Although is evident that Shostakovitch never did pretend that his film music were at the same musical level than the rest of his symphonic works, it is also true that the seriousness and the passion whom he wrote the thirty-six film scores which bare his name, said a lot of his absolute conviction on a new musical form which he saw grow since the silent films times when, on a regular basis, he worked as pianist on projection halls. And nothing better to corroborate this that the two suites contained on this record, different on creation and intentions, but equally splendid.Soja was premiered on the 22nd of November 1944, during the Soviet Union full war effort, and is thematically far away from the armed conflict; Shostakovitch's music (thirty-five movements on its whole), in one of his more beautiful film scores, did not avoid the liricism nor certain patriotric exaltation, and includes as second movement on its suite one of those scherzo so dynamic and personal of the russian composer.
The Fall of Berlin, premiered on the 21st of January 1950, is a completely different matter. Composed while the stalinist repression was at its peak, just when more was criticized his music and figure, and immediately after a work so paradigm of the moment like The Song of the Forests op.81 -an oratorium on the Soviet Land Law-, the eight movements of its suite unveil a musician more concerned on the interaction with the violent and propaganda-oriented images; the Genius, however and no less, is obvious on every of the notes, even in a time so convulsed. M.A.F.
