Entracte n°2

The last orchestral work by Dmitri Shostakovich, the Symphony No. 15 was composed in 1971 amid great physical fatigue and after a life marked by tensions with the Soviet regime. Despite these circumstances, the work is distinguished by a remarkable freedom and a serenity tinged with irony: the first movement evokes a mischievous "toyshop", while bringing up quotations from Rossini, Wagner and Shostakovich himself.