Symphony 7 'Leningrad'

The Symphony opens with a broad melody for strings, punctuated by confident cadences for trumpets and drums. A second melody is again scored primarily for strings, introducing a note of quiet calm that proves to be a brief dream of peace before the oncoming nightmare. 

A pianississimo snare drum begins a whispered accompaniment, supporting a quiet, unison melody for upper strings, one of which resembles an aria from Lehár’s The Merry Widow, which was known to be Adolf Hitler’s favourite operetta. Whatever its origins, or significance, this theme is subjected to a series of twelve cycles, growing each time eventually erupting into an orchestral outburst of terrifying and seemingly relentless force. The recapitulation, presents the opening material utterly transformed, providing what many commentators have perceived as a solemn requiem for the victims of the conflict and persecution. Image https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/royal-philharmonic-orchestra-in-the-royal-festival-

This section opens with a light, insouciant two-part invention for strings which, developing into three parts, becomes the accompaniment for an extended melody for solo oboe. 

The music darkens briefly into a passage of murky, Mahlerian woodwind until the intrusion of a nightmarish (and again Mahlerian) trio section, led by the shrill shrieking of a piccolo clarinet and vulgar outbursts from the brass. The recapitulation of the opening music is chillingly rescored for shivering figures on flute and harp, the main melody appearing in the depths of the bass clarinet.

Memories of the string-heavy second movement are swept away by a stark chorale theme, played fortissimo by wind-band and made Stravinskyan by the addition of French horns and harps. Only after this reaches a cadence do the strings enter with a declamatory theme for violins, its edge sharpened by open string triple-stopping. These two blocks of material (in varied form) return in tandem throughout the movement, functioning as important structural refrains. A half-hearted waltz rhythm on pizzicato lower strings emerges to accompany a new principal theme for flutes, which is taken over by the violins.

A new moderato risoluto section pits an obsessive dotted-rhythm string theme against agitated syncopations, into which the movement’s opening material returns, much translated. This leads to further recapitulation of this material, the waltz theme now given to unison violas, dying away, via three ominous tam-tam strokes, to merge into the Symphony’s finale, which follows without a break. 

The C major/minor tonality of the ‘Leningrad’ Symphony and its segue into a victory finale link it to that other great Victory Symphony, Beethoven’s Fifth. Against a pianissimo drum roll, two principal ideas are introduced: a calm, simple theme for the violins and a more agitated dotted motto theme for cellos and basses. To this material are appended fleeting fanfare figures, which proclaim the celebrated V for Victory rhythm (short-short-short-long) before the Allegro gets properly under way. Significant events towards the Symphony’s exultant coda are the appearance of the motto theme on timpani, and an instruction for the strings to execute violent pizzicati, causing the string to strike the finger-board.

An extended moderato section, exploring an obsessive sarabande-like rhythm, delays the final rush to victory which, after an extraordinarily slow crescendo, erupts into a colossal, joyful finale. Amid the jubilation, the brass intone the string theme that opened the Symphony, the motto theme booms out on the timpani once more, and Beethoven’s victory signal reigns supreme.