With his fifteenth symphony, written in 1971 and first performed soon after, Shostakovich returns for the last time (not that he was to know) to the symphony in its purest form, stripped of its literary, political and historic connotations and accompanying lyrics: the 14th had vocal solos, the 13th “Babi Yar” had a choral part, the 12th looked back to the year 1917, the 11th 1905. You have to go back to the 10th from 1953 to find one with no allusion to an external idea, directly or officially. The orchestra itself is also stripped back in the 15th, reduced almost to Classical proportions with its woodwind in pairs and modest brass section, whereas earlier symphonies called for a veritable arsenal of instruments.
However if Shostakovich surpasses himself at all it is in the percussion section, used at full pelt with an army of percussionists and even a percussion solo. The first movement is so full of percussion that the composer referred to it as “the toy shop” – a remark that may come from an apparent (though this is definitely just illusory) rhythmic, harmonic and thematic simplicity, and its motifs which seem to have come from the circus or Rossini’s William Tell overture, some passages of which are cited verbatim. The symphony begins with solo glockenspiel, and ends with a percussion octet, devilishly enigmatic, in which the morendo tom-tom – perhaps Shostakovich’s own heartbeat? – hesitates, hesitates, hesitates some more, before finally giving three small final taps before going; all underneath an unchanging pedal chord in the strings, harmonically sterile until at the last second, when release comes in the form of a furtive major colouring to the chord. If that isn’t a goodbye to living… And that’s not all! Shostakovich, ever keen to include citations in his work, does so here with great enthusiasm: along with Rossini’s comedic trumpet fanfares are hints of Siegfried’s Funeral March from Wagner’s Twilight of the Gods and the intro to Tristan and Isolde, as well as the trumpet fanfares which announce the start of Mahler’s 5th – and of course there are references to Shostakovich’s own work, all tinged with a sense of dread and desolation. In the 15th we are in the realm of pure emotion, which can be seen as deeply autobiographic or, looking past the personal connections, just profoundly human. It is difficult to resist bridging together the toy shop of the first movement and the flat-lining pianissimo of the last. This version lead by Haitink, recorded during a series of concerts in March 2010, is a beautiful and tender interpretation in which the 81-year-old conductor shows his relentless energy touched with vague nostalgia – perhaps here he reflects on his own life?