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It feels like Shostakovich mainly uses repetition to suggest something like accessibility.
Do you know what else could have been the cover story that week? Himmler announced the final solution on the radio. El Alamein began. India's Congress voted for independence. Instead, a performance of Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony on NBC radio was THE story.
Can you even imagine a time when a Soviet composer's contributions were important enough to the US that the score was pursued by espionage? and the composer was featured on the cover of Time Magazine?