Symphony No. 2 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 2 in B flat major (Opus 14; subtitled To October) by Dmitri Shostakovich was written and first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko, on 5 November 1927.
It is a short, experimental work (under 20 minutes) with two sections, sometimes classed as a single movement:
- Largo
- My shili, my prosili raboty i khleba
The Largo itself has two parts: a polyphonic beginning and a meditative episode which Shostakovich described as the "death of a child" (letter to Boleslav Yavorsky). The choral finale of the work sets a text by Alexander Bezymensky praising Lenin and the revolution. The composer himself seems to have been dissatisfied with the work; he wrote (letter to Tatyana Glivenko, 28 May 1927) that he was tired of writing it and considered the Bezymensky text "abominable". It was originally written as a cantata; the composer only later designated it his second symphony.