Shostakovich understood that victory can also be extended to music, taking it down a bright path, much lighter than it was usual in him, and removed from the forms expected by the Regime after the Second World War. The composer displays again his most sensitive and sharpest side. It is presented together with the patriotic overtones of Elgar’s Polonia which he wrote to help the Polish refugees during the First World War. 

(*) First time by the orchestra