“One of Shostakovich’s more pivotal works, the Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47, was the subject of the Signature Symphony’s concert Saturday,” writes James D. Watts Jr. in Monday’s (1/27) Tulsa World (OK). “It was part of the orchestra’s ‘Connecting the Dots—Bringing the Score to Life’ concerts, in which music director Andrés Franco shared insights into the composer’s life and creative process, illustrated with passages … played by the orchestra. The presentation was followed by a full performance of the complete symphony. As Franco stated, Shostakovich wrote his Fifth Symphony [after Josef Stalin saw a performance of] his opera, ‘Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District’ … and was not amused…. A story in the Soviet press concluded, ‘Things could end very badly for the composer’ of such music. Shostakovich’s answer was the Symphony No. 5 [which] became one of Shostakovich’s most popular works, as it is filled with melodies and brassy marches and fanfares that might speak to the commonest of listener. [It] is equally rich in subtleties that serve as Shostakovich’s veiled defiance in the face of ‘just criticism.’ … Under Franco’s direction, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 could be heard as a statement of the power of the individual voice in the face of tyranny.”
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