Symphony No. 12 (Shostakovich) Symphony No. 12 (Shostakovich) Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 12 in D minor, Op. 112, subtitled "The Year of 1917", in 1961, dedicating it to the memory of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, as he did for his Symphony No. 2. The symphony was premiered that October by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky. This was also the last Shostakovich symphony which Mravinsky premiered; his refusal to give the first performance of the Thirteenth Symphony, "Babi Yar", caused a permanent strain in their working relationship. The symphony, which is scored for medium-size orchestra, runs approximately
Symphony of Psalms Symphony of Psalms The Symphony of Psalms is a three-movement choral symphony composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1930 during his neoclassical period. The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The symphony derives its name from the use of Psalm texts in the choral parts. According to Stravinsky, the commission for the work came about from "a routine suggestion" from Koussevitzky, who was also Stravinsky's publisher, that he write something "popular" for orchestra without chorus. Stravinsky, however, insisted on the psalm-symphony idea, which he had had in mind for some time.