The composition originally included texts by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky praising Joseph Stalin as the "great gardener"; these references were eliminated after his death.
Premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 15 November 1949, the work was well received by the government, earning the composer a Stalin Prize the following year.
[1] Even so, Soviet attacks on composers were both arbitrary and unpredictable, due in no small part to vagueness surrounding the theory of socialist realism in music and how it should be applied.
Marina Frolova-Walker stated the situation this way: 'Socialist Realism' was never worked out as a coherent theory, although enormous efforts were expended in attempting to create the illusion of one.
[6] Shostakovich creates an arc from the opening evocation of vastness of the Russian steppes with a dark, almost Mussorgskian recollection of the devastation of the war just past, to a closing fugue of vigor and affirmation.
While composing this piece, Shostakovich read an article in his daughter's school newspaper about groups of "Pioneers"—the Soviet youth movement—becoming involved in the planting project.
By using a Russian folk song as the basis for the movement and the potential of citing Glinka as a model, he felt he reduced the risk factor substantially.
The second movement of the cantata begins as follows: While Song of the Forest has been considered neither the best nor the most popular of Shostakovich's oeuvre, it continues to be performed and recorded because it is an attractive musical pastiche.
I take responsibility for the music, but as for the words....'"[10] On November 26, 1949, Sergei Prokofiev and his wife Mira attended the Moscow premiere of Song of the Forests.
Its success reignited Prokofiev's desire to compose On Guard for Peace; he regularly studied Song of the Forests during the composition of his own oratorio.