Song of the Forests
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The Song of the Forests (opus 81) is an oratorio by Dmitri Shostakovich celebrating the Soviet government's post-war reforestation plan. It was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 15 December 1949. It was well-received by the government and won the composer the Stalin Prize the following year.
It is notorious for lines praising Stalin as the "great gardener", although its later performances have normally omitted them.
Compared to most of Shostakovich's other output, the work is rather undisturbed and trite. As a result, performances nowadays are rather rare, as it seems more like a kowtow to Stalin than a "serious" work written in Shostakovich's own idiom.
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