Symphony no. 9 in E-flat major, op. 70

From the autumn of 1943 the authorities expected from Shostakovich a work glorifying the coming victory, and he promised a large symphony with soloists and chorus on the model of Beethoven's Ninth. Sketches survive of that grandiose plan; he abandoned it, started again on 26 July 1945 and finished on 30 August. Mravinsky conducted the premiere in Leningrad on 3 November. After the tragic Seventh and Eighth, listeners met a half-hour piece of neoclassical wit with no apotheosis at all. They wanted fanfares and an ode, the composer said drily.