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I'm Christopher Leiden, this is Open Source.

The fourth of Demetri Shostakovich's 15 symphonies

marks a low point in a tortured life.

Just as clearly, it marks a rallying point of courage.

The start of a recovery in artistic fortunes

that are still rising this summer of 2018,

four decades into a composer's immortality.

It is this fourth symphony from 1936

that Joseph Stalin ordered not to be performed.

Pravda delivered the death threat, mocking Shostakovich's sound

as grunts and hoots, muddled not music,

said the editorial headline.

So Shostakovich IV was never played in Russia until 1960.

After Stalin had died, after Shostakovich

had been brow beaten into joining the Communist Party,

which he'd detested.

This symphony has been recorded a new this spring

in Anders Nelson's award-winning Shostakovich series

...