CMLXXXV. SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri: The Fall of Berlin (soundtrack)

CMLXXXV. SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri (1906-1975)

The Fall of Berlin (soundtrack) (1950)
1. Main Title Part 1
2. "Beautiful day"
3. Alyosha by the river
4. Stalin's Garden
5. Alyosha and Natalia in the fields -- Attack
6. Hitler's reception
7. In the devastated village
8. Forward!
9. Main Title Part 2
10. The roll call -- Attack at night
11. Storming Seelov Heights (Zielona Gora)
12. The flooding of the underground station
13. The final battle for the Reichstag -- Kostya's death
14. Yussuf's death -- The Red Banner
15. Stalin at Berlin airport
16. Finale: Stalin's speech -- Alyosha and Natasha reunited
Moscow Capella & Youth Chorus
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Adriano, cond.
(45:35)

The Zhdanov Decree meant that Shostakovich divided his attention into three categories:

1. Film music, like this one, to pay the rent;
2. Other sardonic subversive jabs at Stalin through faux-praise, like Song of the Forests (1949); and
3. Music for the bottom drawer, like the Violin Concerto and From Jewish Folk Poetry ...

There's a few gems hidden in Shostakovich's superficial film score; he steals from himself all over -- obviously the Seventh -- the film takes place in 1941... but other things too ... and then in the next decade, he would reverse the procedure, and borrow from this artifact of real Soviet Realism (12th Symphony) ...