Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin I

In his Eleventh Symphony, Dmitri Shostakovich processes the events of Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg as indicated in the subtitle “The Year 1905” of the four-movement programmatic symphony written several years after the death of Joseph Stalin. The symphony is pervaded by quotations from revolutionary songs of the proletariat, mostly originating from the period of the First Russian Revolution. In the first movement, “The Palace Square”, Shostakovich recreates the chilly atmosphere on the square in front of the Tsar’s Winter Palace where ten thousand workers gathered to demonstrate for their rights. The second movement portrays the demonstration and its ultimate escalation through gunfire from the armed military forces. The third movement, “Memory Eternal”, is a lament for the victims of the brutal suppression of the protest – here Dmitri Shostakovich incorporates one of the best-known songs of the workers’ movement: “Immortal Victims”.