Symphony No. 5

The Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, by Dmitri Shostakovich is a work for orchestra composed between April and July 1937. Its first performance was on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky. The premiere was a "triumphal success" that appealed to both the public and official critics, receiving an ovation that lasted well over half an hour. Form First movement: Moderato The first movement, in D minor, is in sonata form. The exposition opens with a "strenuous" string figure in canon of rising and falling minor sixths that quickly narrow to minor thirds.