Dmitri Schostakowitsch

Sinfonie Nr. 13 op. 113

In September 1961, Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem "Babi Yar" appeared in the Soviet newspaper Literaturnaya Gazeta; it addressed the mass shooting of more than 33,000 Jewish men, women, and children not far from the city of Kyiv by the German occupiers in 1941. Deeply moved by the poem, Shostakovich used it as the starting point for his Symphony No. 13 for bass, male chorus, and orchestra. Despite resistance and all attempts at intimidation by the political leadership, which sought to avoid such an explicit reference to Jewish suffering, the symphony premiered on December 18, 1962, in the sold-out Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The premiere, which was celebrated by the audience, was mentioned the next day in Pravda with just a single brief sentence.