65, by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in the summer of 1943, and first performed on 4 November of that year by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated.
[3] David Haas has argued that the work falls within the tradition of other C minor "tragedy to triumph" symphonies, such as Beethoven's Fifth, Brahms' First, Bruckner's Eighth, and Mahler's Second,[4] although there is considerable disagreement over the level of optimism present in the final pages.
The pizzicato material is an inverted version of the symphony's opening fate motif, and is connected by Haas to a similar passage for soprano voice in the fifth movement of Mahler's Second.
[10] The weight of the first and final movements of the symphony is centered on simultaneous crescendos of the snare and bass drums, while trumpets call to the pinnacle which is overlaid by woodwind trills.
In a letter to Glikman, the composer wrote: I am sure that it will give rise to valuable critical observations which will both inspire me to future creative work and provide insights enabling me to review that which I have created in the past.
[14] It was introduced to the western hemisphere during World War II by CBS correspondent Bill Downs, who returned from the Moscow bureau to the United States with the score.