• Tracks

Shostakovich's 14th Symphony is actually more of a song cycle, made up of settings of poems by Lorca, Rilke and others, centered around the topic of death, scored for soprano, bass and chamber orchestra augmented by a variety of percussion instruments. This symphony, perhaps, one of the best darkest, pessimist works ever written (with Mahler's 6th Symphony, Sibelius 4th Symphony, Vaughan Williams' 4th and 6th Symphonies)... This work, be constituted in 11 movements and based on poems by F. Garcia Lorca (in 1 and 2), G. Appolinairre (3 -8), W. Küchelbecker (9) and Rainer M. Rilke (10 and 11). I impressed especially, 3rd mvt: Lorelei, At the Sante Jail, O Delvig, Delvig! And a short Conclusion (1 mnt. ) Shostakovich was used 12-tone system for the first and last time in this work. Only, the 9th movement, "O Delvig, Delvig!" written in D-flat Major and I think, this is the most romantic movement of symphony and comes without a break and suddenly after 8th movement which tells a war between Cosscaks and Byzantines. And after this tense music, suddenly comes a romantic and sentimental music from violas and violoncellos which tells a love story.