Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A Major, Op. 141: II. Adagio - Largo - Adagio - Allegretto

The second movement begins with a chorale by the brass in F minor, but it is the least comforting chorale one can ever imagine. it is comprised of moving chromatic thirds, with a horn pedal on a clashing C. it rises and falls in dynamic, cadencing in various wrong keys.

this is followed by a mournful, songful extended cello solo, with muted affirmations in the strings. 

the chorale comes back, with a slight half-step of different material, cadencing (weirdly) in e major. the cello comes back, also a half step off. shostakovich has a strange gift for making material seem the same but different.

after a short violin solo, two eerie chords at about 5:30 will get repeated at various junctures throughout the movement. the cello ends on a trill, and the the flutes come in with sixths, a relatively simple motif. the second time this comes around, it's the violas with the trill and a trombone giving a long soliloquy. this is a fantastic solo.

the flutes come back to cadence their melody from before in C major, with ominous pipings from a distant trumpet. the trombone comes back with its solo, but it is weirdly different in a way that is hard to pin; it sounds a bit brighter, perhaps.

the second time the violin plays the same solo, it leads to a crashing, almost grandiose climax. this is the second loud part of the symphony, and it is a big fanfare for the brass against descending chromatic lines in the strings, which almost immediately turn it from something that sounds grand and affirmative into something screeching and despairing. the fanfare has no choice but to succumb, and the brass join the strings in the chromatic meandering, eventually descending back into the quiet sixth motif, this time given by muted trumpets.
note the woodblock. this rhythm - quarter, dotted eighth, sixteenth, quarter, quarter - is so ominous, so inevitable, and it foreshadows the percussion's presence which seems so deathly in the later movements.
the strings echo the opening brass chorale at 2:48. celeste solo right afterwards, lone drops in a well of silence.
grey pizzicati end the movement, like small thumps.