Click here to visit our new site --> CafeDVD 2.0 Sounds Magnificent: Shostakovich (Symphony 5) - Andre Previn (1984) Rating: Starring: Andre Previn, Rpo Director: Herbert Chappell Category: Music, Special Interest Studio: Image Ent. Subtitles: [None] Length: 88 mins     In this series of films, Andre Previn conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in some of the most popular works from the concert repertoire - symphonies by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.Each program is introduced by Andre Previn, who discusses the piece to be performed and the lives of the composers who created these masterpieces by giving illustrations of aspects of their music with a variety of orchestral excerpts. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 A Soviet Artist's Practical Creative Reply To Just Criticism (1937) In the final program of this series, Andre Previn talks about modern symphonic works and the new sophisticated language of musical expression.Shostakovich encountered the peril of being an experimental composer, living under Stalin's regime, at a time when "difficult" composers incurred official displeasure and were known to disappear overnight.Certain that he would be arrested, Shostakovich kept a small suitcase packed and ready, but Stalin was too clever to eliminate him.Yet when Shostakovich produced his Fifth Symphony, music undoubtedly triumphed over politics.