The Sun Shines over our Motherland
(Über unserer Heimat scheint die Sonne) op. 90 (1952)Yevgeni Dolmatovsky (R)
3(III=picc).3.3.2-4.3.3.1-timp.perc:tgl/SD/BD/cym/tam-t/glsp-2hp-strings-banda:3tpt/6trbn
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One of Shostakovich’s most obviously socialist-realist compositions, this lumbering and on-the-whole unlovely cantata dates from the hard months at the end of 1952, when the USSR abounded with rumours and portents of new repressions and state-inspired campaigns of hatred. This was a period that only came to an end a few months later with the sudden and unexpected death of Stalin in March 1953.
The text of this cantata was provided by Shostakovich’s usual source for such material, the official bard Yevgeny Dolmatovsky. While nothing that Shostakovich wrote is absolutely without interest, there is little about this piece that might cause a modern concert-goer to yearn to hear it except as a historical curiosity.
Note by Gerard McBurney