children, and hates housework. She is bored.
Zinovi Izmailov is reproachful of her wife for not
producing an heir after 5 years. He is well off and
too busy with his business.

30. Characters
Boris Tomofeyevich is an old but lustful father-in-
law who coverts Katerina’s body. Father of
Zinovi
Aksinya – the household cook
Sergei- a young worker hounded from his job
following an affair with his previous employer’s
wife.
Lots of other minor parts – foremen, servants,
convicts, Boris’s ghost, priest, policeman, teacher,
drunken guest

31. Act 1
l Zinovi is going off – servants snigger, Boris
berrates Katerina for not producing a son.
Katerina swears to be faithful in his absence.
Sergei is introduced by Cook.
l 2: Labourers led by Sergei are molesting Aksinya
– Katerina defends the cook and challenges Sergei
to a trail of strengh as Boris intervenes.
l 3. Boris watches Katerina. Katerina is bored –
Sergei on pretence of wanting books to borrow
forces his way into her room and they
consummate their passion.

32. Act 2
l Boris is tormented by sleeplessness he decides to
perform his sons marital duties. At that moment
Sergei crawls out of Katerina’s window, and Boris
beats him senseless in the presence of the family
household. Sergei is then looked in the storeroom.
l Katerina is ordered to bring Boris mushrooms –
which she poisons.

33. Act 2
l As Boris dies in pain she takes the key and
gets Sergei out.
l Katerina then sleeps with Sergei – but is
tormented by conscience. The ghost of
Boris appears and curses her. Zinovi returns
and calls her to account.
l Sergei and Katerina then murder him and
put his body in the cellar.

34. Act 3
l Katerina is marrying Sergei, Zinovi having been
declared missing. She keeps on looking at the
cellar.
l While all are a church a Peasant breaks into the
cellar and finds the corpse and goes for the police.
At the station the police are offended at not being
invited. They are persecuting a teacher – on
getting the news they set off for the wedding. In
the celebrations Katerina discovers the broken
lock on the cellar – it is too late to escape and the
lovers are arrested.

35. Act 4
l Katerina and Sergei have been found guilty and
are on their way to a labour camp in Siberia. Men
and women are separated – but Katerina bribes a
sentry to see Sergei. He reproaches her for being
the cause of his fall. She has lost all her
attractions for him and he tries to win another
convict girl over – Sonyetka. She demands
stockings which he gets from Katerina – who finds
out and pushes Sonyeka in a river and jumps in
after her and both are drowned. The convicts are
marches away.

36. Musical Characterisation
l Each character has its own musical
characteristics which reoccur when they
return or are evoked. Generally the musical
idea is to a mood of state of mind associated
with a character rather than to a character as
such, somewhat in the manner of a Janacek
opera.