Last night I witnessed a spirited performance of Shostakovich's 15th and
last completed symphony given by our local band, the Isle of Wight Symphony
Orchestra, under their conductor, Jonathan Butcher.

The only bit in it that passed my "Whistle Test" (see my recent post), was
the quotation from Rossini's William Tell.  That got me thinking that maybe
Dmitri was getting past his "best before" date when he wrote this work.

I shall stick my neck right now and say that IMHO Shostakovich was at his
best as a symphonist in his middle period works.say in Nos.  5 to 10, and
that thereafter, although probably still the greatest symphonist of his
time, his inspiration diminished.

If only he'd called a halt after, say, No 10, IMHO he would have gone out
a high note(and, incidentally, it would have been cheaper to buy a complete
set of CDs of his symphonies)

Both Spohr (who withdrew his 10th symphony from performance*) and Sibelius
(who destroyed his 8th symphony) apparently new when to stop.

Brahms, after the success of his 4th symphony, wrote no more symphonies in
the last 9 years of his life and, in own time, Malcolm Arnold retired after
N0 9.

On the other hand, Mozart Beethoven and Schubert Were lucky (or unlucky)
enough to die while they were, IMHO, still at the height of their symphonic
powers.

What do other list members think on this subject, or have I just written
a load of rubbish.

*Premiered at the Carnegie Hall in March 1998 by the Bergen Community
College Orchestra under Eugene Minor (Mr E Minor conducts symphony in E
flat).

John H White