Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony January 21, 2011

Shostakovich set out to triumph over adversity with his Fifth Symphony, an epic work conceived in a time of great political unrest in 1930s Russia. Marin Alsop walks the audience through the period of scrutiny and pressure that served as an impetus for many of the composer's most evocative musical creations, including this work that the composer allegedly subtitled, "the creative reply of a Soviet artist to justified criticism."