Klaus Mäkelä Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Dmitri Shostakovich

“I composed the Serenade from a natural impulse, something deep from within, and therefore I dare to believe that it is not free from containing something truly valuable,” Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote to his supporter Nadezhda von Mack during the work with Serenade for Strings in the fall of 1880. 

When the piece was finished some weeks later, he wrote: “I just love this serenade so terribly, and long for it to see the light of day as soon as possible.” The wish came true - during a visit to Moscow, an orchestra surprised him by playing it at a private concert.

The first movement is a tribute to Mozart, according to Tchaikovsky an imitation of his style. The second movement is a waltz reminiscent of the composer’s famous waltzes from The Nutcracker and The Swan Lake. After an elegiac third movement, he uses Russian folk tunes in the finale, “Tema russo.”

In 1955, Dmitri Shostakovich planned to write a symphony for the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1905. Symphony No. 11 was not ready until the 40th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution in 1957, but the symphony was still named “The Year 1905”.

On the surface, the symphony is in line with the authorities’ view. Still, Shostakovich’s use of freedom songs from the prison gave many associations to current events: the composer is said to have suggested that the music was a response to the Soviet Union’s brutal invasion of Hungary in 1956.

The symphony opens with the eerie atmosphere in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg on the eve of the revolution. The second movement describes the brutal massacre on “the bloody Sunday”. The third movement is based on a revolutionary mournful march, while the powerful final movement ambiguously celebrates the revolution’s future triumph.