The Adventures of Korzinkina (A Ticket to the Fifth Zone), Op. 59, (1940 - 1941) was short comic film set in a train station and the heroine is Yanya Korzinkina, a ticket taker with a warm heart and amorous ways. Although the complete score has never been recorded, the indefatigable Shostakovich conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky concocted a suite of six movements of music from the film, which he premiered in 1983. The music is brightly colored and exuberant, starting with a goofy overture, a loud march for brass and winds, a parody of a silent film score for two pianos called "Chase," lounge music with prominent solos from the clarinet and trumpet, and brief intermezzo for woodwinds, as well as an ending with a sentimental finale in the form of a pop song for chorus and soloists intoning the heroine's first name over and over again.

Clearly, the composer of the Fifth Symphony and the Eighth String Quartet had a lighter side.

© All Music Guide