Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11

Subtitled The Year 1905, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 uses many Russian folk, revolutionary, and prison songs to evoke the story of the massacre of hundreds of peasants protesting at the Tsar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.  The work is full of Shostakovich’s signature ambiguity, the result of his complicated relationship with the Soviet leadership.