Symphony No 12 in A minor

1 - Adagio Mysterioso - Marcia

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Symphony No 12 in A minor

2 - Andantino Malevolo

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Symphony No 12 in A minor

3 - Waltz

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Symphony No 12 in A minor

4 - Allegro Nervoso

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The other place which I was nervous of visiting was Leningrad in the first half of the twentieth century. The world of Shostakovich. Having been their ‘before the wall came down’ I had seen just a little of the grimness of the old Soviet Union first hand. This piece, as is fitting was a struggle, particularly when faced with the self imposed limitations of the recorder orchestra. Themes of struggle and sadness permeate the piece and the motto theme which is played at the beginning which deliberately sets up a harmonic ambiguity which can be seen as unsettling and potential laden at the same time, recurs through the piece in different guises. When it closes the symphony it still does not really achieve any sort of victory but more the sense that what one cannot conquer one must learn to live with. And in some ways that is appropriate.