Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony 2 "To October" (Audio + Full Score)

[@RyanPower]

One of my favourite features of this specific recording comes just after the major chord at 15:37. When the orchestra stops at 15:46 and the lower strings play the rising chromatic figure, then player of the siren should stop with the orchestra, however in this recording, the player continues for a bar or so after, while diminuendo-ing, which creates an awesome sound that I haven't heard in other recordings.

[@davidpanton3192]

I don't imagine this is deliberate. The siren probably had its own momentum and they couldn't shut it up in time!

[@RyanPower]

I did think this too, I think what the players in other recordings do is that they stop before the climax, so that the sound stops in time, but yes I can see how this isn't deliberate.

[@sonder152]

Just hearing this now gives me mad respect for Shostakovich, I didn't know he ever wrote such dissonant music. Everything I've heard from him has been more neo-romantic. This work is like Schnittke.

[@NothingFunnyAboutTheseCarpets]

Yeah, you can tell he was experimenting as a young composer. But anyways, I think he is one of the, if not the main influence of Schnittke

[@jackrobinson5671]

I wasn't quite expecting something this insane ngl. I thought Shostakovich had topped the wildness with the 4th but no. The endless counterpoint from 5:50 in particular is what REALLY got me excited.

[@RyanPower]

That bit really is something! It just keeps on building up for ages until that release at 8:27

[@phoebedraper3046]

The piccolo at 7:27 sounds kind of like a part in the first movement of the fourth symphony. I think just before the string fugue section

[@DonFranArobe]

@@phoebedraper3046 I also think that piccolo sounds very similar to some piccolo parts of his ballet "The Golden Age".

[@joshliu4428]

Thank you so much for sharing this! The score is still illegal in my country lmao, and Gergiev is a great conductor. I never knew Shosty boi can be so brilliant and an emotional composer, this piece really opened my eyes wow!

[@RyanPower]

Woah, the score is illegal??? Is that cos of copyright or political reasons?? (Also Shosty Boi is indeed very brilliant)

[@joshliu4428]

@@RyanPower Okay maeeebe not illegal, a bit of exaggeration lol XD, but at least it's still under copyright in the U.S. (not available on imslp). But you're doing it under Fair Use, so it's fine. Yeah!! Shosty gang!

[@RyanPower]

Yeah it was a bit of a pain to get a pdf of the score, I gotta say

[@Ivan_Preobragenskiy]

THIS score is legal, because it is from 1980, where Shostakovich's works weren't under copyright. Contemporary scores can only be bought and ARE under copyright, but the trick is, that not this one. This is interesting, but the whole Soviet edition in 42 volumes from 1980 is free can be freely found in the Internet and can't be considered illegal.

[@michaweinst3774]

@@RyanPower where did you find that score btw?

[@juliee593]

Listening to this makes me happy because you can hear how freely Shostakovich could express himself. He could do exactly what he wanted. Makes me wonder how his later work could have been like if he had been free of political restraints.

[@genevieveknoebel925]

This is an ironic take because Shostakovich himself felt incredibly constrained as a composer and adventured into sonorities like this piece only because of these constraints. He felt pressured by his government to “be as different as possible from the Germanic musical tradition.” Which ended up resulting in amazing work, which I am sure would not have happened if it weren’t for the Soviets tightly controlling new music.

[@VincenzoCannone-c2l]

Absolutely fantastic symphony. A great, wonderful composition. The introduction, also...I have no words for describing it: for me, it's like a musical description of the abyss of the human malvagity and cruelty like "homo hominis lupus", but the solistic and ethereal melody of the solo trumpet over the tumultuous, inferic and magmatic sound of the strings, is like a "voice of giustice" who tell: "I will never abandon the soffering humanity at his destiny". And then...the birth of socialism for a human progress, opposite to the cruelty of capitalism. Naturally, those are my personal sensation listening this absolutely, fantastic Shostachovich's work.

[@miguelfontesmeira]

Yes! Thank you!

[@kathrynhan7878]

This is just sensational!

[@ClassicalMusicIsWhatILike]

Very interesting and beautiful piece!

[@EASYTIGER10]

Wow. I've known Shostakovich's "biggies" eg the 5th, 7th, 10th etc for a long time. But I didn't know this. Its a revalation.

[@forbiddenfursona]

holy shit the opening of the last movement spooked me 😭😂

[@dominicfiacco]

15:48 I love how the "theme" from the opening returns here. It really unifies the piece.

[@chiporello5267]

this is real industrial

[@user-on6db4rf4s]

My favorite shos symphony, probably- sounds so different in every recording. The sirens in the 4th movement in this one before the choir joins and the first movement's dissonance pops way more than many versions I've been listening to on Spotify Comments here are so clueless and clearly never heard any of his chamber works. Reducing him to nothing but political position....

[@pacoytal1756]

Bookmark: 0:05 Interior of train

[@yamchathewolf7714]

Very chaotic

[@davidreyes7546]

Schön.

[@rezashia3135]

The opening of the symphony is so Bartokian, my view of the work since I first heard it some decades ago and dismissed it outright as a lesser work by the great man has changed somewhat considerably after this hearing. The American neocon Christian zealots would hail this celebration of Lenin and the October revolution as the greatest symphony ever written!!!

[@davidpanton3192]

Makes me want to rush out and exceed my daily target fir

[@sneddypie]

omg yesssssssss

[@stanislav7940]

Interesting

[@vitocipponeri6773]

This is lightwork man , I do this as my practice

[@cbassuarez]

where are your symphonies then

[@juliee593]

We got a badass over here

[@hurleymacmaster8262]

Never discount Shostakovich. I discovered his music in the film "Rollerball".

[@davidreyes7546]

Jolie

[@ETMargraf]

View number 5400, noice

[@RKalphaaa]

I initially really disliked this symphony due to how difficult the first three movements were to listen to, but… that fourth movement, wow… (it touched my closeted socialist heart)

[@dominicfiacco]

For some reason I find the brass at 8:41 moving.

[@NorthonBruce]

It reminds of the start of faster section of Symphony №10's I'st movement, when the picture presented is set into motion, usually around 10'th minute.

[@davidecarlassara8525]

I generally dislike Schosta but I just discovered this and omg amazing!

[@Dodecatone]

1:45 a proto-Ligeti texture! maybe surprising for a nationalist work like this one

[@메롱-l9w]

소비에트!

[@grimace1.048]

jumpscare at 11:30 lol

[@peterpais3583]

And people say Shostakovich was conservative...

[@kimsground7190]

This piece is still not, and probably cannot be, performed in my home country South Korea, due to political reason. Just sad...

[@NothingFunnyAboutTheseCarpets]

I’m sorry to hear that! I didn’t know that that was the case :( Is all music from the Soviet Union banned in general or only the pieces including outright communist propaganda?

[@封嶺]

This piece really need a good conductor

[@kimhelweg]

This is Shostakovich best symphony. So sad that this great composer had so few years to compose music from his own heart, but had to adapt to the Stalinistic cultural strategy. The Stalin guorverment approved Symphonies 5,6,7 (?) which also are very popular in the West. Did the west agree with Stalin concerning Shostakovich work? Shostakovih might have been the greatest composer of the centuary if he had worked free of this mad Dictator? I am sure.

[@lucasgust7720]

Thanks for the score, but what a bad choir.

[@__414.88b_]

Was lovin it then the choir started and everything became kinda cringe and awkwardly funny

[@SergioCánovasCM]

This work is very fascinating to me, despite being arguably Shostakovich's worst symphony (I think the third is slightly worse). It amazes me how it uses the most complex of musical means to express the most banal and thoughtless political propaganda. It also amazes me how the work has basically no melodic content nor structure, unlike 99% of symphonies through history. Certainly is it a black sheep, but an extremely intriguing one.

[@maxabeles]

What makes the third worse for you?

[@SergioCánovasCM]

​@@maxabeles I find the third more dull and conventional while still being a propaganda piece. The second is not very good, but at least it was experimental and tried new things, if not being very successful overall. But hey, that's my opinion, and I know people that find the second an abomination and the third much more listenable, so for the most part is a matter of personal taste.