Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5 Mvt. 4

Is this where Simon Cowell got his inspiration for the high chest belt?

I love this music ! ! ! ! !

we are playing this in the CPYO, with only three horns!. Its bloody hard work i can tell you.

Yes it was.... He was the transition between classical and romantic time periods. This was because he found out what an evil man named Napoleon was doing. This was put into his third symphony and you can just about hear when he changed his beliefs. At first it was to praise Napoleon, but then changed as stated. That was the turning point between eras, and because of politics

Speaking of Beethoven

CelloMan44, and let's not forget the "Ode To Joy" in the 9th which is so loaded with humanism, internationalism, and ripe with the Freemasonic ideas of the great 'brotherhood of man"...can you imagine a Hitler or a Stalin tolerating such "multi-culturalism"? All music is political. If you don't believe it, try bringing Rosanne Barr back to sing the national anthem! :-) Even in purely orchestral music, who can hear Coplands "ode to the common man" and not sense his approval of Roosevelt?

It's the ultimate cynicism.

Interestingly, Maxim Shostakovich (his son) adopts the same slow tempi in his 1970s recording of this symphony. To me it echoes Shostakovich's own statement in "Testimony", where he says what do we have to celebrate? All we are doing is marching along saying to ourselves we must celebrate.

Damn! That slow tempo at the end must have killed the brass players!

this is the answer!