Dmitrij Schostakowitsch Livres

The arrangement of Dmitri Shostakovich's renowned "Waltz from the Jazz Suite No. 2" captures its mystical and alluring qualities reminiscent of circus music. Rien de Reede and Bert Mooiman have adapted this classic for flute and piano, making it accessible for performers while enhancing the repertoire for this instrumentation. This engaging piece not only serves as an effective performance work but also features the familiar themes from the film "Eyes Wide Shut," adding a contemporary touch to the traditional composition.

In the summer of 1937 - during the dangerous time of Stalin's Great Terror - Shostakovich completed his Symphony No. 5. The Pravda article "Muddle Instead of Music" from January 1936, which condemned the composer and his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, resulted in Shostakovich fearing for his life for years. He withdrew his experimental Symphony No. 4 shortly before its premiere - and then presented a work in his Fifth that on the surface met all the demands of the imposed Socialist Realism. One critic even characterised the new symphony as "the creative response of a Soviet artist to justified criticism" - a paraphrase that Shostakovich subtly subverted in this work with its allusive ambiguity.