Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15

Dmitry Shostakovich’s Fifteenth is perhaps the most enigmatic symphony of the twentieth century. In this work, the composer goes in search of his relationship with the musical past. He quotes musical predecessors like Rossini and Wagner, in addition to himself. These quotations raise profound musical and philosophical questions: where does it all come from, how far have we come, and where does it all go? The bare, withering ending is one of the most poignant passages in the symphonic repertoire, which Shostakovich, then a sixty-five-year-old heart patient, composed knowing the end was nigh.