The Sun Shines over Our Motherland
The Sun Shines over Our Motherland «Над Родиной нашей солнце сияет» (Op.90) is a Russian-language cantata written in 1952 by Dimitri Shostakovich on a libretto by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky. Originally titled "Cantata About the Party", it was commissioned to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the October Revolution. In it, the sun is a metaphor for the achievement of the Soviet people under the leadership of the Communist Party. It begins with a lyrical section for boys' chorus and woodwind, followed by a more energetic section for the men's voices. The finale is a  triumphant hymn, climactically very similar to the composer's Twelfth Symphony of nine years later which also commemorated the revolutionary events of 1917. Performance and Recording History. It was premiered by the USSR Symphony Orchestra and Choir with the Moscow Choir School Boys' Choir under Konstantin Ivanov at the Bolshoi Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire on 6 November 1952. It was recorded in mono with the same forces under Alexander Yurlov after a public concert ten years later. It was re-recorded with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Kondrashin in 1965 for Melodiya Records. In the West, the Kondrashin  appeared in an HMV record of 1970, and again in a box of Shostakovich symphonies mainly under the direction of Kondrashin (1975). More recently, it was recorded by Mikhail Jurowski with the Kölner Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester on Capriccio Records, and a live recording of Paavo Järvi with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Estonian Concert Choir on Erato Records. Because of the nature of the text, it remains a highly controversial work to perform. Paavo Jarvi's performance of the work in 2011 caused outrage amongst many in Estonia, to the point of him receiving death threats. Lyrics. The  original lyrics begin: