Thanks for the reply Darren. I just saw you had it posted in the member composition forum section. Lots of great feedback. Also noticed your avatar, yeah, The day the earth stood still is one of my faves too!
Shostakovich’s 11th is his second best symphony next to the 5th IMO. Rather than abstract music, it is a narrative of the 1905 revolution. Focusing on the slaughter on Bloody Sunday at the Winter Palace of Tsar Nicholas II, the 1st movement is sunrise at the palace square, quiet, mysterious, foreboding. Almost the whole movement is quiet and is known for Carl Sagan using the score throughout his Cosmos miniseries. The second movement is the slaughter when imperial guards fired upon the peaceful protestors and killed hundreds of them. The 3rd expresses the grief and funerals of the victims and the 4th says, “we will not forget this!!) leading to the 1917 revolution and overthrow of the Tsarist regime.
Sorry for the long explanation of the symphony but it helps to know the history behind it before listening to it. It would make a tremendous movie score and there are so many phenomenal passages of creativity and ingenuity pertaining to variation and orchestration, for anyone who aspires to write great scores, this is a must listen.
Hear's a link to a very short passage from it, about one minute.
https://app.box.com/s/dgl2d8roio4yxk42m5qtorcqhiubht6b (<span style="font-size: 22px">Shostakovich's 11th sym 2nd mvt</span>)