II. Allegretto

Although written at the turning point of World War II, and to the open disapproval of Stalin's propaganda machine, the symphony is far from jubilant. Instead, the themes Shostakovich explored - albeit in deepest secrecy - were the pain and the terror which the Russian people had experienced during the pre-war years. 'A poem of suffering' discribes the conductor Mark Wigglesworth, quoting the composer.