Was Shostakovich serious in a light-hearted way or being ironic in a tragic way? Did he compose the Ballet Suite No. 3 from 1952 as merely a divertissement of cheerfully simple-minded dance numbers, or was he subtly undermining the whole notion of light music with his cheeky melodies and bouncy rhythms? Was the Ballet Suite No. 3 a positive reaction to the reactionary politics of the Composer's Union which had condemned him as a formalist in 1948, a Soviet composer's reply to "just" criticism, or a sarcastic reply in the form of ironic obsequiousness.

It's impossible to tell. Shostakovich complied, or, rather had his friend Levon Atovmyan compile and arrange the six numbers of the suite from various early pieces: the ballets The Limpid Stream (1935) and The Bolt (1931, and the incidental music to a play based on Balzac's The Human Comedy (1934). In arranging the numbers, Atovmyan frequently re-scored them to take the edge off the orchestra, making the music seem more cuddly than it originally was. The result is a almost a pastiche, even a parody, of Shostakovich, created with his approval but, still, a virtual caricature of the composer.

The Third Suite's six movements are: Waltz, Gavotte, Dance, Elegy, Waltz, and Galop.

© All Music Guide