After the premiere, Shostakovich made some revisions to the score, and this final version was first played in Moscow later in 1927 under the baton of Konstantin Saradzhev.
In a marked departure from his First Symphony, Shostakovich composed his Second in a gestural, geometric "music without emotional structure" manner, with the intent of reflecting speech patterns and physical movements in a neo-realistic style.
He quickly adds sonorities and layers of sound in a manner akin to Abstract Expressionism instead of focusing on contrapuntal clarity.
[4] The symphony is scored for mixed choir (in the final part) and orchestra of piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, (factory) siren, and strings.
Shostakovich's Second and Third Symphonies have often been criticized for incongruities in their experimental orchestral sections and more conventionally agitprop choral finales.
"[6] He also rejected his early experimental writing in general as "erroneous striving after originality" [the piano cycle Aphorisms] and "infants' diseases" [the Second and Third Symphonies].
[7] The Second Symphony was commissioned to include a poem by Alexander Bezymensky, which glorified Lenin's role in the proletarian struggle.
[8] The cult of Lenin, imposed from the upper echelons of the Party, grew to gigantic proportions in the years immediately following his death.
[10] Shostakovich was commissioned by Lev Shuglin, a Bolshevik and head of the Propaganda Department of the State Music Publishing House (Muzsektor), to write a large orchestral work with a choral finale called Dedication to October to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.
The composer wrote to Sergei Protopopov on 20 February 1927 that he was unsure his music could redeem the text, which he described as "repulsive".
As it turned out, the Commissariat for Enlightenment's propaganda department, Agitotdel, regularly commissioned single-movement works on topical subjects.
These works often featured revolutionary tunes and invariably employed sung texts to make the required meaning clear.
It also sidestepped the stylistic problem of producing a sequel to the First Symphony while also opening the door to experiment with orchestral effects in an entirely new vein.
Most importantly for Shostakovich, the piece took little time to compose, allowing him to return to other projects at his earliest convenience.
Заводские трубы тянулися к небу, Как руки, бессильные сжать кулаки.
Пусть каждый в борьбе будет молод и храбр: Ведь имя победы – Октябрь!
Happiness in the fields and at the work benches, This is the slogan and this is the name of living generations: October, the Commune and Lenin.