The expectations and the reality. During the spring of 1945, World War II was drawing to an end in Europe; the battle for Berlin was proving a huge bloodbath, but victory was close at hand, and everybody in the Soviet Union could feel it. In January 1945, thirty-eight-year-old Dmitri Shostakovich had set to work on composing a grand major-scale symphony. This information gained official status and the wait for the auspiciously numbered Ninth Symphony began. However, the work made little progress, and in May 1945, in the aftermath of victory, Shostakovich embarked on a new version of the symphonic apotheosis. Again it ground to a halt. ‘I am simply envious of those who can compose,’ Shostakovich said in the presence of his students, and this could be taken to mean he was sapped of the creative, perhaps also of the physical, strength needed for a new chapter in his symphonic series, similar in scale to his symphonies No 7 and 8. Yet at the third attempt he settled down to work on his Ninth and in the space of a month, August 1945, he composed the 22-minute score with paired instrumentation. needed for a new chapter in his symphonic series, similar in scale to his symphonies No 7 and 8. Yet at the third attempt he settled down to work on his Ninth and in the space of a month, August 1945, he composed the 22-minute score with paired instrumentation.