It was indeed not well received, although reviews were tepid rather than scathing. The bleak tone, and in particular the lack of an optimistic conclusion, made it unsuitable as propaganda at home or abroad. Shostakovich's friend Ivan Sollertinsky noted that, "the music is significantly tougher and more astringent than the Fifth or the Seventh and for that reason is unlikely to become popular". The government responded by giving it the subtitle the "Stalingrad Symphony" and portraying it as a memorial to those killed in that battle. The symphony was criticized by Sergei Prokofiev and others at a Composers' Plenum in March 1944, and after the Zhdanov decree of 1948 it was effectively banned until eight years later. The symphony was rehabilitated in October 1956, in a performance by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Samuil Samosud.