Symphony No.15 in A major, Op. 141

Shostakovich originally subtitled the first movement "The Toyshop", referring to a superficial sense of childlike innocence and naiveté which is soon corrupted. It opens with two chimes on the glockenspiel and a lengthy passage for the solo flute, growing out of a quirky five-note motif which flits between A♭ major and A minor (connected by a C♮), accompanied by slow-changing but lively chords for pizzicato strings. A♭ being As in German notation, these five notes, E♭-A♭-C-B-A, spell out the name "SASCHA", the name of his grandson who was nine years old at the time (compare this to the "Elmira" theme in Symphony No. 10). Whooping off-beat horn chords, use of the clarinet's altissimo register, regular glockenspiel interjections, lusty trumpet fanfares, drum rolls, and solo passages for bassoon and xylophone make up the brightly coloured, infantile sound world of this movement; yet the bizarre harmonic ambiguity and unpredictable employment of variable tempi shatter any sense of real innocence. Though Shostakovich often quotes rhythms from Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture, in this movement he quotes the tune as well (see the Quotations section below). Two particularly striking passages make use of the device of prolation canon, first in the strings and later in the woodwind. Both these passages create complex textures: at rehearsal figure 29, he makes use of an 8:6:5 polyrhythm. All these features contribute powerfully to the strange and enigmatic atmosphere of the movement.