Dmitri Shostakovich was a Russian composer who lived under the Soviet regime. Shostakovich had a complex and difficult relationship with the Soviet government, suffering two official denunciations of his music in 1936 and 1948 and the periodic banning of his work. Shostakovich's response to official criticism and, more importantly, the question of whether he used music as a kind of abstract dissidence, is a matter of dispute. It is clear that outwardly he conformed to government policies and positions, reading speeches and putting his name to articles expressing the government line. It is also generally agreed that he disliked the regime, a view confirmed by his family and his letters to Isaak Glikman.

Shostakovich prided himself on his orchestration, which is clear, economical, and well-projected. This aspect of Shostakovich's technique owes more to Gustav Mahler than Rimsky-Korsakov. His unique approach to tonality involved the use of modal scales and some astringent neo-classical harmonies à la Hindemith and Prokofiev. His music frequently includes sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque.

This rousing gallop (Galop) was part of a musical comedy and film Moscow, Cheremushky. The story takes place in late 1950s Moscow, where a smart new block of apartments has been built and everyone is desperate to live there. Newlyweds Sasha (a crane operator) and Masha (an explosives expert) along with their friends Boris (a chauffeur) and Sergei (a cook) all dream of having a place of their own. While keys are withheld from their rightful owners, Sasha lifts Boris and Sergei up to their new home in her crane. During a later scene as Sasha and Masha host a house-warming party, a local government official (who illegally plans to knock two apartments into one for his ambitious new wife) comes bursting through the neighboring wall. It is during this scene that Galop is scored. The score accompanies a reckless chase full of physical comedy. At the end of this unusual story, the residents find a way of exposing all the corruption, and the wrong-doers are defeated, leaving everyone else to live happily ever after.

Program note edited and adapted from the research of Steven Smyth