Word: evtushenko
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...late '50s and early '60s, after Nikita Khrushchev had rolled back Stalinism, it seemed that the time had come. The young poet Evgeny Evtushenko had just emerged as the public voice of the uneasy new freedom. His poem Babi Yar, a passionate denunciation of Soviet antiSemitism, read aloud to thousands of Russians, was becoming a symbol of popular outrage at past and present repression...
Grumpy Greeting. Boldly Shostakovich chose to compose his 13th symphony, basing it on Babi Yar. The 60-minute composition had five movements. Utilizing a large male chorus and a baritone soloist, Shostakovich used the complete poem for his first movement, choosing other Evtushenko verses for the remaining four. The 1962 Moscow premiere was an unequivocal public success. Government reaction was a different matter. Pravda treated the symphony with near silence-a grumpy one-line sentence to the effect that the performance had taken place. There were no reviews. The composition was withdrawn for ideological repairs. With a few lines added...