Shostakovich: Symphony No 5 Movement III – Largo

Shostakovich's fifth symphony bares plenty of parallels and resemblances with the work of Mahler, not just with regards to the sound and dramaturgy of the work but also in terms of its underlying concept. The most obvious point of reference perhaps is the third movement of the symphony, a darkly burning Largo around the quarter of an hour mark. Here, Shostakovich evokes the same brooding moods evoked by Mahler's slow movements of his fifth and sixth symphonies, but adds a touch of pitchblack utopian beauty to it – John Frizzell may have been listening to this as he composed the beguilingly ambivalent string palpatations to „Alien Resurrection“.