3 - Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony: A Response to War Requiem?

Summary

The creative relationship between Britten and Shostakovich, spanning the period from their first meeting in 1960 until the latter's death in 1975, has been discussed by a number of musicologists, though not subjected to a full-length study in depth. Britten himself described his compositions as ‘so very different from [Shostakovich’s] own, but conceived, many of them, in the same period, children of similar fathers, and with many of the same aims;’ and Shostakovich not only expressed admiration for Britten's ‘deep musicality and lofty musical taste’, ‘the force and sincerity of his talent, his [music’s] outer simplicity and [its] depth of emotional effect’, he also consistently commended Britten's works to his own postgraduate students such as Boris Tishchenko. Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony, first performed in 1969 and dedicated to Britten, who conducted its first performance outside the USSR a year later, is fundamental to a discussion of this relationship: both composers spoke of the work as ‘our symphony’ in their correspondence and musicologists have particularly emphasized the importance both of the work's dedication and the setting of Küchelbecker in the ninth movement, which we may assume to be addressed to Britten himself.

Several of Britten's works can be regarded as influencing the symphony: Spring Symphony (1948–9), Nocturne (1958), War Requiem (1961–2), Curlew River (1964) and The Prodigal Son (1967–8), the latter containing Britten's own dedication to Shostakovich. However, one should acknowledge that the composers do not seem to have discussed each other's music in depth on the relatively few occasions they met, nor are musical matters discussed at any length in their correspondence. Nevertheless, Shostakovich's particular admiration for War Requiem is attested by a variety of sources. Shostakovich acquired a copy of the score in March 1963, and his correspondence with Britten indicates that he had listened to the recording ‘many, many times’ as early as December of the same year; indeed, by August 1963 the composer was commending the work to his postgraduate students at the Leningrad Conservatory. Shostakovich's admiration for War Requiem should also be viewed in the context of the considerable interest in Britten's music in the USSR following the Khrushchev ‘thaw’.