Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony

In 1937 at the height of the Stalinist purges, Shostakovich was in disgrace — an outcast who feared for his life. (He slept in the stairwell outside his apartment so that his family might be spared if he were arrested.) In these darkest moments, he somehow found the courage to write his Fifth Symphony, publishing it with the ironic subtitle “A Soviet Artist’s Reply to Just Criticism.” Its unsettling opening movement captures the shifting, uncertain mood of the time, and leads to an exultant finale proclaiming that all is heroic, bright, and beautiful. The work was both critical and political salvation for the composer.