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| | artsworld (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-17) |
 | | Sanderling knew Shostakovich fairly well, especially later in the composer's life, and was present at the historic 1937 premiere of the Fifth (when the slow movement, a profoundly moving lament for those who died in the Terror, had the entire audience weeping for the friends they had lost). |
 | | the second movement, Sanderling explains, is a parody of the entertainments laid on for party members: all of "Soviet culture" brutally edited into a one-hour fest: rehearsed-out Cossack dancing, soulless brass bands, the simpering little girl with her memorised speech praising the man with the big moustache... |
 | | One amusing little detail to watch out for: after Sanderling has talked, fascinatingly, at length on the background behind one part of the symphony, he prepares to play it with the orchestra - only to be told that it's time for a statutory break. |
| www.artsworld.com /genre/features.asp?id=2330&genreID=1 (488 words) |
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