Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 quotes Rossini's William Tell Overture in the first movement and Wagner's "Annunciation of Death" motive from Die Walküre in the final movement. These quotations are symbolically related to Eine Kapitulation (1870), a play by Wagner that expressed "contempt for the lost ideals of failed revolutionaries." Shostakovich, through the use of musical allusion, was making a forbidden political statement and giving his Soviet masters "the Russian equivalent of two fingers."

Works: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15.

Sources: Rossini: William Tell Overture; Wagner: Die Walküre.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Lee Ann Roripaugh